ProAm2
This was the second meeting organized by the French CNRS aiming the collaboration between amateur and professional astronomers. The themes in debate were asteroids, Be stars and exoplanets. One of the objectives was to prepare spectroscopists for land support to the CoRoT mission in the study of Be stars.
It is interesting to realise that some scientific community support these initiatives. In practice, a professional use big telescopes and sophisticated instrumentation but he is limited in the time of telescope. An amateur is limited in telescopes and instrumentation but has all the time in the world to use his/her equipment. That's why he/she can do the ant work (photometry and/or spectroscopy) at least in some objects in study.
To see the presentations of this meeting, follow this link.