Building Connections: Highlights from the CSID Network Launch Events

Over the past few months, we’ve been hosting a series of distributed launch events to celebrate the beginning of the CSID community of practice.

In July, we kicked off in East Africa with an intimate gathering of 25 attendees in Nairobi. From there, the celebration moved to West Africa in September, where we joined the Deep Learning Indaba community in Dakar. Just yesterday, we held a virtual event with registrants from over 40 countries (!!). And next week, we’ll wrap up with our final launch event in Southern Africa, alongside the Climate Health Africa Conference in Harare.

Why so many launch events? Hosting these gatherings across different times and locations reflects the decentralized nature of the CSID Network. Our aim is to link CSID communities from local and regional levels into a larger, transnational network. To make such a widespread and diverse network possible, stakeholders at every level—local, regional, and global—need opportunities to connect, engage, and collaborate.

Instead of merely talking about the importance of connections, we’ve focused on creating opportunities at each event for participants to experience the power of connecting. This is, after all, the heart of the network! For us, building connections goes beyond aligning around shared topics—it’s about having fun together, getting to know each other as whole people, and recognizing our shared humanity.

At every launch event, we’ve started with an introduction to the network, then moved into interactive discussions that helped participants learn about each other’s work. Our hope is that everyone who joined walked away with at least one new connection or spark of inspiration. We’re excited to hear that many attendees have already had follow-up meetings to explore potential collaborations sparked by these events!

As we prepare for our final launch event in Harare, we’re energized by the connections that have already begun to form. The CSID Network is more than just a networking platform—it’s a dynamic and vibrant community of people eager to collaborate across many axes of difference so that we can collectively improve understanding and response to climate sensitive infectious diseases. We look forward to seeing where these connections lead as we continue to build a network that supports equitable and collaborative science and technology.

Resources:

• Slides presented at virtual launch
• Recording of virtual launch presentation below