3 Consortium Stalls at Vienna AIDS Conference! The International AIDS Conference is the premier gathering for those working in the field of HIV, as well as policy makers, people living with HIV and others committed to dealing with the pandemic. Given the 2010 deadline for universal access set by world leaders, AIDS 2010 coincided with a major push for expanded access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. We had a big presence at the Vienna International AIDS Conference. Our Stop AIDS Campaign and AIDSPortal Initiative each had stalls in the Global Village, with the Stop AIDS Campaign stall focused on campaigning and advocacy around the UNITAID Patent Pool and AIDSPortal staff launching the significantly updated AIDSPortal. Please see the report-back below.

Vienna AIDS Conference Report

Consortium Secretariat
Our DFID sponsored ‘UK International HIV/AIDS Response’ exhibition space at the International AIDS Conference was a great success. Consortium staff (Richard and Ben) and member volunteers (Claire, Katherine and Louise) met with hundreds of people from all over the world to discuss the work of our UK-based members and network. We were able to distribute all member publications on display at the conference to the delegates we met, and publicise the work of AIDSPortal at the same time, through a PDF file distribution link on AIDSPortal. In addition to our stall, we were also able to make links with many individuals and organisations that should help us in taking many aspects of our work forward. Thanks go to DFID for making the ‘UK International HIV/AIDS Response’ exhibition space possible. Thanks also to Sam Wilkinson for her great organisational work to ensure that everything went smoothly in Vienna.

The Stop AIDS Campaign
AIDS 2010 was a useful experience for the Stop AIDS Campaign. With the support of student campaigners we reached out to hundreds of delegates to explain the patent pool and to get them to complete our new action cards and deliver them to the pharmaceutical companies present. We also had constructive meetings with Gilead and Dominique Limmet, CEO of ViiV. Strong relationships were built with French, American, African and Indian colleagues and we helped to raise the profile of the Robin Hood Tax considerably amongst the AIDS community. Thanks in part to collective activism which we supported, the story of the conference became the threats to the AIDS response and the Global Fund replenishment became a symbolic measure of donor ambition.

AIDSPortal
AIDSPortal is pleased to report back a brilliant time at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. We had a really busy time and are still catching our breath. AIDSPortal’s main event was Tuesday’s Global Village Session entitled, “Beyond Access: using technology to create a space for community-led approaches to HIV and human rights”. We had 80 participants come and hear panelists speak about how they are using information communication technology (ICT) amongst communities in the response to HIV. Panelists included Sara Page from SAfAIDS, Alice Klein from the Key Correspondent Programme, Robinson Muigai from KANCO and David Cozac from AIDS Legal Exchange. Their presentations were followed by lively small group discussions about people’s experiences, ideas, challenges and questions about ICT and their work. AIDSPortal had an exhibition booth (shared with the Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium) in the Global Village, Needless to say the booth had a lot traffic and it served a good opportunity to highlight:
the new regional website we’re just about ready to launch www.hivsouthernafrica.info (in conjunction with SAfAIDS, AIDS Alliance, Soul City, UNAIDS, USAID and others)
the new regional Eastern Africa site coming soon www.hivalert.net
the re-launch of AIDSPortal www.aidsportal.org. Coming very soon!
People who dropped by were also able to sign up to email alerts for funding and employment opportunities (if you’re interested in doing the same please contact Anne at anne@aidsportal.org

More information on the conference: http://www.aids2010.org/