Case study
International biodiversity event discovers Japan’ s tropical islands
Event name: The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections( SPNHC)-Biodiversity Information Dates: 2-6 September 2024 Venue: Okinawa Convention Center, Ginowan, Okinawa Attendance: 377 onsite, 200 online
T he islands are the far southern end of Japan – once a separate kingdom, today a favourite travel destination offering unique culture, delicious foods, a beautiful tropical setting and a rich biodiversity. It is the last point that was especially important for Okinawa to attract the 2024 joint meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections( SPNHC) and the Biodiversity Information Standards( TDWG). Some 580 people took part in the event, 377 in person and the rest virtually. The opening-night event included Eisa Okinawan folk dance and a traditional lion dance.
Bringing two organisations together SPNHC-TDWG 2024 was actually the second joint meeting for two related groups. SPNHC, pronounced‘ Spinach’, is a society for the preservation of natural history collections – specimen collections in museums and research centres, both digital and actual, but also observations and recording of things in the natural world – birds, plants, algae, fungi, etc. TDWG, pronounced‘ Tadwig’, is an acronym for‘ taxonomic database working group’. Although, says conference co-chair and TDWG deputy chair David Bloom,“ We changed the name to the biodiversity information standards organisation, or BIS, because that is what our activities have become:
Left: Visit to the Botanical Gardens exchanging data about biodiversity, earth sciences and so on. But we kept the TDWG brand name because everyone has used that since the 1980s.” Fellow event planner Dr Patricia Mergen, liaison officer at Belgium’ s Meise Botanic Garden and AfricaMuseum, adds:“ SPNHC is a sister association, and sometimes we do meetings together. We did in 2018 in New Zealand, and again in Okinawa. Collaborating gives us more delegates.”“ Because Dr Mergen visited Okinawa back in 2019, we knew this would be a promising candidate venue for a future event,” says Mariko Kageyama of SPNHC, one of the steering committee members for the event.“ We had looked for a local host organisation, but when we couldn’ t find a suitable partner, we decided to organise the conference directly under the oversight of a joint SPNHC-TDWG team. We received funding support from the Japan Tourism Agency and the Okinawa Convention and Visitors Bureau. But what really helped was to be able to work closely with a bilingual, Japanese American professional conference organiser. His presence convinced our international team that we could successfully hold an event here in Okinawa.”
Okinawa: biodiversity, culture and more Dr Mergen was the chair of the committee selecting the destination for the TDWG event.“ JNTO invited us to take an inspection tour to help us choose from the different regions of Japan,” she says.“ I came to Okinawa and really liked it, especially the rich biodiversity in the north. Then we convinced SPNHC to come, too.”“ We prefer to go to parts of the country that are not necessarily main cities, so we can discover more local culture and biodiversity,” Dr Mergen explains. TDWG often meets in North America one year, in Europe the next, and then the third year is sort of wild card, where the association meets at a location that
26 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / ISSUE 135