Highlights from the 2009 U.S. Conference on AIDS

By Miguel Gomez, Jennie Anderson, Josie Halpern-Finnerty, and Michelle Samplin-Salgado

We just got back from the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) , sponsored by the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) , and are feeling very energized. There were several themes and key messages that we took away from the conference. The opening plenary, “Transgender People and HIV: Our Time Has Come!” emphasized the importance of better understanding our audiences, specifically the transgender community. We also continued to hear that we need to improve our capacity and reach. And this year there was a new emerging theme - that of new media’s role in the response to HIV. Case in point - at last year’s USCA in Florida, we had seven people attend our new media workshops. This year we had over 150 participants!

JoAnne Keatley , UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender HIV Prevention delivers the opening plenary remarks at USCA

Making Choices: Create Once, Repurpose Often (Part III)

By David Galiel, AIDS.gov Advisor

In this new media strategy series, I explore ways to develop an effective new media plan that considers available resources, integrates existing services, and uses the right tools for the job. Part I of this series discussed identifying audiences and needs. Part II discussed using an appropriate technology approach to select your new media tools.

Part III: Create Once, Repurpose Often

New media allows us to repurpose existing content, make it available in different forms, and reach our audiences through multiple channels. We can summarize a webinar as a blog post, make it available in an RSS feed or email feed , cross-post it to our Facebook and MySpace pages, and Tweet about it. The slide presentation can be uploaded to SlideShare . We can record the webinar and make it available as a streaming audio or downloadable audio file, along with a text transcript of the webinar. We can read a blog post about the event aloud and include it in a podcast feed . There is a wealth of opportunities to repurpose content created from a single event, potentially reaching a wider audience than we would through one channel.

Making Choices: An Appropriate Technology Approach to New Media (Part II)

By David Galiel, AIDS.gov Advisor

Our “Making Choices” strategy blog series explores ways to develop an effective new media plan that considers available resources, integrates with existing services, and uses the right tools for the job. Part I of this series discussed the first step of designing a new media strategy: identifying audiences and needs.

Part II: How To Choose?
Decision-making processes such as POST can help us to identify audiences, needs, and available resources. However, deciding on what tools to use is still challenging. New technology emerges every day, and the pressure to jump on the latest bandwagon can be strong.

Making Choices: A Strategic Approach to New Media (Part I)

By David Galiel, AIDS.gov Advisor

In this blog, we explore a wide array of new media tools and technologies, and how they can be used in response to HIV/AIDS. From wikis to webinars, video-sharing to virtual worlds, texting to Twitter, the possibilities seem endless, and the next “new thing” is just around the corner. Often, the challenge we face is not the availability of options - it is how to choose. In this occasional strategy series, we explore ways to develop an effective new media plan that considers available resources, integrates with existing services, and uses the right tools for the job.

New Media Extends Reach of IAS 2009 Conference

By Regina Aragón and Scott Sanders, Consultants, IAS Communications

Two days before the opening of the 5th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2009) the number of fans on the conference Facebook fan page jumped by almost 20% within a 24-hour period. Momentum was building and we began to fully recognize the ability of new media to expand the conference's reach.

Over 5,800 people attended the biennial conference in Cape Town, South Africa from July 19-22, and with the introduction of new media tools, many more were able to follow the proceedings from afar. By the end of the conference we had 1,145 Facebook fans, 227 followers on Twitter (many with their own, much larger followings), and 2,400 visitors to the IAS 2009 Live blog .