Tickets for the 2025 United in Compassion (UIC) Symposium are available again after an Australian not-for-profit stepped in to handle bookings, following payment giant Stripe's decision to remove UIC from its platform.
Ticketing company Humanitix has taken over reservations for the event, which will be held at Brisbane's Royal International Convention Centre from February 21 to 23.
"Humanitix were more than happy to assist," said UIC founder Lucy Haslam. "They are a not-for-profit Australian company and support what we are doing."
Stripe, the multi-billion dollar US payments company, notified Haslam earlier this month that UIC had breached its services agreement and that its account would be shut down.
“It makes you realise that hysteria [around cannabis] is alive and well,” she said at the time.
In a separate update, Haslam said the interruption to ticket sales gave organisers an opportunity to reconsider the symposium's central theme.
The event had originally been promoted under the slogan 'towards mainstream', reflecting the industry's progress since legalisation, but that has now been replaced with 'optimising quality and compliance'.
Haslam, who is in her final year leading the event before passing responsibility to the Australian Medicinal Cannabis Association (AMCA), said the change was driven by recent developments including 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."
A cultivators' training day will be held for the first time at the symposium on Friday, February 21. UIC is also backing a motorbike rally set to conclude at the conference venue on Saturday afternoon in a show of solidarity with veterans and first responders.
The traditional sit-down dinner on Saturday evening has been scrapped in favour of a more casual party atmosphere, with attendees encouraged to dress in 'fifty shades of green'.
That evening's gathering will take place at The Tivoli Theatre in Fortitude Valley. The timing coincides with Medicinal Cannabis Awareness Week — being held for the third time — and also honours the memory of Dan Haslam on the 10th anniversary of his death.
Early-bird tickets for the Symposium are priced at A$1,054 for AMCA members and $1,100 for non-members.
Tickets cover both the Saturday and Sunday conference sessions on February 22 and 23, a welcome drinks reception on February 21, and the Saturday night party.
From October 1, prices increase to $1,320 for non-members and $1,122 for members.
Conference-only early-bird tickets, available until September 30, are priced at $680 for members and $716 for non-members.
Attendees are advised to choose their tickets here before booking here.
