Urbana (conference)

=== 2000s ===
The 2000s marked the move of Urbana from its long-time home at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and into St. Louis in 2006—a much larger venue for a conference that seemed to be maxing out every year. The new venue allowed nearly all of the convention to be held under one roof, with students staying in different hotels within the city and walking or transiting to the conference.

Urbana 2000, InterVarsity's 19th triennial student missions convention (themed "Because God First Loved Us"), was an unusual Urbana in that it was scheduled four years (vs. the traditional three) after the previous conference, to avoid possible [[Year 2000 problem|Y2K]] complications. Over 20,000 participated. Featured speakers included: Vinoth Ramachandra, Ken Fong, Steve Hayner, George Verwer, Jimmy McGee, Paul Borthwick, Marta Bennett, Barney Ford, and Alex Gee. Over 5,000 committed their lives to cross-cultural missions as their vocation.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://urbana.org/past-urbanas/urbana-2000 |title = Urbana 2000}}</ref>

The last Urbana to be held at UIUC, Urbana 2003, was also the first to offer an "International Student Track", providing special housing options and electives to international students interested in spending time with other students from their respective countries. Urbana 06 again held a track for international students, as well as tracks that focused on the global [[HIV]]–[[AIDS]] [[pandemic]], the growing business as mission movement, and the needs of the world's largest [[slum]] communities in the [[developing country|developing world]]. Major and tracks at Urbana 09 included International Students, Arts and Media, Advocacy and Poverty, Business as Mission, Evangelism, Jesus and Justice, The Mission of Healthcare, and The Church Around the World.

At Urbana 2006, nearly 22,500 participants attended. Urbana 06 speakers included [[Rick Warren]], pastor and author of ''[[The Purpose Driven Life]]''; [[Ray Bakke]], a professor and specialist in urban ministry; [[Bono]] from the band [[U2]] (via video); and Ajith Fernando, a well-respected Bible teacher who is the director of [[Youth for Christ]] in [[Sri Lanka]].

Urbana 09 speakers included Ramez Atallah, General Secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt; Shane Claiborne of The Simple Way in Philadelphia; [[Ruth Padilla DeBorst]], General Secretary of the [[Latin American Theological Fellowship]]; Sunder Krishnan, Senior Pastor of the Rexdale Alliance Church in Ontario, Canada; and Patrick Fung, General Director of OMF International. Oscar Muriu, Senior Pastor of Nairobi Chapel, Nairobi, Kenya, spoke at both Urbana 06 and Urbana 09.  Worship at Urbana 09 was led by [http://sandravanopstal.com/ Sandra Maria Van Opstal].