The International DOHaD Society grew out of workshops held predominantly between researchers in Southampton, Auckland and Adelaide, who met at regular intervals to talk about ongoing research and to discuss ideas. In 1989, Professor Geoffrey Dawes convened a meeting in La Spezia, Italy. There, David Barker presented early studies from Southampton, showing the relationship between weights at birth and the prevalence of coronary heart disease in the same individuals 50- 60 years later, the Hertfordshire cohort. None of the physiologists in the room could understand the basis of this relationship. But the persistence of Barker and the insight of Dawes that there was "something interesting going on", kept the discussion alive, with informal gatherings, including in Sydney, Australia in 1991, and later workshops in Grasmere UK, Jamaica, Southampton, Vancouver and San Diego.