Sixty seven scientists, representing the diamond anvil and multianvil communities from six countries , attended. Thirty seven papers were presented in three oral sessions titled, "Equations of state and the absolute pressue scale", "Multianvil calibration", and "Diamond anvil and other studies" and eight papers were presented as posters. In a final discussion period, it was decided too publish a multi-authored paper describing the Preliminary International Pressure Scale (PIPS-97). It was decided that this scale should contain consensus pressure calibration phase transitions at room temperature, equations for well-characterized phase transitions at high temperatures and pressures, and the equations of state for NaCI , Au, and MgO. [pressure calibration, diamond anvil, multianvil, equation of state, X-ray diffraction]