HIV and ID Observations

The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections — “CROI” — is the premiere scientific and clinical conference in the HIV world.  Every February, thousands of serious scientists and clinicians huddle in some frozen northern city, spending three and a half days intensely reviewing the latest and greatest in the field.

So it’s time for an annual gripe about the mystery surrounding the date (especially) and location of the conference.  Perversely, this is the only major scientific conference in the universe that waits so long before announcing its date and location. By contrast, if you want to know when ICAAC in 2009 will take place, here you go:  Sept 12-15, San Francisco.

For the current when-is-next-year’s-CROI issue, there’s a new twist: We sort of know the date.  I’ve heard from several people — very important people who should know — that the conference will be February 8-11, location to-be-determined.  So I’ve taken this Feb 8-11 information as gospel, placing it on my work and home calendars, telling my practice manager I won’t be seeing patients that week, and setting up the academic schedule accordingly.

Yet the CROI web site still says, “CROI 2009 dates and venue will be posted in June” — which replaces last month’s “CROI 2009 dates and venue will be posted in May”, which replaced the earlier “CROI 2009 dates and venue to be announced soon.”  And when our AIDS Clinical Care Executive Editor tried to get confirmation of the Feb 8-11 date — which reportedly even was mentioned briefly at this year’s conference (though I didn’t hear it) — no one would confirm it.

So am I confused?  Worried that the date will not be Feb 8-11? (One year, it was smack in the middle of school vacation week in Boston — grrrrrr.)  Annoyed?

An emphatic yes to all of the above.