The 10th International Polychaete Conference (IPC 10) took place from June 20–26, 2010, in Lecce, Italy, hosted at Officine Cantelmo in the city center. The event welcomed 170 participants from 24 countries, including 64 students, and featured 68 oral presentations and 115 posters, covering a broad range of topics such as taxonomy, morphology, reproduction, ecology, and applied research. The conference theme, “Polychaetes as Biological and Ecological Models”, reflected the diversity of approaches and perspectives. A mid-week excursion to the scenic Salento coast offered a break from the sessions. Selected papers from the conference were peer-reviewed and published in a special issue of the Italian Journal of Zoology.