When we met for the first time to discuss the Organisation of the Joint Sessions in Turin, we had very little idea of how deeply we would become involved in the enterprise over the following months; of how much time we would have to spend taking care of the many small details that have to be seen to in order for a conference to work, or of how much we would get out of the experience in terms of personal enjoyment. In what follows we describe our experience. We do this both for the pleasure of revisiting the experience ourselves, and because we believe we have learnt a lot from it. We therefore hope that our reflections may be of use to others who may be thinking of hosting the Joint Sessions, or mounting similar events, in the future.

Before discussing the issues we think need to be taken into account by anyone who is considering ‘going for it’, we should mention that the availability of the three of us (supervised by Alfio Mastropaolo, who had special responsibility for the funding and for the ‘diplomatic’ side of the job) cannot be regarded as having been equivalent to the availability of a full-time organiser. Being able to count on one is surely advisable.