 Since then, MECO conferences have become the yearly nomadic reference meetings for the community of scientists who are active in the field of Statistical Physics in the broader sense, including modern interdisciplinary applications to biology, Finance , information theory, and quantum computation.The MECO conferences were deliberately created as an attempt to establish and maintain an exchange between scientists in the fields of statistical and condensed matter physics from Western and Eastern countries, overcoming the hurdles of the "iron curtain".In 1972, the Hungarian theorist Peter Szépfalusy started activities about organising a meeting of physicists from middle European countries, who worked in the area of critical phenomena.