Ticket sales have resumed for the 2025 United in Compassion (UIC) Symposium after an Australian not-for-profit stepped in to replace online payment firm Stripe which had kicked UIC off its platform.
Ticketing firm Humanitix will now fulfil bookings for the event which takes place at Brisbane’s Royal International Convention Centre between February 21-23.
“Humanitix were more than happy to assist,” UIC founder Lucy Haslam said. “They are a not-for-profit Australian company and support what we are doing.”
Stripe, a multi-billion dollar American firm, told Haslam earlier this month that UIC had been in “violation of its services agreement” and announced its account would be closed.
“It makes you realise that hysteria [around cannabis] is alive and well,” she said at the time.
In a separate development, Haslam revealed the pause in ticket sales has provided time for organisers to rethink the theme of the symposium.
Originally launched under the slogan ‘towards mainstream’ to reflect the progress since legalisation, the theme has been changed to ‘optimising quality and compliance’.
Haslam, in her last year of spearheading the event before handing the baton to the Australian Medicinal Cannabis Association (AMCA), said the switch follows recent events involving TGA fines and regulatory action in New South Wales.
“If you consider it in the context of products, prescribing practices and business operations, it is central to all those themes and it is clearly time to focus on those areas,” she said.
“I don’t want to give up on the Australian medicinal cannabis sector… it is more important to patients than ever before. But it needs to clean itself up or suffer a backlash. Bad reputations are hard to shake and the implications of a bad reputation for medicinal cannabis spells serious consequences for patient access.”
For the first time, a cultivators’ training day will be held at the symposium, on Friday February 21, while UIC is also supporting a motorbike rally that will finish at the conference venue on the Saturday afternoon, to show support for veterans and first responders.
Meanwhile, the traditional formalities of a sit-down dinner on Saturday night have been discarded, with organisers keen to adopt a party atmosphere with attendees invited to dress in ‘fifty shades of green’.
The gathering, which takes place at The Tivoli Theatre in Fortitude Valley, has been timed to not only mark Medicinal Cannabis Awareness Week – the third time that has been held – but to remember and celebrate the life of Dan Haslam on the 1oth anniversary of his passing.
Early-bird tickets for the Symposium are priced A$1,054 for members of AMCA, and $1,100 for non-members.
Tickets include both the Saturday and Sunday conference sessions on February 22 and 23, welcome drinks reception on February 21, and the Saturday night party.
From October 1 prices rise to $1,320 for non-members and $1,122 for members.
To attend the conference only, early-bird tickets until September 30 are priced at $680 for members and $716 for non-members.
People are advised to choose their tickets here before booking here.