10th IAS Conference on HIV Science | 21-24 July 2019 | Mexico City, Mexico

Guidelines for speakers, abstract presenters, session chairs and poster exhibitors

Speaker centre

The speaker centre is intended to support all speakers, abstract presenters and session co-chairs. The speaker centre is located on Palacios level, in Palacio de la Canal 9. The opening hours are as follows

Sunday, 21 July – Wednesday, 24 July
08:00 – 18:30

Check-in required at the speaker centre

IMPORTANT: All invited speakers, session chairs/facilitators, oral abstract presenters and poster discussion presenters must check in at the speaker centre at least four hours before the start of their sessions.

Session chairs are required to collect their final session schedule and instructions.

PowerPoint presentation upload

All PowerPoint presentations must be uploaded prior to the session as it is not possible to run PowerPoint presentations directly from a laptop in the session rooms.

Presentations should be saved on a USB memory stick or external hard drive and brought to the speaker centre. Presentations should be uploaded at the speaker centre at least four hours prior to the start of the session. The presentations will then be uploaded to the session room network and made available in the session room at the time of the presentation.

Due to time limitations at the speaker centre, presentations should preferably be prepared and edited before upload. Thus, please bring your presentations with you in a ready-to-upload format.

When agreeing to publish your presentation, please make sure that you remove any confidential data that you do not want shared with the public (for example, data behind tables/graphs, speaker notes) before submitting them for uploading on the online programme.

IMPORTANT: Check-in at the speaker centre is mandatory for all speakers.

Technical requirements for presentations

NEW: IAS 2019 presentations must be in 16:9 format.

The IAS 2019 computers will run Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016. Only MS PowerPoint (*.ppt or *.pptx) presentations with video formats will be accepted. Use the pre-installed standard font types available in MS Office Professional Plus 2016.

If your presentation contains links to video files, it is essential that you bring not only your PowerPoint file, but also your video files to the speaker centre. Most video files types (such as MP4, MPEG, .wmv, .AVI) are accepted. All videos linked to PowerPoint slides must be tested and checked in advance in the speaker centre to make sure that they will work properly.

Please note that Prezi format is not supported. If you are using this format, your presentation must be sent to the secretariat prior to the conference and it must be converted and tested before it can be uploaded in the speaker centre. Please contact the secretariat at [email protected] for further details.

Place all audio and movie files linked with the presentation into a single file folder (for example, when transferring the presentation from your hard disk to removable drives, such as USB sticks, or when uploading it). Do not use any passwords or encryption for your files.

Flash animations are not supported. If they are essential to your presentation, please contact [email protected].

Do not use macros within your presentation.

NEW: IAS 2019 presentations must be in 16:9 format.

There is no size limit for presentations uploaded on site at the speaker centre (it is, however, recommended that presentations do not exceed 500MB).

For on-site uploading at the speaker centre, the presentation has to be saved on a USB memory stick (which is preferred) or an external hard disk.

Please use only “WinZip” to pack your data (find a free download of the current versions at www.winzip.com).

Do not use special fonts that are not part of the standard PowerPoint package as this will cause problems while uploading your file.

To avoid any compatibility problems, please do not use special characters (for example, «, Ö, Ø, ñ, ε, ®, ý, }, {) to name your presentation or movie files.

Please note that PowerPoint.mac and Keynote (*.key) presentations are not accepted. Even if you have transferred your presentation to a Windows format, you must check your presentation in the speaker centre to ensure that it is fully compatible with the conference computers.

Conflict of interest disclosure in presentations

As best practice, the conference organizers ask faculty members (session speakers, chairs, moderators and facilitators) to disclose any conflicts of interest that they may have. The intent of this policy is not to prohibit faculty members from presenting or participating in sessions, but rather to inform the audience of any bias that they may have. The conference organizers thus ask that all speakers/presenters with a conflict of interest include disclosure slides at the beginning of their presentation.

The purpose is to identify and resolve potential conflicts of interest that arise from relationships with commercial interests relevant to the content you are planning, developing or presenting for this activity.

Please note that the disclosure slide(s) must be included even if you do not have a conflict of interest. The slide will thus state that you have no conflict of interest.

If you have conflicts of interest, please include a short description of the conflicts of interest and explain how you have made sure that your presentation is not affected.

For the purpose of this policy, the following principles apply:

  1. A commercial interest is any entity that produces, markets, re-sells or distributes healthcare goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.
  2. Any financial relationship within the past 12 months, as well as known financial relationships of your spouse or partner, must be disclosed.
  3. Types of relationships that must be disclosed include full-time or part-time employee, independent contractor, consultant, research or other grant recipient, paid speaker or teacher, planning or advisory committee or review panels, ownership interest (such as product royalty/licencing fee, owning stocks, shares) or any other financial relationship.

Session recording

Presentations in session rooms will be recorded. If the presenter has given consent, the recordings will be published on the online conference programme. Speakers will be able to give or decline their consent to being recorded at the speaker centre when uploading their presentation.

Session room equipment

Session rooms will contain the following basic equipment:

  • Lectern with microphone, laptop and mouse
  • Chairperson table with microphone(s)
  • Session room screen displaying the PowerPoint presentation (in some of the bigger session rooms, the speaker might be displayed too)
  • Presentation timer
  • Microphones on stands for questions from the audience.

Guidelines

Invited speaker sessions address a variety of current viewpoints and issues. Session format, duration and focus will vary, depending on the session type.

Download: invited speaker session presentation guidelines

The role of session chair/co-chairs is to guide the session to achieve its intended purpose in the time available. This is the key to a successful session.

Download: chair/co-chair guidelines

The oral abstract session lasts for up to 90 minutes and usually consists of five to six oral presentations of 10 minutes each. A five-minute question and answer session will immediately follow each presentation. An interactive moderated discussion, facilitated by the co-chairs, will be held at the end of the session, time permitting.

Download: oral abstract presentation guidelines

Held daily from 13:00 to 14:00, poster discussion sessions last for up to 60 minutes, featuring four to six oral presentations of five minutes each. An interactive moderated discussion, facilitated by the co-chairs, will be held at the end of the session.

Poster discussion presenters are asked to mount their posters in the dedicated poster area, which will be located in Sala B, on Monday, 22 July, between 10:00 and 11:00, and remove them on Wednesday, 24 July, between 18:30 and 19:00.

Download: poster discussion presentation guidelines

The poster exhibition is open from Monday, 22 July, to Wednesday, 24 July, and is located in Sala B, behind the exhibition (Exhibition level). The opening hours are Monday, 22 July, 11:00-18:30, Tuesday, 23 July, 10:00-18:30, and Wednesday, 24 July, 10:00-18:00.

All posters must be mounted on Sunday, 21 July, between 15:00 and 18:30 or Monday, 22 July, between 10:00 and 11:00, and removed on Wednesday, 24 July, between 16:00 and 18:30.

Please note that all poster exhibition presenters are required to check in at the poster exhibition desk before mounting their posters. If poster exhibition presenters do not check in at the poster exhibition desk, the abstract/poster will be marked as “not presented” at IAS 2019 and withdrawn from the programme. Poster exhibitors are not required to check in at the speaker centre.

Download: poster exhibition presentation guidelines

Protest protocol for speakers

Principles and values of conference participation at IAS 2019

The International AIDS Society (IAS) endorses freedom of expression as an essential principle in the fight against HIV and AIDS and in promoting full participation in our conferences. Peaceful protest has always been and continues to be a key element of participation at the conferences. Protests expected at IAS 2019 could include rallying and demonstrating as part of social or political movements.

The IAS opposes the destruction of property and the use or threat of physical force by any individual or group of individuals during the conferences.

Procedures involving disruptions within sessions

You will be notified if conference organizers anticipate a disruption in your session. Protesters are allowed two minutes to protest during a session or satellite symposium. IAS staff and security will be present in the majority of conference sessions and will handle disruptions that persist longer than two minutes. If no IAS staff are present in the room, the in-room audio-visual manager will contact IAS staff for support.

Please follow these steps in the event of a disruption:

Step 1

In session halls, the audio-visual technicians will display a slide in your line of view with the following text:

Protesters have 2 minutes.

Please step away from the microphone.

The session will resume once the protest is finished.

A new slide will be displayed if the protest does not stop after 2 minutes.

Step 2

Step away from the podium and microphone and remain calm.

Step 3

Allow for the protest to unfold for two minutes. At the end of two minutes, a slide will be displayed on the main screen asking protesters to re-take their seats.

Step 4

As the protesters are exiting or re-taking their seats, step back to the podium or the microphone and continue speaking. The session resumes.

Step 5

If the protest does not stop within two minutes, IAS staff and security will intervene and engage with the protesters to address the situation.

Step 6

Step back to the podium or the microphone and continue speaking once the protesters have taken their seats. The session resumes.

Protest speaker slide

Protest speaker slide

Protest public slide

Protest public slide 1

Protest public slide 2