The meeting started at 9am and went on till about 7pm and was attended by all 15 candidates. They were given 25 minutes each to outline their objectives and the key issues that they will tackle, and they answered a few questions pulled out from a hat.

The first candidate to give the presentation was Francis Gurry of Australia. José Graça Aranha was the last one to speak.

The questions were prepared by each of the five regional groups - Asia, Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, Group B (which consists of the developed countries), Central Asian countries and the Eastern Caucuses, Grulac (Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries) and Africa. Each group was asked to send three questions prior to the meeting.

Some of the questions prepared by the five groups were: what is the record that you will bring to the job?; what is your attitude to the decrease in Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) fees?; what are the special qualities that you would bring to the post to advance the morale of the members states and employees of the WIPO? and what are the steps you would take to reduce the divide between developing and developed countries in certain areas, like access to knowledge and medicines?

One of the questions that was put to more than one candidate was: should developing countries have the same level of flexibility in IP rights that developed countries were shown when they were at a similar level of growth?

This meeting was arranged by Hilde Skorpen, the chair of the Coordination Committee, who had sent an invitation letter to member states on March 18 2008, convening the meeting "on a purely informal and voluntary basis".

The 15 nominations were finalised on February 13 this year and the election process will take place on May 13 and 14 this year at an extraordinary session of the WIPO Coordination Committee. However, some member states have called for an extra day to (May 15) be added.

The Committee will nominate a candidate to be appointed by the WIPO General Assembly, which is scheduled to meet from September 22 to 30 2008.

All 15 candidates were present and today the candidates are scheduled to meet with civil society groups in Geneva to discuss their vision for the future of WIPO and WIPO's relationship with civil society.

Some of the groups who will be present and have sponsored today's event include IP Justice, Free Software Foundation Europe, Third World Network, Knowledge Ecology International, Library Copyright Alliance, Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors and Oxfam International.

In the March issue Managing IP contacted all 15 candidates and interviewed them about their experience and their aims for WIPO - as well as posing a few questions about their life outside intellectual property. Subscribers and triallists can read the article online.