A cannabis conference planned for May in Vienna has been canceled, leaving some who’d registered waiting for refunds.
Loss of the event’s main sponsor at the end of last year was among “unforeseen technical and financial circumstances” that led to the cancellation of the May 2018 event, according to an undated posting on the conference web site from David Rosse, CEO at Vienna-based organizer ICACO. Leafly, the online cannabis journal had been identified as the event’s main sponsor in promo materials distributed last November.
Postponed, then canceled
The conference had originally been planned for September 2017 before being rescheduled to May, then canceled entirely.
ICACO claimed to have lined up 70 speakers including famed Israeli Prof. Raphael Mechoulam; legendary American cannabis activist and entrepreneur Steve D’Angelo; Chris Walsh, MJBizDaily, USA; and Catherine Jacobson, Tilray, Canada.
Billed as “Europe’s largest B2B Cannabis Expo,” organizers were estimating attendance would be 1,500 at the event, which was to be held at the Austria Center Vienna. Major European firms had been identified in ICACO communications as sponsors.
Waiting for refunds
While Rosse says in the statement, presumably from early January, that refunds will go out “in the following days” and gives his email address ([email protected]), one disappointed registrant said his attempts to contact the organizer had proved fruitless. “Besides money for the entrance ticket, I also wasted money on a flight and hotel,” the registrant told HempToday. “What they have done is so unprofessional. It’s bad for the industry.”
HempToday’s attempts to contact Rosse by email and phone were unsuccessful.
