TDWG 2020

Standards that describe and support the exchange of biodiversity information are critical scientific infrastructure. They enable data to be integrated to support research, as well as decision-making and planning for conservation. Ultimately, standards extend the usability of data across taxa, scientific disciplines, and administrative boundaries. The annual Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) conferences serve two purposes:

• to provide a forum for developing, refining, and extending standards in response to new challenges and opportunities; and
• to provide a showcase for biodiversity informatics – much of which relies on the standards created by TDWG and other organizations.

In 2020, we cannot meet in person, so TDWG 2020 will be virtual -- a collection of online working sessions, webinar-style symposia, presentations, panel discussions, and recorded presentations. This year we are separating working sessions from the virtual conference. Working sessions will be scheduled during the week of September 21-25, and the virtual conference will be scheduled for the week of October 19-23. This separation will help us minimize parallel sessions, optimize the technologies, and avoid scheduling conflicts with other organizations. It will also give participants in our working sessions time to synthesize their results into presentations.