The many official and unofficial satellite meetings make the event a must for scientists, policy-makers, science managers, and communicators wishing to learn, and influence, marine science in our region. The 2011 event in Gdańsk, Poland, has three outstanding invited speakers: Jan Marcin Węsławski, from the Institute of Oceanology in Poland, James E. Cloern, from the US Geological Survey, and Ragnar Elmgren, from Stockholm University in Sweden. Two of the speakers are Baltic Sea experts. Their keynotes, and a theme session on integrating multidisciplinary knowledge in Baltic Sea management approaches, provide a geographical focus for the conference. However, as is always the case, the programme is very broad and varied. We have a total of 19 sessions on climate influences on fisheries, upwelling and physical processes in the coastal zone, plankton ecology and foodweb processes, habitat mapping and spatial management, biophysical and fishery modelling, new technologies in the application of the ecosystem approach, integrating top predators in ecosystem management, marine renewable energies, and comparative dynamics of large marine ecosystems. We will also host three co-sponsored sessions with the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) on atmospheric impacts on North Hemisphere marine ecosystems, early life history of fish, and ecology and management of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) in the North Atlantic and Pacific basins. An intensive programme promising to be highly rewarding, intellectually stimulating, as well as physically exhausting! The ASC also provides an opportunity for the ICES community to evaluate the implementation of its Science Plan and take action in relation to its research priorities. Through a number of fully open satellite business meetings, participants to the ASC will contribute significantly to this implementation process, suggesting changes and re-evaluating priorities. Changes will feed through our portfolio of almost 100 ICES science expert groups, involving nearly 2,000 scientists, whose work and commitment is responsible for cementing ICES role as a primary source of scientific knowledge and advice on marine ecosystems. I hope that you will find the programme exciting, and that you will draw inspiration from what the conference has to offer. I look forward to meeting you in Gdańsk. Do zobaczenia w Gdańsku (see you in Gdańsk).

Manuel Barange

Chair ICES Science Committee