Action Across the Sectors: Highlights from National HIV Testing Day 2010

By Deb LeBel, AIDS.gov Partnerships Specialist

Each year I am honored to see all the ways individuals and groups take action for National HIV Testing Day (June 27) — from conversations with loved ones, to getting tested, to attending or organizing local HIV testing events, to hosting press conferences, to convening online events. This year, I was particularly excited to see so much involvement from so many diverse stakeholders — government (Federal, state, and local), community, private sector, and individuals. We were inspired by CDC’s Dr. Kevin Fenton’s remarks during our National HIV Testing Day webinar for Federal employees and grantees on the current and future state of HIV testing.

H1N1 Flu and HIV Webinar Highlights

By Miguel Gomez

Nearly 850 participants joined AIDS.gov online and/or via conference call last week to hear from leading experts and local grantees about H1N1 Preparedness and HIV. On the webinar we heard from our Federal colleagues, CDC’s Dr. John Brooks, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Dr. Elizabeth Higgs, along with Ryan White grantees such as Iliana Gilliland from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago , Paul Stabile of The William F. Ryan Community Health Center in New York City, and Dr. Shannon Hader and Beverly Pritchett from the DC Department of Health.

The Conference Comes to You: Webcasts, Web Conferences, and Webinars

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado

TARGET Center's Web Conference,
The Roles of Peers in HIV Care and Treatment

At AIDS.gov, we work with HIV organizations from all over the country (and sometimes the world!). Often it’s not possible to sit at the same table so we rely on virtual ways to connect. Webcasts, web conferences, and webinars are ways to connect with each other and efficiently share information in cyberspace. These terms are still emerging and are commonly used imprecisely. To make matters more confusing, “web conferencing” is often also used generically, to describe the online technology used by all three forms of communication. If you are considering any of these tools, it might be helpful to think in terms of what you are trying to accomplish, the size and type of your audience, and the need for reusability/later viewing.