The main event if the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) is the IFAC World Congress. This congress was held in Moscow (1960), Basle (1963), London (1966), Warsaw (1969), Paris (1972), Boston (1975), Helsinki (1978), Kyoto (1981), Budapest (1984), Munich (1987), Tallinn (1990), Sydney (1993), San Francisco (1996), Beijing (1999), Barcelona (2002), Prague (2005), Seoul (2008). The forthcoming one will be held in Milan, Italy, in 2011.

A tradition of IFAC is that each World Congress has its own banner. All banners, starting from that of the Moscow Congress of 1960, are exposed at the opening and closing ceremony of each World Congress. At the closing ceremony, the banner of the subsequent World Congress to be held in three years time is shown for the first time.

        

Sergio Bittanti visited Seoul on December 2007 and met Wook H. Kwon, IFAC President during the triennium2005-2008, Vice-President of the Korean Academy of Sciences and Technology and professor at the Seoul National University. With him, he had the privilege of seeing the 17 banners of all World Congresses already held. In this picture, he and Kwon (right) are in front of the cabinet with the banners.