Dear Costa, It's good to hear from you and to have a date and preliminary programme for the upcoming congress. I would like to contribute a presentation for the Horticultural practice and plant conservation session on the Thursday - 'Ups and downs of growing in the lowlands for the highlands'. Andreas has most probably already contacted you with some suggestions we had for discussion themes. I'm looking forward to meeting up again with friends and colleagues from other alpine/Arctic Gardens. Best wishes, Jenny "3rd Congress of Alpine and Arctic Botanic Gardens" <aabg.3rd@xxxxxxxxx> schrieb: Dear Community of Alpine and Arctic Botanic Gardens (AABG), the organising committee is pleased to announce that the 3rd International Congress of Alpine and Arctic Botanic Gardens will take place at Viotte Alpine Botanic Garden in Trento, Italian Alps, from Wednesday 12th to Saturday 15th September 2012. Please find attached the preliminary programme with all the relevant information on the congress and the registration form. We hope that many of you might participate to this exciting event, contributing to make it a success with many presentations in oral, poster, workshop and picture show format. To encourage you all to submit many contributions in the 5 sessions of Thursday and Friday (the 2 congress days), we listed 53 possible topic ideas on page 3 of the registration form. Please have a look at this list and prepare your contribution accordingly! As tradition we would also ask all participating gardens to prepare a short presentation describing their home garden for the welcome session of Wednesday afternoon, the first congress day! The congress gran finale will be on Saturday with a fantastic day trip in the Brenta Dolomites, recently designated world heritage site, with a unique opportunity to go botanising in one of the best scenery of the Alps. So what are you waiting for? Register today!!, filling in the attached registration form and e-mailing it to aabg.3rd@xxxxxxxxx non later than the 30th of May 2012!! Please do not hesitate to come back to me for any additional information or clarification that you might require. We look forward to seeing you numerous in Viotte next September Kind Regards Costa on behalf of the congress scientific committee _____________________________ Costantino Bonomi Responsabile di area botanica Head of botany Museo delle Scienze Giardino Botanico Alpino Viotte via Calepina, 14 CP393 - 38122 TRENTO (Italy) tel. +39 0461 270 381 mob. +39 348 3044 940 fax. +39 0461 233 830 costantino.bonomi@xxxxxxxxxx www.mtsn.tn.it proud host of the 2012 3rd International Congress of the Alpine and Arctic Botanic Gardens congress e-mail: aabg.3rd@xxxxxxxxx