Major Israeli cannabis summit postponed amid coronavirus concerns
A major medical cannabis summit scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv later this month has been postponed until June, becoming the latest international hi-tech gathering to fall victim to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The two-day CannaTech Tel Aviv conference, expected to showcase Israeli cannabis expertise for a fifth consecutive year, attracted over 1,200 participants from more than 40 countries last year. Citing the spread of the coronavirus and recommendations from both Israeli and global health authorities, the popular summit will now be pushed from March 30-31 to June 15-16.
Also postponed is the PsyTech Summit, Israel’s first conference focusing on innovation and investment in psychedelic medicine, created by the organizers behind CannaTech.
“Our No. 1 concern is the health and safety of our attendees and speakers, our partners, our colleagues and our vendors,” said CannaTech founder and iCAN Israel-Cannabis CEO Saul Kaye. “While we are disappointed to postpone both CannaTech Tel Aviv and PsyTech Summit, we are very confident it will be worth the wait.”
According to a recent report by cannabis market data consultants Prohibition Partners, the global legal cannabis market is forecast to be worth up to $103.9 billion by 2024. The two largest markets are expected to be Europe ($39.1b.) and North America and Canada ($37.9b.).
The decision to postpone the summits mirrors similar decisions taken by hi-tech conference organizers worldwide, reflecting concerns caused by the increasing human and economic toll of the coronavirus.
More than 93,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed globally, with infections now spreading faster outside mainland China, where the virus originated. The global death toll has exceeded 3,000, the vast majority in China. Fatalities also continue to mount in hard-hit countries including Italy, Iran and South Korea.
Google announced on Tuesday that its major Google I/O developer conference scheduled for mid-May would no longer be going ahead, and that it would also be abandoning the physical part of its Cloud Next ’20 gathering in favor of a “digital-first” event alone.
“Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with our developer community,” Google said in a statement.
Other major conferences impacted by the coronavirus outbreak include cancellations of the Mobile World Congress, which typically attracts around 100,000 people, Microsoft’s MVP Global Summit 2020 and Facebook’s F8 developer conference.
Direct economic losses
caused by the cancellation of major tech conferences have surpassed $500 million to date, according to estimates supplied by PredictHQ to Vox Mediaowned Recode. The vast majority of the loss, a total of $480m., resulted from the cancellation of MWC.
The real cost is likely to be much higher, as the estimate takes into account the impact of the cancellation of the physical event, and not the loss of associated sponsorship revenue, potential purchases and indirect benefits to the local economy.