Time to Deliver
How the XVI International AIDS Conference got a human face.
By Ilona Kauremszky
In summer 2006, the world witnessed the water bottle security scare at Heathrow International Airport that caused international mayhem and a stream of delays and flight cancellations. For Pam Graham, president of Congress Canada, the professional conference organizer for the XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006), it nearly spelled disaster.
Two days after the security threat, Toronto was set to play host to the world’s largest AIDS conference, which was to attract more than 26,000 participants from more than 170 countries from 13-18 August 2006.
A biennial event, the conference was created by the International AIDS Society (IAS), which is the world’s leading independent association of HIV professionals with 10,000 members from 153 countries. Since it started in 1988, the IAS has pulled together professionals, advocates and people living with HIV/AIDS under one roof to share knowledge and exchange scientific research on this growing global epidemic. In one week, more than 4,500 scientific abstracts on new discoveries and trends were selected to be presented from more than 12,000 submissions—a record number.
The city was set to play host to a superhero forum of tight security proportions, to boot. The two Bills were coming—former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, along with wife Melinda. U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis and actor/activist Richard Gere were also scheduled to show. The Gates, co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, were going to conclude the opening session with the keynote address to a packed house at the Rogers Centre.
“So I got on the phone and sent out an e-mail to all the hotel general managers indicating that they needed to hold these rooms,” Graham said. “That these people [attendees], many of them unfamiliar with hotel bookings let alone flying on a plane, were coming—the chances of them missing their connecting flights was high.”
She dodged the bullet. Not only did the delegates, many from third-world countries, arrive with their accommodations still in check, but Graham says the downtown Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC)—the primary site of AIDS 2006—transformed into a global village with a diverse group of people in the medical, public administration, educational and grass roots fields.
Canada is no stranger to playing host to the AIDS conference. The event was first held in 1989 in Montréal, then in 1996 in Vancouver—where the epic breakthrough of the HIV/AIDS treatment known as “highly active antiretroviral therapy” was announced. And 10 years later it was Toronto’s turn.
“In Toronto, we examined the progress made over the past decade and focused on the steps we must take now to reach the vision of ‘One World, One Hope’ that was embraced at the 1996 meeting,” noted Montréal researcher Dr Mark Wainberg, co-chairman of AIDS 2006.
Toronto’s conference theme was “Time to Deliver,” and its agenda was fierce: 400 sessions, meetings and workshops, along with staged activities and plenty of surprises.
“This conference not only anticipates protests, it encourages them. Many protests are actually scheduled,” Graham said about the protest planning that occurred to ensure safety and maximum media exposure. “These [protests] took place at city hall, public squares, outside the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and in the MTCC hallways, exhibit halls and sessions. The AIDS community protestors’ messages are important and need to be heard worldwide. They attract media attention and make headlines. They are one of the ways that this community reaches the public and research ears.”
Toronto—Graham notes—was considering security issues, too.
“Apart from the security that precedes Bill Clinton and Bill Gates wherever they go, the local police were very involved, and an additional 500 security staff members were hired. Upon entering the convention centre, everyone was searched,” she said.
Michel Genier, MTCC operations manager, says ushering the Bills in and out of the venue for their morning panel session went quite smoothly.
“We used our tunnel to escort them from the south to north building. Mr. Gates doesn’t like a large entourage of security,” he said. “For Mr. Clinton, it was mostly Secret Service agents and a few Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel.”
According to Duncan Ross, then executive director for tourism for the city, Toronto started working on the conference in 1998.
“It entrusted an interest-free repayable loan of US$1 million to the IAS as working capital to get started on the event,” he said.
From the beginning, Graham describes the event planning in Herculean proportions. Think of it as the Olympics of AIDS.
“We did a pre-conference call six weeks before the conference,” Graham said. “We talked about what happens at the time the person first arrived, what the exhibitor would be doing, 2,000 scholarships [these are people in the IAS culture who are deemed to be doing interesting work in their communities and they come representing that voice and are prepared to speak about it]. We had 62 people in that three-hour conference call. It was global—Germany, Geneva and Toronto—and without suppliers. In Toronto, 35 people all gathered into one room. A lot of issues were discussed, from the inexperienced travellers to people arriving from remote countries.”
Unlike other medical conferences, this medically-driven-but-with-a-culturally-sensitive-bent conference dealt with unconventional topics such as sex trade workers and medical marijuana. Creative solutions were used in addressing them.
In the Global Village, exhibitors were identified as entities, and these entities ranged from musical performances to sex trade workers to outreach programs to Stephen Lewis’ African grannies meeting their Canadian granny counterparts.
“From a meeting planner perspective, think of an IT Flea Markets show when you say Global Village,” Graham said. “We managed the event as if it were a trade show, with floor demarcations, move in and move out schedules and instructions. However, most of the entities had never exhibited before. They were not familiar with the language of trade shows. We prepared a manual unlike any other trade show manual. The vocabulary was in plain language, concise and free of legalese. The end result was the most exciting trade show I have ever seen. With four stages and nonstop presentations, along with 100 other entities, the hall rocked for 11 hours a day for six days. The public came from all walks of life, and the conference attendees freely engaged with the entities.”
For onsite traffic flows, Congress Canada worked closely with MTCC to map out the heavily trafficked areas. Sessions, meetings and exhibits were scheduled at different times as not to have a rush all at the same time, Genier says. And there was a large security force in order to keep control of the crowds and access into the facility.
“One of the toughest organizational challenges was sourcing out and securing space at city-owned facilities in order to make them available to various working groups and organizations participating in the conference,” said Nina Gesa, city of Toronto project manager for the conference. “Many local organizations took part in hosting mini-conferences, seminars, dinners and social gatherings, wherein city facilities were used and offered at no cost. Permitting the spaces required authorization from the general manager of parks and recreation and then liaising individually with each community and recreation facility to advise of availability and then feeding it back to the various organizers.”
From a food and beverage perspective, Richard Willett, vice president of MTCC’s food and beverage, who oversees a staff of more than 150 employees, notes how weekly internal meetings—started in fall 2005 leading up to the conference and then daily meetings as they neared the one-month mark—were always in motion. For him, it was all about water bottle storage.
“It was the quantity of donated water and the logistics of storing and distributing for a conference this large,” he said. “We met with all of the internal stakeholders, worked with donators to establish offsite holding areas and created daily distribution function arrangements just for water.”
Partnering with the competition is unheard of. But in this case, Graham says it was welcome.
“The IAS was changing offices, physically moving from Stockholm to Geneva,” Graham said. “German company K.I.T. knew the IAS so we pooled our resources together and came up with a balance sheet on which company would do what. It was a good solution from the start.” One+EMEA
ILONA KAUREMSZKY is former editor of Corporate Meetings & Events magazine and a weekly travel columnist.
What’s New in Toronto
· Architect Frank Gehry has transformed Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario, which re-opened in November and offers event space.
· Located in the heart of the entertainment district, the new 394-room Hyatt Regency Toronto opened in January and offers 25,000 square feet of meeting space.
· Hilton Suites Toronto/Markham Conference Centre & Spa has completed a renovation on its guest suites and meeting space.
Fun Facts
· Toronto has North America’s largest public transportation system after New York.
· Torontonians beat the cold with North America’s largest continuous underground pedestrian system, called the PATH. It connects 1,200 stores and restaurants, 50 office towers, five subway stations and six major hotels in Toronto’s downtown core.
· Toronto was first known as York in 1793, but in 1834 it officially incorporated and has been called Toronto ever since. This year, Canada’s largest city celebrates its 175th anniversary.
Transportation Tips
· Avoid traffic and opt for public transit. The Toronto Transit Commission offers a CDN$9 day pass called a Metropass for unlimited use on 153 routes and lines. A single ticket costs CDN$2.75 and requires exact change for streetcars and buses.
· Airport Express is an express bus connecting Toronto Pearson International Airport with major downtown hotels. Bus departures are every half hour from 05.00 to 01.00.
· A waterfront city, Toronto has an island airport for smaller vessels and for Porter Airlines, which is easily accessible for business travel. Porter passengers can board the Porter shuttle, a complimentary service that runs approximately every 15 minutes to the ferry. Then, take the world’s shortest ferry ride (120 metres) to the Toronto City Centre Airport and wait in comfort inside a newly designed terminal and lounge.