Between 29 September and 3 October, a joint conference was held at the serene Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, Cape Town, hosted by the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) and the Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN), with support from Biodiversity Biobanks South Africa (BBSA), South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and the Medical Biorepositories of South Africa (MBirSA). The conference brought together leaders from diverse backgrounds, including researchers, regulatory authorities, healthcare-related professionals, and industry. The theme, “Where worlds align: Biodiversity and human biobanks. Same, but different.”, granted these stakeholders the opportunity to share their research, exchange insights, work towards innovative solutions, and foster collaborations. The curator of the CMW and CMW-IA collections, Nicole van Vuuren, represented FABI at the conference and presented a talk where she addressed the history and importance of the collections, how they support research, and how the collections are being modernised to remain relevant long into the future.