The 26th Photon Factory (PF) Symposium, the annual user's meeting, was held on March 24-25, 2009 at Tsukuba International Congress Center EPOCHAL located in the center of Tsukuba city. The main purpose of the PF Symposium is to discuss the present status and future projects of the PF. In addition, the executive committee of this year's symposium emphasized the scientific sessions including poster presentations. As a result, there were 7 invited talks not only on the scientific outcomes of the Photon Factory, but also on the muon sciences just started at the J-PARC. There were 286 poster presentations, which is more than twice the number of presentations from the last year's symposium.
The symposium started with an opening address from the IMSS Director. Following this, the Photon Factory Director and the PF staff reported on the present status and future plans of the PF including the new Condensed Matter Research Center, CMRC and the ERL as the future light source. The KEK Director General gave a talk on the "KEK roadmap", which was followed by the complimentary speech from Mr. Takahiro Hayashi of the Research Promotion Bureau of the MEXT (Ministry of Educational Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan). The last session at the symposium titled "Discussions on the Photon Factory" encouraged open discussions between the PF staff and the users. There were 308 participants, and the number also increased from the last year.
