 The 2019 Global Congress on Chemical Security and Emerging Threats brought together close to 200 delegates from Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia to share experiences and best practices for improving security across the chemical supply chain. Co-organized by Interpol, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Congress serves as an innovative platform for interdisciplinary dialogue, cooperation and the formation of private public partnerships. The Global Congress is a great way to have your chemical experts from law enforcement, academia and industry to come together under one roof. The goal of that is to share ideas and look at different ways that we can go ahead and take preventative measures. This diverse range of stakeholders also facilitated a comprehensive approach to examining gaps which are being exploited by criminals and terrorists to acquire chemical and explosive materials. Certainly, if we've got public sector and private sector, there's this big thing about sharing information. So even if you're not from the same industry as I am, so oil and gas, if I can actually speak to you and say what challenges have you got, you can pretty much guarantee they're going to have the same as us. Can we come back this together or come up with ideas together? We're looking for win-wins. Industry is always looking for win-wins and something like this, just the networking and the power of speaking to people is really beneficial. High on the agenda were recent incidents involving the illicit diversion of chemical precursors and the use of improvised explosive devices paired with mitigation efforts and lesson learned. The greatest threat to chemical security today is clearly the violent extremists and their threat networks around the world coupled with the lone wolves, the knowledge they are able to obtain on the internet and the access to chemicals that they can weaponize. Regional security concerns and emerging technologies used by non-state actors to weaponize toxic chemicals and explosives were another focus area, as well as the identification of vulnerabilities in chemical precursor and component supply chains. Panel discussions demonstrated that understanding illicit procurement tactics, techniques and procedures is fundamental to the development of tailored countermeasures. The Congress is an active breathing group of like-minded individuals who have come together, pulled their resources together and are actively sharing threat information among each other. Information sharing, cross-functional and cross-domain collaboration were positioned throughout the event as key to developing regional, national and international chemical security practices. It's important that we have diplomats and policy makers at the table. It is very important as well that expert practitioners in chemical security are talking directly to one another and sharing their information directly with one another and that's exactly what this global Congress does. Establishing a network of technical expertise to mitigate ongoing or new threat concerns as they arise will allow global Congress members to continue their engagement in chemical security and to mutually support one another well beyond the confines of the event.