Gathering delegates from 25 countries across six continents in Cape Town, ICO-26 became a vibrant platform for sharing groundbreaking knowledge and fostering collaboration in the field of optics, with the support of all seven major science societies. Notable keynote speakers included Donna Strickland and Anne L’Hullier, who led the lineup, opening discussions on nonlinear optics, high-intensity lasers, and the evolution of attosecond science.

On Thursday October 24th, the election of the ICO Bureau for the term 2024–2027 took place during the general meeting. The election was chaired by Prof Roberta Ramponi as past president. The new ICO executive committee is:

President Eric Rosas-Solís (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Mexico, Mexico), Past-President John Howell (Chapman University, USA), Secretary General Humberto Michinel (Universidade de Vigo, Spain), Associate Secretary Adrian Podoleanu (University of Kent, UK); Treasurer Kent Choquette (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA).

Concerning the ICO Vice Presidents, the result was (in alphabetical order):
Alessia Candeo (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), Juergen Czarske (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany), Andrey Naumov (Moscow Pedagogical State University, Russia), Joseph Niemela (International Center of Theoretical Physics, Italy), Rogerio Nogeira (Watgrid Solutions, Portugal), Yidong Huang (Tsinghua University, China), Kaoru Minoshima (University of Electro-Communications, Japan), and Nathalie Westbrook (University Paris-Saclay, France).

The following Vice Presidents were appointed by their respective international organizations: Manuel Costa (RIAO), Bo Gu (SPIE), Yaseera Ismail (Optica), Lothar Lilge (OWLS), Patricia Segonds (EOS), Ahmadou Waguè (LAM). IEEE and IUPAP did not appoint their representatives to date.