The 21st annual United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) takes place Thursday, September 7, through Sunday, September 10, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington, DC.

Sponsored by the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), the conference brings together leaders and on-the-ground advocates from the HIV community for panel discussions, skills-building sessions, speakers, films, networking opportunities, workshops, a collection of exhibitors and much more.

The opening plenary session, for example, includes Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.), a staunch ally who has fought to save health care, and David Williams, PhD, of Harvard University, who has conducted groundbreaking research on the intersection of race and health.

The opening plenary session will also devote time to supporting those in Houston and southeast Texas who are recovering from the destruction wreaked by Hurricane Harvey.

The theme of USCA 2017 is “Our Family Reunion,” according to an NMAC press release. “This year’s USCA focuses on the families that make up the HIV community and how we must rely on our families in this time of uncertainty,” said NMAC executive director Paul Kawata in the press release. “Whether they are birth families, chosen families or work families, all of us in the HIV community rely on our families to support us through the hard times. Now, with massive federal budget cuts proposed for HIV services, we will need that family support again. It will take all of us working together and supporting each other to keep those cuts from becoming reality and derailing the progress we’ve made to end the HIV epidemic. The conference will provide us with the information, the tactics and the motivation we need to engage in this fight and win.”

Kawata has much more to say about the conference, which you can read in his POZ blog post “See You in DC for the United States Conference on AIDS!”

You can follow conference goings-on via social media by using the hashtag #2017USCA, and you can download the program book and learn more at 2017.usca.org. And if you’re able to participate in the conference, be sure to stop by the POZ booth—we are booth 101—and say hi!