In November 2022, International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT) and the International Council for Commonality in Blood Banking Automation (ICCBBA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalise our long-standing and valuable relationship and to set a framework for future collaborations to enhance blood safety. ICCBBA thus becomes one of the ISBT's Strategic Partners alongside several other prestigious organisations. The ISBT 128 Standard for the identification, labelling of blood components and transmission of related critical information emerged in the early 1990’s from within ISBT. In order to ensure the sustainability of the Standard into the future, ISBT played a key role in establishing ICCBBA as an independent organisation in 1994. Since then, ISBT 128 has gone on to develop and maintain standards providing for the labelling, unambiguous identification and coding of blood and other Medical Products of Human Origin (MPHO). ISBT Gothenburg was the perfect opportunity for Mike Busch (President, ISBT) and Ziggy Szczepiorkowski (Chair, ICCBBA Board) to get together to celebrate the collaboration with a photo together.