AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #233, October 20, 1995
John S. James

The theme of the Vancouver conference is, "One World. One Hope" -- with four guiding principles of Excellence, Practicality, Sustainability, and Solidarity. This meeting will introduce a number of innovations:

* Program formats. As at previous International Conferences, most of information will be presented as oral abstracts and posters; there are also symposia, daily summaries, and raporteur sessions. The Vancouver conference will also include formal debates, skills-building workshops, and "late breaker" sessions (for new material which could not be submitted by the regular deadline).

* Health insurance for attenders, including persons with HIV, is included in the regular conference registration fee.

* Three different "pathways" -- Women and HIV, Development and HIV ("individual and societal impact of HIV/AIDS in developing countries and newly independent states"), and Living with HIV -- will be color-coded in the program book.

* Blinded review of abstracts. The reviewers who evaluate the abstracts will not know who the authors are.

* A World Wide Web site now includes the 40-page "Second Announcement and Call for Abstracts" at: http://unixg.ubc.ca:780/~fortin/Marcel.html (Note: The 'M' must be capitalized.) Also, the conference secretariat now has an email address as well as other contact information (below). Some conference abstracts will be released online at the time of the conference -- but unfortunately not before.

Deadlines

February 1 is the deadline for:

* Receipt of abstracts (except for late-breaker sessions), delivered by mail or courier (not by fax) in Vancouver, by 1700 hours;

* Early registration ($975 Canadian -- which is about $750 U.S., as of October 20). After the deadline, the price goes up;

* Full refund for registration cancellation (less $60 fee);

* Scholarship applications. (The government of Canada has funded 1,000 scholarships; more will be offered if funding can be found.)

May 1 is the deadline for:

* Standard registration;

* Registration cancellation with 50% refund;

* Hotel accommodations.

Early registration is strongly advised. Because of limited hotel space, it is possible that some registrants may be housed in Whistler, two to three hours away. Most hotel space is reserved for the conference or for other groups, and persons cannot make hotel reservations through the conference without registering first.

There is a student discount, which is basically the same as the regular fee, except that it includes accommodations.

Media registration is without charge. It requires a photocopy of official press credentials, or a letter from a media organization verifying one's assignment. Freelance journalists must submit three bylined articles; newsletter writers and editors must submit three issues with bylined articles or credit in the masthead. Media may then request hotel accommodations through the conference (which was not allowed in some prior conferences).

A Community Liaison Committee provides advice regarding community participation and program needs of the community, and it coordinates with groups representing people with AIDS, and with AIDS service organizations, throughout the world. The U.S. representative on this committee is Eric Sawyer, 212/864-5672; or you can call Andrew Johnson in the Community Liaison office at the Conference (see contact information below). Eric stresses that (for any organization that want to hold a session or otherwise influence the conference) the time to get involved is now; decisions about the conference program will be made starting in November, as abstracts are submitted. There will not be enough space for all organizations likely to request a meeting room.

Note that satellite symposia -- sponsored both by nonprofit organizations (often called "private volunteer organizations," or "non-government organizations," in different countries), and by companies -- will be scheduled for July 6 and July 7, and for July 12; they can also be scheduled in the evenings on the days of the conference itself, which may be especially suitable for nonprofits.

Check-in for the conference is July 6, 12:00 - 18:00, July 7 08:00 -18:00, and July 8-11 07:00 - 16:00. The conference opening ceremony begins at 16:30 on July 7, and the closing ceremony begins at 18:30 hours on July 11.

Note: $30. of the regular registration fee can be directed by the registrant to either a 1996 membership in the International AIDS Society, a donation to the Global Network of People Living with AIDS (GNP+), or a donation to the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO). The registration form can also be used to make an additional contribution to the scholarship fund.

For more information on registration, travel and hotel arrangements, submission of abstracts, the scholarship program, etc., and for copies of the forms required, contact the XI International Conference on AIDS, Conference Secretariat, PO Box 48740, 595 Burrard St., Vancouver, BC Canada V7X 1T8. Phone: 800/780-AIDS (Canada or U.S.), 604/878-9995 (worldwide), fax 604/668-3242, email aids96@hivnet.ubc.ca. Or use the World Wide Web address above; but note that the Web site does NOT include the registration, accommodation, and other forms.

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