Dear Collegues, I would like to inform you that our conference web site has been updated with the information about hotel accommodations in S. Margherita and Rapallo. We recommend to check soon the list because October is still peak season in the Ligurian Riviera and next year the Genoa's International Boat Show will be unfortunately anticipated to October the fifth. In order to have a rough idea of the number of participants in the conference, we have arranged the possibility of a pre-registration, that can be submitted even including preliminary and incomplete data. We would be pleased to receive a consistent number of pre-registrations (the present number is two) in order to plan correctly the conference organization. A Merry Christmas (have you seen the sponge crib?) and a Happy and peaceful New Year to you all Maurizio Pansini for the Steering Committe of the VI International Sponge Conference www.spongeconference2002.com Prof. Maurizio Pansini Dip.Te.Ris. - Universita' di Genova Corso Europa, 26 16132 Genova (Italia) tel. ++39 010 3538146 fax ++39 010 3538209 e-mail <[log in to unmask]>