XIth International Rubus and RIbes Symposium puts the Carolinas on the map!

The XIth International Rubus and Ribes Symposium was held in Asheville, North Carolina, June 21-24, 2015. There was also a pre-sympsium tour of research sites and grower locations in NC and SC. We had 190 people registered by the end of the meeting and 80 people on the Pre-symposium tour, from 26 countries.

This meeting is held every 4 years in regions where these crops are grown. Since hand harvested blackberries are a newer crop, the Carolinas turned out to be a good location for the meeting. We were able to bring in researchers from the region that had not attended the meeting before, as well as veterans of Rubus Ribes. We had 50 oral presentation and 93 posters. NARBA sent Debby Wechsler and she will be writing up some articles about the meeting in future issues of the Bramble and other trade magazines. We are still preparing the official technical report (Acta Hort Proceedings), it will be published late in 2015. Some of the comments from the participants were:

"Best Rubus Ribes meeting ever"

"I learned something from every presentation" 

"This puts North Carolina on the Map"

If you want to learn more about the sites we visited and the talks presented, you can check our our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. They can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/ISHSRubusAndRibes, https://twitter.com/RubusRibes2015 and under  ‘RUBUSRIBES2015’ on Instagram.

Participants of the XI International Rubus and Ribes Symposium, June 21024, 2015, Asheville, NC.

Topics for NARBA Grower meetings in 2016

From the Executive Secretary of NARBA...Debby is looking for topics for the National and Regional meetings of NARBA to be held in Williamsburg in March 2016 and Savannah in January 2016.

This is a reminder that the planning committee for our March 2016 conference in Colonial Williamsburg, VA invites you to submit your suggestions for speakers and for topics for sessions and presentations at the conference.  Their first program-planning meeting is coming soon, on August 12, so I thought I'd re-send this and encourage you to respond.

What do YOU think the leading topics, important new research, and important concerns are in the caneberry industry? What's new, what would be useful?
What topic, presentation, or discussion  would bring YOU there?You are also invited to put yourself forward as a potential speaker, panelist, or discussion leader -- whether you are in caneberry research/extension, a supplier or marketer, or a grower. 

Please email back your suggestions and proposals now, or if easier, give me a call at 919-542-4037.  If something occurs to you later, over the next few months, that is fine, too-- developing the program is a lengthy process.We can't guarantee that anyone's ideas will be selected, and there will undoubtedly be budget considerations, but look forward to getting lots of new ideas and great presenters whose expertise we might not otherwise know or think about. 

Thank you!
Debby Wechsler
NARBA Exec Secretary
info@raspberryblackberry.com