Durban International Convention Centre, the site of AIDS 2016.
Next month, two delegations representing the Black AIDS Institute (BAI) will travel to the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) in Durban, South Africa. The Black Treatment Advocate Network (BTAN) delegates will attend a wide variety of conference sessions with the goal of transfer-ring knowledge back to Blacks in the U.S. The Black Media Delegation will report on the conference, creating content for Black newspapers, radio, websites and other entities to run as original content and repurpose. The Institute’s AIDS 2016-related activities are as follow.
Pre-Conference Workshops
- July 17 and 18. On July 17, BAI will host special sessions on MSM for Black Americans, including its BTAN and Media delegates. On July 18, the Institute will host a Science and Treatment pre-conference.
During the Conference
- Daily Breakfast Briefings, July 19–22. Prior to the morning plenary session, BAI will conduct a breakfast briefing for its BTAN and media delegations, as well as other interested delegates. On each of the four days, the 90-minute up-dates will review the previous day’s sessions assigned to the various delegates and preview selected sessions for the current day. Conference speakers and researchers will be invited to participate in the briefings to share information and answer questions.
- BTAN Delegation, July 17–22. Each BTAN delegate will be assigned sessions to attend to gather information to transmit to the Black community in the U.S. Following each session delegates will prepare a summary highlighting key findings. BTAN delegates will also write daily, first-person blog posts about their experiences at AIDS 2016 to disseminate to constituents in their respective BTAN chapters; they will summarize their overall conference experience in an article for their local newspaper.
- Daily Webinars, July 19-22. Each day, BAI will record and web-cast a webinar to BTAN chapters in 20 U.S. cities and to the 35,000 subscribers of the Black AIDS Weekly. In them, BTAN delegates will re-view key information from the previous day’s scientific sessions.
- Black Media Delegation, July 17-22. The media delegates will report on plenary and scientific sessions, media briefings, poster sessions and the Global Village and create written and digital content to disseminate through various media channels, including magazines, radio stations, and websites that serve the Black community. The delegation will also increase the publication frequency of the Institute’s e-newsletter, the Black AIDS Weekly, whose content is posted on BAI’s website, publishing each day, as the Black AIDS Daily, breaking news and stories important to the Black community in the U.S.
Post-Conference
- AIDS 2016 Post-Conference Updates for 10 U.S. Cities. In cities where BAI has active BTAN groups, BAI will host in-person forums conducted by BAI staff, BTAN delegation representatives, and local researchers or clinicians who attended the conference. The updates will review key research presented at AIDS 2016, focusing on issues pertinent to the Black community in each city.
The one-day updates will occur between August and December 2016 and accommodate up to 50 participants.
- Five Webinars for the U.S. Black Community. BAI staff will plan and conduct five webinars for the Black community, including the BTAN as well as subscribers to the Black AIDS Weekly. BAI and its delegates will select key topics of interest and provide a monthly webinar between August through December 2016 covering each topics.
- In-Services for eight to 12 BTAN Chapters. BAI staff and the BTAN AIDS 2016 delegates will deliver in-service sessions to the BTAN membership in each city represented at AIDS 2016 by a BTAN delegate. Scheduled to be held during regularly scheduled BTAN monthly meetings, these sessions will overview AIDS 2016 and highlight issues of relevance to the Black communities in each different city. These sessions will occur between August and December 2016 and will host up to 50 participants.