We are pleased to announce that we have received first submissions of abstracts of the invited papers for the conference. The following abstracts are in:

• Biomass handling systems and simulations by Associate Prof. Dr Dingena Schott of Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
• Friction in rope drives – Measurements and future requirements by Prof. Dr. Ing. habil. Thorsten Schmidt of Technical University of Dresden, Germany
• Decentralized Control of Material Handling Systems – Properties and challenges by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Furmans of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
• Design and testing of specialized mining and material handling equipment in accordance to the international standards by Professor Eugeniusz Rusiński, Professor Jerzy Czmochowski, Associate Professor Przemysław Moczko, Assistant Professor Damian Pietrusiak, Professor Tadeusz Smolnicki of Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland
• Tugger Trains and Industrial Trucks – Still an approach besides AGVS and Mobile Robots? by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Fottner of FML – Lehrstuhl für Fördertechnik Materialfluss Logistik Institute for Materials Handling, Material Flow