Introduction

INTRODUCTION

The 4th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections is an independent meeting held in scientific collaboration with NIH and CDC and continuing medical education collaboration with the University of California, San Diego. The Infectious Diseases Society of America serves as the Conference Secretariat.

The Retrovirus Conference is a research meeting created to provide a forum for basic ands clinical science investigators (primarily those based in the United States) to present, discuss and critique developments in the field of human retrovirology and related opportunistic infections. In keeping with the mission of "developing a meeting for investigators by investigators," organizers have surveyed registrants regarding their preferences. In spite of the Conference's increasing popularity, in the 1995 and 1996 Conference surveys:

80% of attendees voted to keep the meeting small to allow for meaningful scientific interchange (by limiting registration to those actively working in the field);
70% of past attendees favored that the meeting venue remain in a hotel rather than expand into a convention center (the current site accommodates 2,300 registrants); and
74% expressed a strong preference that the meeting remain noncommercial.

To support the goals of the meeting and the preference of the scientific community the conference serves, this year the Scientific Program Committee limited registration to researchers, clinicians, and those actively working in the field of basic science and clinical investigation of human retroviral diseases and their opportunistic complications. In addition, a limited number of registration slots were reserved for regular and community press, community scholarship recipients, and pharmaceutical marketing leadership personnel who provide national and international liason support for research and development activities.

Acknowledging that the limited attendance policy would mean that some interested researchers would be unable to attend, the Scientific Program Committee developed several mechanisms to share information presented at the Conference. The Committee's outreach activities include this web site, posting of abstracts on line, and a pilot program of broadcasting selected invited sessions over the Internet. This year's broadcast sessions were selected based upon the interest level as well as the agreement of speakers to participate and provide their slides. If these services are well received, the Scientific Program Committee will consider expanding the Internet programming in the future.

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