Travel to the USA to attend the Fusarium 2005 workshop at Kansas State University, and to accompany representatives of the Australian cotton industry on a cotton disease study tour of the USA. The purpose of attending the training course was to improve my technical skills as a plant pathologist, with the specific aim of learning new techniques that will enable me to maintain, identify and differentiate species of Fusarium. The study tour aimed to view several diseases of cotton that are not yet present in Australia. First hand experience of these diseases will enhance our ability to detect and manage any future incursions. Both the course and study tour provided opportunities to meet other plant pathologists who work not only on cotton, but on a range of other crops and diseases.