In writing any section like this, it is always possible to leave out an important name, and we sincerely hope that we are not guilty of this. However, this event could not have happened without the work of lots of people and we would like to acknowledge as many people as we can beginning first with the help and support we received from the members of our co-organiser committee. Their help has been invaluable. Jochen Klumpp (Viruses of Microbes 2014 organiser) was particularly helpful with his wise advice and fantastic computer records. We would also like to recongise members of the ISVM, especially Laurent DeBarbieux, Paul Hyman, Corina Brussard, Ariane Toussaint, Susan Lehman, Dan Nelson, Dennis Bamford, Mya Brietbart, Rob Lavigne, David Prangishvili, Jim van Etten and Qiang Zheng for scientific content review and organizational input. We would like to thank Betty Kutter for teaching us the key elements to inclusivity that we have aspired to for this conference and for her help in intercontinental transfer of sponsorship funds from our financial sponsors and partners for this meeting. We thank Kerrin MacPhie from the ACC, the Liverpool Convention Bureau and the City of Liverpool for their facilities, connections and financial support of this conference. We would like to say a big thank you to Ollie Brook and his colleagues at Conference Partners for their invaluable and cheerful help in managing budgets and sorting out the operational logistics and textile artist Kiran Ravillous for helping us turn our great designs into beautiful conference shirts. We would like to recognize the contributions of Steve Abedon, Bob Blasdel and George Salmond in helping us organise ad education and fund networking event. This conference has also been made possible by the many student volunteers we have had present this week. Though she hasn’t read this section, Evelien Adriaenssens kindly volunteered her time to help proofread this program, for which we are very grateful.