One of the questions that I keep getting asked is how the most recent AIDS conference was from the last one. I met some people at the conference who had been to the last 7 or 8, so they’d be better at describing the conference’s evolution, but here are a few thoughts from me.

First of all, I was a very different participant in each. In 2006 in Toronto I helped Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief with their booth in the Global Village but didn’t have access to the conference sessions. Elbow to elbow with other NGOs and activist organizations, I remember learning exponentially about the different aspects of the pandemic, about just how many social groups it affects. I also felt a lot of solidarity with the other civil society groups, the positive result of so many people in one spot trying to make change.

At Mexico City this month, my press pass allowed me beyond the Global Village and into the Conference itself. Being media made the experience totally different adding a distance between me and what was going on. Where the Global Village was the activism, the Conference was the institution. Its academics and international bureaucrats present themselves as the pragmatists, focused on treatment and cures as well as cost-effectiveness and scale up. I felt passive in sessions and plenaries, excited to hear the latest research and initiatives, but without the action and momentum that I’d felt in Toronto.

Where the Conference and the Global Village seemed to meet was on the topic of prevention. With much hype the Lancet released its first series on prevention, and with it the AIDS institution acknowledged that there won’t be a magic bullet response to the pandemic. At the last conference, it seemed as though universal fixes were still on the agenda. While vaccine and microbicide research continues, the “softer” approach of structural and behavioural prevention approaches were admitted into the private club of institutional solutions to AIDS.

To some, the fact that research hasn’t resulted in a cure or vaccine and that the battle against AIDS is going to require a combination of different approaches is disheartening. But the overall feeling of the conference was one of hope, of small successes, of understanding next steps.