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One year after sexual health specialists from around the world gathered at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress continues to bear fruit. In addition to the economic, intellectual, scientific and social spinoffs it generated, a very concrete legacy was added today: a financial surplus of $55,151.77 is being given to six Montréal community organizations that work in sexual health. A wonderful example of the lasting legacy that international conferences can leave their host destination.
By providing a financial guarantee covering part of the risk related to holding the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress, the Palais des congrès de Montréal made it possible to mobilize key local partners, including Dr. Marc Steben and IUSTI Canada (the national branch of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections), and to hold the event in the metropolis. This exceptional initiative demonstrated the Palais’ desire to support a congress whose scientific and societal scope warranted a special commitment, in a context where there are greater challenges attracting sponsors for an event devoted to issues affecting marginalized populations
The surplus, redistributed today to six Montréal community organizations, is the result of the rigorous financial management and innovative approaches employed by the organizing committee of the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress. Turning to new donors—principally the Public Health Agency of Canada, included at the very end of the process—and completely restructuring participation made it possible to draw a greater number of participants than anticipated, in particular from low-income countries. In total, 1,515 people from 72 countries attended the July 2025 Congress.
To ensure that this success directly benefits the community, the Coalition des organismes communautaires québécois de lutte contre le sida (COCQ-SIDA), a coalition of Québec community organizations involved in the fight against AIDS, was asked to recommend recipient organizations. Given the very high demand for community resources, it was decided to distribute the surplus among several complementary organizations rather than funnel the entire amount to a single organization.
The $55,151.77 surplus will be distributed in equal shares to AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM), Dopamine, GAP-VIES, Rézo, Stella, and the Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtià:ke. Together, these organizations work with diverse populations in the areas of prevention, access to care, guidance and support. Their daily actions constitute a crucial complement to the health network and contribute to bolstering Montréal’s social safety net. This financial support directly serves their vital mission.
Organized in an international context marked by setbacks in sexual and reproductive rights and by budget cuts in research and treatments in the United States, the 2025 edition of the STI & HIV World Congress held at the Palais des congrès de Montréal stood out in several ways. For the first time in the Congress’s history, Indigenous knowledge and adapted research approaches occupied an important place in the program. Congress participants were also able to discover the community testing centre on Sainte-Catherine Street, and several issues rarely addressed in previous editions found their place in scientific discussions.
These initiatives shared a common goal: to render knowledge exchanged during the Congress more accessible to those who most needed it. One year after it was held, the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress continues to bear fruit, both through the knowledge it advanced as well as the concrete support it is bringing today to the Montréal community.
A congress becomes fully meaningful when it leaves something behind, and the legacy from the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress is a perfect example. The scientific discussions that were held in Montréal will continue to feed research and practices in sexual health, but this support to six Montréal organizations shows that their legacy can also translate into concrete gestures for the community. It’s proof that an international congress can generate sustainable benefits beyond the economic impact and the few days during which the meeting is held.
– Emmanuelle Legault, President and CEO of the Palais des congrès de Montréal
The Montréal edition of the STI & HIV World Congress, in 2025, was supposed to celebrate the progress made in sexual health since the publication of the first WHO report on the question, 50 years earlier. In the end, it was held in an entirely different context, marked by an erosion of sexual health rights. So, instead, the discussions focused on the new attacks on advances made over the last few decades and on the need to forge a common front to pursue efforts despite shrinking resources. By placing community involvement at the heart of its program, the 2025 Congress really switched up how things are done. Allocating this surplus to Montréal organizations is in keeping with this, ensuring that the spinoffs from congresses concretely benefit the communities they wish to support.
– Marc Steben, Co-President of the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress
The spinoffs from the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress for Montréal take several forms. The financial support given today to community organizations is a concrete example. We’ve also allocated funds to support the participation of researchers from Canada and low-income countries in future international congresses. And we’ve made the main talks at the Congress available for free on the website of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI) so that this knowledge continues to circulate beyond Montréal.
– Jo-Ann Dillon, Co-President of the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress
The movement against HIV is very concerned about the persistent phenomenon of late HIV diagnoses and continuously suggests opening up additional opportunities for testing, adapted to the populations we know well. Our governments don’t seem to trust us and don’t offer us the means to respond to this urgent need. Gestures like this one—a concrete contribution to the work of frontline organizations—is greatly appreciated in the current context.
– Ken Monteith, Executive Director of COCQ-SIDA
From left to right (back row): Marc-André Gemme (Palais des congrès de Montréal), Donovan Paul Rocher (AIDS Community Care Montreal), Carrie Martin (Tiohtià:ke Indigenous Health Centre), Alexandre Dumont Blais (RÉZO), Emmanuelle Legault (President and CEO, Palais des congrès de Montréal), Yanick Paradis (Dopamine), Joseph Jean-Gilles (GAP-VIES), Valérie De Noncourt (Palais des congrès de Montréal).
From left to right (front row): Morgana Lefebvre (Tiohtià:ke Indigenous Health Centre), Sandra Wesley (Stella), Dr. Marc Steben (Co-Chair, STI & HIV 2025 World Congress).
‘Viewing STIs as a problem affecting only young people is missing the point.’ A year ago, just a few days before the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress, the Palais team met with Dr. Marc Steben. As co-chair of the event, he played a major role in making this Montréal edition a unifying moment that served the communities most affected.