The GILB’02 Conference Late Blight: Managing the Global Threat was successfully held 11–13 July 2002 in Hamburg, Germany as a satellite meeting of the European Association for Potato Research (EAPR) 2002 Triennial Conference held 14–19 July. The GILB Steering Committee and Coordination is indebted to EAPR for logistical support and the invitation to consider the GILB meeting a satellite of the EAPR conference. Attendance at the GILB meeting was high, as 180 participants from 41 countries and five continents met to exchange knowledge on late blight research and set a new course for GILB. For more information see GILB Newsletter No 17 and the GILB Annual Report 2002(pdf).