ISO Secretary-General Mr. Rob Steele welcomed the ISO family for its annual General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro from 8 to 12 September. Over 400 delegates met there, the event brings together representatives of more than 120 ISO member countries to discuss International Standards and their impact on business, society, and the global economy. Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by BAS Institute General Director Mr. Aleksandar Cincar.

This year's focus of the Assembly was how to better engage with standards users. The agenda includes the annual 37th ISO General Assembly, a seminar on SMEs, a session focusing on sustainability and a day devoted to developing countries – 48th DEVCO meeting.

Mr. Haroldo Mattos de Lemos, President of the Brazilian Institute of PNUMA (UNEP) and the keynote speaker, talks of how standards can help us live within the earth's carrying capacity. "In 1700 the world's population stood at 1 bn, today it is 7bn. In that time the global economy has increased 90 fold" he explained, adding that these two factors have led to the global problems we are facing today: energy scarcity, water scarcity and global warming.

Breakout sessions were very useful and gave us a great opportunity to share experiences and learn from our colleagues. We were looking at four topics: the relationship between standards and regulations; member excellence to exchange best practice in ISO; refreshing ISO's communication strategy; and how to get the next generation involved in ISO's work.

The conference was also marked with recognition of some of the great work within the ISO family, in particular, ISO/TC45/SC2 who won this year's LDE award for excellence in standardization.

Ester Williams from the Jamaica Bureau of Standards was the proud recipient of the ISO/DIN essay competition aiming to encourage young professionals in developing countries to engage in international standardization and to raise awareness on the importance of standards in promoting safe and sustainable economic development.