The International Coral Reef Symposium has extended the deadline for online PowerPoint submission to Thursday, July 3, 2008. After this date, all PowerPoint submissions will need to be brought on CD or thumb drive directly to the Speaker Ready Room onsite at the meeting. Please contact Brian Reynolds at breynolds@psav.com if you have any questions regarding your PowerPoint submission to the website.

A Word document to be used as a template for proceedings submissions has been posted on the Proceedings page.

Abstracts for oral and poster presentations are now available online. Click on the Mini-Symposium session or Poster session to see presentations for that session. Click on the presentation title to view the abstract for that presentation.

Listings and schedule of oral and poster presentations are now available here. Click on the Mini-Symposium session or Poster session to see presentations for that session.

Guidelines for oral and poster presentations can be found here.

A listing of exhibitors and exhibit area floorplan has been listed here.

Two additional activities (Reef Rally and IMAX Deep Sea 3D) have been listed on the Other Activities page.

A preliminary schedule of the 26 Mini-symposia in the 11ICRS Scientific Program has been posted here.

Important news regarding the availability of hotel rooms has been posted on the Travel and Accommodations page.

Entries for the 11ICRS Photo Contest have been posted. Details can be found here.

Information on local restaurants and shops have been posted. Details can be found here.

Information on local airports and transportation have been posted. The previous Hotels and Venues page has been changed to Travel and Accommodations, with Venue having a separate page. Details can be found here.

The display hours for the Exhibits and Education Center have been expanded to include all day Monday, July 7, 2008. Details can be found here.

All Coral Reef Conservation, Outreach, and Education organizations are encouraged to participate in the ICRS by making presentations or demonstrations, or sharing resources with students, teachers, and the general public in the Education Center. Deadline for applications to make a presentation or demonstration is March 14. Exhibit space is still available in the Education Center. Details can be found here.

On behalf of the 11th ICRS Abstract Review Committee and Local Organizing Committee, we thank all the abstract submitters. We received an unprecedented submission of over 2,500 abstracts representing 114 countries for inclusion within the 26 Mini-Symposia!

Concurrent sessions are limited to 12 (as in the 10th ICRS in Okinawa). Therefore a limited number of oral presentations are possible during the 5 day Symposium. A decision process was implemented to assign orals and posters in the most equitable way possible.

We view both types of presentations as having great value. Note that papers deriving from either type are eligible to be considered for inclusion in the Symposium Proceedings.

We very much look forward to seeing you all in Fort Lauderdale come this July!

The outcome of the travel stipend applications is going to be known at the end of February or early March. Thank you for your patience.

Open to reporters, editors, science writers, and freelance journalists in print, broadcast, and online media. A limited number of scholarships are available to media from North America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Deadline is March 7, 2008. Details can be found here.

Ancillary events and workshops taking place during the 11ICRS have been posted. Details can be found here.

A new category, "Reefs: Past to Present", has been added to the 11ICRS Underwater Photography Contest. Details can be found here.

The new deadline for essay applications and letters of recommendation for the fieldtrip scholarships is now February 1, 2008. Field trip participants must be registered for the 11th ICRS no later than March 14, 2008. Registrations for all fieldtrips must be made no later than March 14, 2008.

Because of significant interest in MS 6 (Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics of Coral Reef Organisms) and the lack of our easy ability via existing software to add subsets within Mini-Symposia, the Local Organizing Committee has added a new MS.

Mini-Symposium #26: Biodiversity and diversification of reef organisms. Co-chaired by A. Kerr, G. Paulay, and M. Pichon.

This addition broadens and expands the Mini-Symposium scope to include an important component of reef science today.