The World of Photonics Congress is supported and sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Research and Education. The minstry's objective is to establish a congress for optical technologies in Europe. Central Europe leads the market in many fields of this discipline, especially manufacturing technologies that are based on laser light. So it is in the ministry's interest to underscore that fact by organizing a scientific and application-oriented event in Central Europe. The congress is supposed to bring the best scientists together with industry researchers and development specialists to encourage an intense dialog between these two groups.