Many of you will be familiar with The Shearwater Foundation and its support for artists working with holography. The Holography Group is truly indebted to them for making it possible for us to invite speakers from beyond our shores making this a truly International meeting.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow committee members for all their help and particularly to Jonathan Ross for offering to hold, what promises to be, a superb exhibition at his gallery. I would especially like to thank Andy Pepper for his advice and encouragement in bringing our initial concepts to fruition.

We are also honoured to have such a distinguished line-up of speakers here today and I'd like to thank them all for their contributions.

It just remains for me to introduce our two chairs for the day. I can't think of anyone better to chair a conference on Holography, Art and Design than Margaret Benyon and Andy Pepper as they are both very well recognised, accomplished artists and untiring advocates for art holography.

Margaret pioneered holography as an art medium in the late 60's and last year was honoured by the Nation with a much deserved MBE for Services to Art. She was also recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. Appropriately, her PhD is from here: the Royal College of Art.

Andy Pepper has an MA and PhD in Fine Art Holography from Reading University. He is a writer and has exhibited and lectured widely on the subject of Art Holography. He learned his practical skills from two other great pioneers of the medium, the late and sadly missed Dan Schweitzer and Sam Moree whom we are honoured to have here today.