8th annual Global Forum on Nicotine meets in Liverpool: home of harm reduction

• GFN21 addresses ‘The future for nicotine’ on 17th – 18th June
• Hybrid set-up offers great value in-person participation and free online access
• GFN∙TV set to broadcast conference, with commentary team offering insights
• The event continues to foreground rational and inclusive debate about nicotine

Conference organizers KAC Communications are proud to be hosting the 8th Global Forum on Nicotine (#GFN21) on 17th and 18th June at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Liverpool. With its theme ‘The future for nicotine’, #GFN21 tackles the challenges and controversies, as well as the significant potential, of safer nicotine products. In-person registration costs just £60 (inc. VAT) for two days, and online registration is free.

Liverpool has a proud history of adopting progressive public health measures. In the mid-1980s, the Mersey Health Region became known for pioneering the harm reduction approach to illicit drug use, which has since saved countless lives worldwide. The conference organizers are proud to be bringing #GFN21 to the ‘home of harm reduction’. Despite existing tobacco control measures, over a billion people still smoke. Most (80%) are in low and middle-income countries and many in marginalized communities in higher-income nations. Tobacco harm reduction, using safer nicotine products, offers hundreds of millions of adult smokers around the world more exit routes from smoking.

After #GFN20 was moved online at short notice, last year’s event reached a bigger audience than ever before, when 2000 people registered from over 100 countries. This included many consumers around the world able to join the event for the first time. Building on this success – while recognising that over a year of online meetings have taken their toll – KAC Communications hopes to reenergise the digital format. A new GFN∙TV online platform will stream broadcast quality footage of the conference free to viewers around the world, with a new commentary team offering their insights.

Once again ‘the place where science and policy meet’, #GFN21 is proud to have attracted over 30 top speakers from diverse backgrounds, including consumers, advocates, policy experts, public health specialists and medical professionals, scheduled to appear from the conference venue or online. All sessions will be live, with speaker presentations available on the GFN website before the event, maximising discussion and time for audience questions. GFN Fives, short multimedia presentations contributed by the conference community, will be available to view from the GFN website very soon – the GFN Fives submission slot remains open until 16 May.

Conference organiser Paddy Costall of KAC Communications said:

“It’s a fallacy that tobacco control and harm reduction are irreconcilable as many believe. They’re complementary. Tobacco control has reduced smoking rates in many places, but it’s got its limits. In the UK and elsewhere it’s been shown that access to appropriately regulated safer nicotine products helps people stop smoking.

“At GFN, we offer an inclusive platform to discuss all aspects of nicotine use and we believe it’s important that no one is excluded from the debate. With one billion smoking-related deaths predicted by the end of this century, it’s time for ideology to make way for pragmatism.”

Registration: https://gfn.events 

Programme: https://gfn.events/programme