The 13^th International Conference on Ecology and Management of Alien Plant Invasions (EMAPi) was held in Waikoloa Village, Hawaii, 20–24 September 2015. EMAPi is the only international conference that focuses exclusively on alien plants; its history and broad significance were outlined by Richardson et al. (2010). During EMAPi 2015, over 200 presentations were delivered by delegates hailing from 31 countries. The presentations covered a wide range of topics in invasion biology, addressing organizational levels ranging from the gene to global patterns. Connecting science with management emerged as a unifying theme across the conference program. Commonalities emerged through lively discussions, giving new insights into research needs, management strategies, and more effective implementation of biosecurity and control. A highlight was the mid-conference field trip, where researchers, land managers, and policy makers discussed collaboration and solutions in the stimulating back drop of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge, and other conservation sites that have evolving invasive plant management strategies. Invasions were often observed in association with disturbance, but whether soil disturbance per se promotes invasion, versus above- and below-ground removal of established plants, remains as a key question to be addressed for effective control and management (Leffler et al. 2016). Other themes that featured prominently at EMAPi 2015 included long-term impacts of invasions, importance of plant functional traits in invasion (Buru et al. 2016, Larrue et al. 2016) and restoration, genomics of invasions, new perspectives from China, the Cactaceae as invaders (Novoa et al. 2016), and biocontrol (Day and Winston 2016, Day and Bule 2016). Many presentations discussed new approaches for managing invasions, especially the importance of engaging all stakeholders in framing of problems associated with invasive species – examples include the voluntary code for dealing with invasive forestry trees in Europe (Brundu and Richardson 2016), and managing cross-border introduction pathways in the context of rapidly expanding global trade (Wilson et al. 2016). The full conference program and abstracts are available online (http://www.emapi2015.hawaii-conference.com/program.html) or by request to daehler@hawaii.edu.