During the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Parties agreed on a number of activities related to synthetic biology (decision 14/19). One of these was to extend the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Synthetic Biology, with renewed membership and new terms of reference. The Expert Group met on 4-7 June 2019 in Montreal, Canada. Documents from the meeting, including the report, are available at https://www.cbd.int/meetings/SYNBIO-AHTEG-2019-01. Information on the background and activities carried out on synthetic biology under the Convention on Biological Diversity, including a calendar of activities for implementing the elements of decision 14/19, is available at https://bch.cbd.int/synbio/. Contact [email protected] for more information.