This is the sixth of the Symposia on High-Temperature Corrosion and Protection of Materials. It is also the first that neither of the two authors of this paper have been involved in the details of the organization, and it seemed appropriate therefore to outline how these meetings were created, and the ways in which they have evolved, while maintaining the original basic underlying principles. In this paper, the objectives will be stated, and the topics requested in the call for papers issued before each Symposia will be briefly outlined, to show how these have changed over the years, both as the knowledge developed as a result of research, and the needs altered as the engineering challenges grew. The Symposia were intended to present a discussion forum between researchers and users of materials subject to high-temperature aggressive media in service, and the way in which the organization was developed to make this possible will be described.