Since 1988, meetings dedicated to Kdo, one of the most important sugars in bacterial lipopolysaccharides, were held annually in the Research Center Borstel (Germany). Soon, the content of the Kdo-Meeting extended to the whole field of carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry. The Kdo-Meeting proved to be one of the most important smaller meetings in that field in Europe. Since 1995, the meeting was organized by Dr. O. Holst. In parallel, the German-East European Carbohydrate Workshop was founded at the University of Rostock. In particular, this workshop was a platform for the presentation of studies performed by young researchers and colleagues from East Europe. Since 1998, the workshop was organized by Dr. Ch. Vogel. In early 2001, it was agreed to merge both symposia to the new meeting The Carbohydrate Workshop, which took place annually alternating in Borstel and Güstrow, a town close to Rostock. The meetings in Borstel (2002, 2004) focused more on investigation of natural products and medicinal chemistry of carbohydrates, whereas the meetings in Güstrow (2001, 2003) concentrated on synthetic carbohydrate chemistry.
The second platform for the exchange of the latest knowledge in carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry was the German-Polish-Russian Meeting on Bacterial Carbohydrates started in 2000 in Borstel. During the third meeting in Poland, it was agreed by all the organizers of the various above mentioned meetings to merge The Carbohydrate Workshop and the German-Polish-Russian Meeting to the biennial Baltic Meeting on Microbial Carbohydrates. The next meetings of the new series were held in Germany, Sweden and Finland. Following the clockwise movement around North Europe, the Baltic Meeting reaches Russia in 2012.
| Year | Location | Chairperson | Program/Abstracts | |||
| 2000 | Borstel, Germany | Otto Holst | Download | |||
| 2002 | Moscow, Russia | Yuriy Knirel | Download | |||
| 2004 | Wroclaw, Poland | Andrzej Gamian | Download | |||
| 2006 | Rostock, Germany | Christian Vogel | Download | |||
| 2008 | Sigtuna, Sweden | Elke Schweda, Stefan Oscarson | Download | |||
| 2010 | Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station, Finland | Mikael Skurnik | Download |