HTB

AIDS 2020: Navigating the website

22 July 2020. Related: Conference reports, .

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base

Even for people used to attending the regular meetings, where the numbers of delegates, presentations and thousands of abstracts is always daunting, navigating the website is more difficult still.

  • There isn’t a printable PDF version of the programme, or of the abstract book or even just of the oral presentations.
  • There isn’t a URL for searching the whole programme or URLs to abstracts.

Although the website includes various search engines, none of these cover the whole site, requiring instead a search within a specific track or for only oral or abstract title. Searches don’t include the option to search abstract text. Various searches of what always looked like the whole programme returned 1, 4, 9, 11, 33 and 67 hits, all for the single generic drug name ‘dolutegravir’.

With websites, simple is always best, especially as access to the internet is still limited and/or expensive for many people globally. Simple graphics, simple navigation, a fast and comprehensive search engine and easy hyperlinks to the results. Unfortunately the conference website has none of these.

Currently, searching the programme for presentations and abstracts doesn’t then directly link to the webcast or PDF poster, which also makes it difficult to quickly share the conference material in reports from the meeting. Sharing a poster from the App will send an email with the title but again with no link to the actual presentation.

Since the conference ended, many talks, posters and abstracts have disappeared or have dead links. The organisers are working to fix this.

Key URLs

Wishing you luck, the following URLs will open the world of AIDS 2020.

  • This requires a login (until 27 July) to enter (including free login for Global Village). 
  • Not all content works with all web browsers. Firefox and Chrome are recommended.

Online programme
https://www.aids2020.org/online-programme

Main auditorium
https://events.ugovirtual.com/event/AIDS2020/en-us#!/Auditorium
This link includes four main portals: Prime sessions, on-demand sessions, satellite sessions and on-demand abstracts (posters).

Global Village (access via lobby)
https://events.ugovirtual.com/event/AIDS2020/en-us#!  
Don’t be distracted by the graphics representing delegates, this is your gateway to community-based on-demand and live content including workshops, films, art exhibitions and campaigns.
Film screenings for example, are listed at this URL:
https://events.ugovirtual.com/event/AIDS2020/en-us#!/FilmScreenings
or maybe this one:
https://events.ugovirtual.com/event/AIDS2020/en-us#!/FilmScreenings/n480012

Five links to oral abstract sessions

Within the conference programme, the following URLs link to four oral sessions for clinical science (track B). These were navigated to from ‘On Demand’ and ‘Prime Sessions’.

Antiretroviral oral abstracts: part 1 (OAB03)
https://cattendee.abstractsonline.com/meeting/9289/Session/158

Antiretroviral oral abstracts: part 2 (OAB04)
https://cattendee.abstractsonline.com/meeting/9289/Session/157

ARV, testing and cure strategies (OAB02)
https://cattendee.abstractsonline.com/meeting/9289/Session/33

Weight, metabolic changes and ART (OAB06)
https://cattendee.abstractsonline.com/meeting/9289/Session/35

Late-breaker orals: Track B
https://cattendee.abstractsonline.com/meeting/9289/session/42

This report was first posted on 6 July 2020.

Links to other websites are current at date of posting but not maintained.