International conferences play an important role in shaping the ideas on sanitation. In Mar del Plata, The WatSan Decade 1980-1990 was launched; the Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok funded part of the Seminar on HWM in 1983. The FSM conferences, often sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are opportunities to exchange ideas. They started in Durban: FSM 1 in 2011 and FSM 2 in 2012. And WEDC conferences bring together many practitioners and scientists.