There seems to be a real buzz growing about the conference, and it's exciting to be at the epicenter of all the activity. We have almost 450 delegates registered from 35 different countries around the world. There's also a healthy mix between repository developers, managers and researchers.

The conference and user group programme is going to create a lot of discussion, which we hope that this site will help capture.

We also hope that the $5,000 Developer Challenge will help generate some new repository ideas, push the innovation envelope and jump the interoperability couch. Our thanks to David Flanders and his team from the WoCrig project for their enthusiastic organisation of this event.

As a repository manager, I'd also like to thank Bill Hubbard from the JISC Repository Support Project for hosting the Repository Managers' reception. It will be a great opportunity to strengthen the ties between repository managers across the world and to build a better understanding of this emerging profession.

There's loads more people to thank, but I'll save more details for later.

See you at the conference!