The First European Convention on Farming Systems Research and Extension marked the beginning of an exploration and a sharing. Those of us who have participated in the meetings of the Association of Farming Systems Research and Extension (AFSRE) have got to know each other through our work in developing countries. We know relative\y little about the efforts to transform agricultural systems that others have been making in Europe itself. And, owing to the accidents of language and history, those based in the northern and western areas of Europe have had until recently little contact with colleagues in central and eastern Europe and the former USSR, and too little contact with colleagues in the south. The First European Convention marked the first attempt to bring Europeans who have been applying systems approaches to the problems of Third World agriculture together with those applying systems approaches within Europe. The process of mutual discovery of our diverse experiences is paralleled by the emergence of regional farming systems networks in other parts of the world. In collaboration with the AFSRE, some already are formalized as regional associations, as in Asia; others are more loosely constituted, as in Latin America.