Over 400 participants from around 50 countries attended the Congress in Washington from 26 to 30 July 1998. Sixty percent of participants were from outside north America - 37% from Europe, 14% from south America (especially Brazil), and 6% from Asia. The abstract volume of 369 papers and posters shows that nearly 70% of first authors were from non-US institutions, and 51 were multinational contributions.

This was a joint enterprise - the 13th international congress of Unitas Malacologica (and their first outside Europe), the 64th annual meeting of the American Malacological Union, and the 31st annual meeting of the Western Society of Malacologists. Three symposia were held in the Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History (part of the Smithsonian Institution) in the mornings. The afternoon sessions were held across the Mall in six rooms of the Dillon Ripley Center, a large underground building entered from beside the Smithsonian 'Castle'. There were few cancelled talks, and convenors kept speakers to time so that each day's programme could be planned reliably, although there were often too many talks to choose from. The posters were available only in the afternoons and changed each day, so part of the lunch break and coffee session were used for viewing, but there was a good chance of meeting the authors. Most posters were professionally produced, but many included so much detail that the take-home message was lost.

The Congress opened on Sunday afternoon with three keynote talks introducing each symposium. These all underlined the organisers' intention of making the symposia multidisciplinary and multitaxon, in order to foster cross-fertilization of ideas and stimulate plans for future research. Following the keynote session, delegates met that evening in the magnificent rotunda of the Natural History Museum. Like all Smithsonian museums and other galleries in the Mall, entry is free, and the galleries leading off the Rotunda include impressive displays of early Cambrian Burgess Shale and Ediacaran fossils. Fossil vertebrates are viewed from a slightly raised gallery winding between bays, usually separated only by a rail, seldom by glass, giving the impression of wandering through a garden.

The weather was hot and sunny, and after the morning walk from the George Washington University residence, past the White House and the Washington Monument to the museums and galleries along the Mall towards the Capitol, to the Smithsonian, one was glad to enter the cool buildings. A more comtemplative walk led from the Washington monument to the Lincoln Memorial, or from the University into Georgetown and along the shaded Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. European visitors found the wildlife dominated by familiar starlings, house sparrows, feral pigeons and grey squirrels, but American robins, mockingbirds, and mourning doves were also common.

We were invited to the annual AMU auction - anything from a monograph to a can of limpets. There was also a coach trip to a vineyard at Middleburg, Virginia, for accompanying guests. The Congress dinner was held aboard a luxurious tour boat travelling down the Potomac - ending in a violent thunderstorm. On the day after the Congress, there was a coach trip to two cliffs on the Chesapeake Bay, collecting Tertiary fossil bivalves before lunch, then, after lunch at Solomon's Pier, a visit to a cliff formation dominated by Turritella.

The Congress ran smoothly, and any hitches were quickly dealt with. There was little need to cater for leisure or meals because Washington is a major tourist centre. The integrative approach of the organisers worked well, and our sincere thanks are due to Rudiger Beiler, President of Unitas, and Robert Hershler, President of AMU and local host, for their efforts, and to their many assistants.

Photographs from the World Congress

1: Washington Monument viewed from the Lincoln Memorial: the Capitol is just visible beyond it. The museums and galleries line the Mall between the monument and the Capitol, with the Natural History Museum behind the trees to the left and the Smithsonian Castle on the right.

2: Smithsonian Castle: entrance to the underground Ripley Centre is from the pagoda-like building on the right.

3: The Odyssey, used for the dinner cruise, at its moorings.

4: On the bow deck of the Odyssey.

5: Poster sessions in the Ripley Centre A.

6: Poster sessions in the Ripley Centre B.

7: Post-conference fossil hunt along Chesapeake Bay.

8: Fossil Turritella.