There are more and more conferences. LIFT is just one more example of how much people want to meet, not only on Facebook or Skype, but also in the “flesh and blood” world to exchange knowledge and experiences and generate ideas and dynamics.

The problem is that there are too many. It is nearly impossible for any active professional to attend all conferences that take place because of the most common two problems:
1. Time (the time spent in the conference is time not worked)
2. Money (conference fees, travel expenses plus loss of income)
Also, international conferences have a number of negative side-effects, the number one being probably the CO2 produced by the planes to fly people in.

The International AIDS Conference has another problem: size. As the largest medical conference worldwide (26,000+ attendees incl. ~2,000 staff and 2,000+ volunteers (!)) it is extremely difficult to find venues to accommodate everyone (if you don’t want to be in North America every time…). In addition, many potential delegates from developing countries find the travel costs to attend these events too expensive.

The solution we envisage for the XVII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2008) – to be held in August 2008 in Mexico City - is to extend the reach of the conference to those who are not able to attend the conference. This will be achieved through the establishment of “AIDS 2008 Conference Hubs”: places where many of the conference sessions will be projected, possibly followed locally by moderated sessions discussing the local impact of what has been presented remotely.

The gain in time and money for participants is evident. Moreover, more people from affected regions will have access to the information and networking opportunities, which will in turn stimulate the development of evidence-based action on a local level. Local media will also be much keener to report on a “local” event than on something happening on another continent.

There will be two main types of hubs:

• • Official Hubs, organized by the conference organizers (only one of this kind to date, in Durban, South Africa)
• • Partner and Independent Hubs, organized by any global/local individual/organization/institution/NGO without the help of the organizers. There will hopefully be tens or maybe even hundreds of these hubs. This is a web 2.0 approach to conferencing.

All hubs will be advertised on the conference web site to maximize participation and in principle, open to anybody.

The purpose of this workshop is to present the concept in a reasonable amount of details, as well as take profit of the incredible thinkers that LIFT will put together to brainstorm on various issues such as

• • Applicability (under which conditions can Hubs be used? – e.g. would it work for LIFT?)
• • Promotion and Incentives
• • Funding
• • Technology
• • Organization
• • 1-way, 2-ways or n-ways communications?
• • All the rest…

Conference Hubs are a great way to make conferences cheaper, more effective, more widely available and cleaner!

Project home page: http://www.aids2008.org/hubs