A nation's official statistics are directly affected by the quality of the data derived from its business, economic and agricultural surveys. Yet there are few commonly accepted and practiced methodologies for these surveys-- unlike the situation for social and demographic surveys. The reasons for this situation are diverse, the most important ones being that establishment surveys face much more difficult design and execution problems and that far less is published on strategies to solve these problems. The International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES) is being planned (1) to provide a forum to describe current methods being used for surveys of businesses, farms, and institutions; (2) to present new or improved technologies for solving the unique problems associated with establishment surveys; and (3) to promote international exchange of ideas by providing an opportunity for business, economic, agricultural and statistical researchers to exchange ideas for future interdisciplinary and even cross-country research. This conference is being jointly supported by the American Statistical Association (ASA, Survey Methods Section and Business and Economic Statistics Section), the International Association of Survey Statisticians (IASS), the National Association of Business Economists (NABE), Statistics Canada, and the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC). The meeting is currently scheduled to be held at Buffalo, New York, June 27-30, 1993. This Conference could be an important beginning in an effort to focus more attention on critical methodological issues in the area of surveys of business establishments. The people and the government agencies involved are representative both of those that have work going on in the field and those who should begin such work. The interaction among those responsible for the design and implementation of establishment surveys across agencies and across countries is likely to contribute to an improvement in the quality of U.S. statistics.
