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The article presents information on the Fertility and Family Surveys (FFS) Flagship Conference. The conference, which will take stock of what is known from FFS as well as from other data on new partnership and fertility behavior patterns in Europe and North America, will be held from 29 to 31 May in the year 2000. It will be hosted by the Population and Family Study Centre (CBGS) in Brussels, Belgium. This FFS Flagship Conference will be a scientific conference addressing substantive fertility and family issues, their developments over time and their dynamics from a comparative perspective. It will also discuss policy implications. Each plenary session will start with the presentation of a solicited paper by a well-known population scientist who will speak on the subject for about 30 minutes. This will be followed by a presentation/discussion of a selection of the best papers contributed to each session. Thereafter, the floor will be open for general debate. A chairperson will be responsible for ensuring that the session's programme is adhered to.

The article presents information about an international seminar organized by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in October 2004 on parental leave in Brussels. Principal research fellow, Michael Alexander, represented the seminar. The seminar was jointly hosted by the Thomas Corum Research Unit and the Centre for Population and Family Studies in Brussels. The purpose of the seminar was to exchange information on recent policy developments and research, explore a particular theme with respect to parental leave, particularly the issue of diversity and how successful parental leave policies are in dealing with the diversity of family types and personal circumstances and establish a more regular network of researchers on family leave policies, research and practice. The seminar considered the substantial variation that exists between countries with respect to parental leave policies, as well the major developments that had occurred in each country since 1999. The seminar resolved to bring out a working paper that summarizes the parental leave arrangements in each country, to meet again in 12 months time to discuss further developments and publish a book detailing the important research in this area.