2015 COLOSS Conference

Lukovica, Slovenia

As Secretary of COLOSS and co-organizer of the 2015 COLOSS Conference, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the Eva Crane Trust for supporting our event. COLOSS has rapidly garnered worldwide attention in the past two years through its work; today, we are composed of over 600 member scientists, students, agricultural advisors, and veterinarians from over 80 countries globally. We are very proud of this! As the Eva Crane Trust recognizes, despite public recognition of the importance of honey bees, it is still very difficult to raise funds for scientific networking from reputable sources that lack a conflict of interest. This is why your contribution is so important to us.

Pictured left are participants of the 2015 COLOSS Conference
in Slovenia gathered outside the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association.
(© A. Gajda).

We are also proud that our event was attanded by a record crowd. One hundred and seven participants originating from 27 countries participated in the General Assembly and in important discussions organized by each of our Core Projects and Task Forces. During this time we clarified future joint research projects among members, as well as established a budget for the upcoming year’s workshops and conference; the latter will be held jointly with EURBEE in Romania to maximize our exposure. The COLOSS Executive Committee also tentatively accepted a new Task Force request to study the impact and management of the Asian Hornet Vespa velutina in Europe; we hope this will provide invaluable information to beekeepers about this potential emerging threat.

Additionally, the Slovenian Minister of Agriculture and more than 100 Slovenian beekeepers attended a COLOSS apiculture extension day that highlighted our association’s work as well as important aspects of honey bee biology and health. These presentations inspired the participants, and provoked a number of questions from the audience

Again, we sincerely appreciate your commitment to COLOSS.

With best regards,
Dr. Geoff Williams
Nov. 2015