The 45th plenary week of ISO/TC 154 has come to a close — five productive days at DIN in Berlin, from Monday 31 August to Friday 4 September 2026, with working group meetings throughout the week and the plenary session bracketing it.
Danke schön, DIN
Our deepest thanks go to our host, DIN, and the entire DIN delegation, for organizing and running the week so effectively and efficiently — from the meeting rooms at Am DIN-Platz to the seamless hybrid setup that kept our remote colleagues with us throughout. Our particular appreciation to Mr. Gregor Roschkowski and Ms. Kristina Schönebeck for preparing and supporting the meetings, as the plenary recorded in its appreciation resolution.
Thank you as well to our convenors, whose preparation made the week’s discussions so productive, and to all the participants — those who travelled to Berlin and those who joined online, in some cases during unearthly hours. Your engagement is what makes the committee’s work.
A week of results
The plenary adopted fifteen resolutions, now recorded in the decision registry: from the fast-track of the VTL specification into DIS ballot, nine-month extensions for the ISO 8601-1 and ISO 8601-2 revisions and ISO 20197-2, the establishment of the "incubator proposal" ad-hoc group, liaison representatives to ISO/IEC JTC 5, and the committee’s appreciations — including a memorial to Dr. Rudolf Borges, our long-time WG 5 expert who passed away earlier this year.
The full briefing for the week remains on the 45th plenary meeting page.
Pandas! A Wednesday evening at Zoo Berlin
The social programme took us across the street on Wednesday evening for an exclusive tour of Zoo Berlin — and what a treat it was. The stars of the evening were, of course, the pandas, enjoying their evening bamboo while we crowded the viewing window. Beyond the pandas, the tour wandered past numerous other animals of one of the world’s most species-rich zoos — a genuinely memorable Berlin evening for everyone who came along. Our thanks to DIN for arranging it.
See you online
With the resolutions adopted and the working groups' roadmaps set for the months ahead, we now return to our (virtual) desks. We look forward to seeing everyone again in the online meetings soon — may they be as productive as this week in Berlin.
Danke, Berlin — until next time.