The World Congress on Biosensors is the largest and most well-established conference in the field, attracting around a thousand attendees from industry, academe and government organisations. For 30 years, this meeting has catalysed interactions to further this ever-expanding area. Biosensors harness the exquisite recognition capabilities of biological systems and combine them with physicochemical transducers to deliver simple, easy to use diagnostic systems for an ever-expanding range of applications to improve health, wellbeing and the environment. We are delighted to bring this year’s Congress to Korea, which is playing a key role in driving some of the most exciting new commercial applications in biochips, wearable sensors and telecommunication interfaces.