The program organized its first Open Science Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico, in October 2005, where the scientific community reiterated its support for the establishment of a scientific panel on biodiversity that included an intergovernmental component (cf. International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB )) and its second Open Science Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2009; the Cape Town conference attracted an international audience of 700 scientists and policy makers from about 70 countries representing many facets of biodiversity science and policy.