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When the dust had settled after the Fall Meeting abstract deadline on September 10, a new record was set: 4,604 abstracts had been received for the San Francisco meeting. This is a 12% increase over last year, making the 1992 meeting the largest AGU meeting ever held! This follows the success of the AGU Spring Meeting in Montreal, which also broke records for the number of presentations and attendees at the annual spring event. We expect 6,000 people to attend this year's Fall Meeting, to be held December 7–11. There will be 400 scientific sessions as well as 120 exhibitors on hand.

On 23 June the San Francisco Travel Association presented AGU with its Crystal Bridge Award, given to honor major convention customers who bring outstanding events with significant impact to San Francisco, Calif. For the past 43 years, AGU has held its Fall Meeting in San Francisco; for the past 17 years the meeting has been at San Francisco's Moscone Center. AGU is the second recipient of the Crystal Bridge Award, which last year went to Oracle.

PAGE 121Starting this year, AGU is using a new submission and program management system for meetings.In early 2013, AGU began an extensive review process to select a new submission and management system to handle our meeting program content. On the basis of overall operational requirements and feedback from members, Fall Meeting Program Committee representatives, and AGU leaders, the Conference Exchange (Confex) system was selected. Confex provides submission sites for other scientific organizations such as the Geological

This year, AGU will offer more ways than ever before to interact with Fall Meeting authors, attendees, and content through an initiative to use technology to extend the Fall Meeting experience beyond the walls of the Moscone Center.