Try getting into their heads, not their suitcases

Distributing publications at large health and development conferences is fruitless

At the International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Yokohma, Japan in 1994, participants were desperate for information about the HIV epidemic. Publications describing the latest epidemiological updates, guidelines on isolating HIV in a laboratory, and how to provide home care for people with HIV-related conditions disappeared from the WHO booth minutes after the boxes were opened.

Today, the health and development ‘world’ is a very different place: The internet is a dizzying archive of information that was a distant dream 15 years ago; health-related science and ‘discoveries’ happen at a more incremental pace; and most global health ‘news’ seems to focus on policy debates, the struggle to maintain health budgets, or the latest pronouncements from political leaders, celebrities and other ‘ambassadors’.

Global conferences and summits are also now huge. This week sees 20,000 people attending the IAC in Vienna. The MDG review meeting in New York in September this year will be another enormous jamboree. Such events are no longer so much about sharing essential information, as they are about getting attention.

But have organizations changed the way they approach such events? Some haven’t. Many still rush to finish reports and other materials in the weeks (and days!) before such huge events, seemingly not noticing that rather than gaining extra attention, they are simply adding to the noise and competition.


Think of it as the ‘conference paradox’ – as global events grow in size they appear to be more critical opportunities for reaching out to your stakeholders, but their scale makes actually reaching those you need to increasingly difficult. As spikes in media coverage show, conferences create a bright spotlight for specific health and development issues. But unless you happen to be a head of state, a top-ten philanthropist, or have a truly groundbreaking advance to announce, the chances of being heard slides down as events swell in size... and the likelihood of preaching to the converted sky-rockets.

A smarter approach lies in preparing for large conferences and summits after asking the “Why now?” question: Is there a specific reason why your information is particularly relevant today? Do you have significant new data, evidence or experience to share that will help a large number of organizations/people do their work better, or improve their own quality of life?

Five warning signs to look out for as you prepare for the next ‘big’ global event or conference:

1. The only honest answer you have to the “Why now?” question is that there will be X thousand ‘interested’ people under one roof.
2. You believe that a new report or publication is a critical part of accountability to your donors, or a key element of future fundraising.
3. You are updating (or re-printing) a publication that you used at a previous event.
4. A lot of energy is being devoted to describing your organization, its work and internal processes – rather than evidence, lessons and/or experience that would be of most value to others.
5. You have a feeling that the publication is not quite finished, but that a forthcoming conference is a good deadline to make you get it finished.

The convenient truth may be that you are more likely to make a significant impression on key stakeholders and audiences when they are not busy running from session to session or frantically screening what will make its way into their suitcase.

A well planned and targeted distribution strategy for new reports and other materials between large events, or at smaller, specialized meetings, makes it much more likely they will be noticed, kept and …… hopefully read.

(Thanks to Bobby Ramakant for his photo of a bin at the IAC, which partly inspired this article)