  Nowadays RPCs are in a booming phase: they are successfully used in many
experiments, including LHC; there are ambitious plans to use them in several
upgrade detectors and in some new experiments as well as in various
applications. The aim of this paper is to highlight the main challenges which
the RPC community may face in the next few years and which were addressed in
talks presented at this conference. Examples could be: new and difficult
requirements from experiments (and their upgrades) and applications,
optimization and improvements of the existing traditional detector designs,
improvement of their characteristics (timing /rate performance, aging, dark
current and so on), implementation of new more sensitive electronics,
investigation of new materials, development of large- area detectors. We will
also review the fast and very promising developments of another type of
resistive electrode gaseous detector -micropattern detectors having at least
one of their electrodes made of resistive materials. These innovative detectors
combine in one design the best features of RPC (spark protection) and
micropattern detectors (high granularity-high position resolution).
