Welcome to the penultimate episode of #GFNVoices 2023, where we catch up with Carmen Escrig, Samrat, Yvonne Khoo, Sari Kodama and Federico Fernandez, who will share their experiences from this year's Global Forum on Nicotine conference.
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro 0:10 - Samrat Chowdhery 1:19 - Carmen Escrig 1:48 - Sari Kodama 2:13 - Yvonne Khoo 2:41 - Federico Fernandez 3:41 - OutroTranscription:
00:00:09 --> 00:00:14
Joanna Junak: Can you tell us what do you think about this year's GFN conference?
00:00:14 --> 00:01:18
Samrat Chowdhery: Well, I think the first thing that I noticed is that there is a lot more people than last year. You know, I think last year was good, but there was still a lingering pandemic effect. This year, a lot more participation. I think it is Seamlessly organized you have that hybrid model really right so people should also join in from other places. We asked our members to you know watch and learn of them are and the level of discussions as always, you know is insightful, there's something that you learn no matter how long you've been in THR, you know, there's so many minds coming together here and there's always something new, you know, and you always get a sense of which direction THR is heading. So the general message is of course of positivity, even though I come from India where, you know, we have a ban and But even so, even in India, the number of users, the number of smokers who are making the switch hasn't stopped. And that is where the change is. So irrespective of what policy you have, people are going to vote for their health or better health. So that is encouraging, and we hope it brings some change down the line.
00:01:18 --> 00:01:48
Carmen Escrig: It's great. It's marvelous. I love to come every year to GFN because it's the only place where you can speak openly. You can talk with all the stakeholders, we can make good relations, and you can learn a lot about what is happening with tobacco harm reduction in all the world. It's the main conference on nicotine in all the world. It's perfect.
00:01:48 --> 00:02:12
Sari Kodama: I think it's quite interesting to know about the, especially the nicotine or that kind of issues. That kind of definition of nicotine is quite different in Japan, so that kind of understanding the nicotine and also what is happening in the tobacco industry or what is the discussion in other countries is quite interesting for me to hear about.
00:02:14 --> 00:02:40
Yvonne Khoo: So same for me, I learned a lot since yesterday. I understand yesterday was a workshop day and today is the official day. And learning a lot about challenges and triggering my thoughts on what are the way forward for tobacco harm reduction in transforming the industry. So overall, very packed, very comprehensive programme. I like this year better than last year because things are getting back to normal. I don't see people wearing masks anymore. Last year was a bit awkward.
00:02:41 --> 00:03:39
Federico Fernandez: Well, I'm very happy to be here. It's my, I think my third one in person. And I'm really, as usual, I'm amazed of how many people from all over the world are here. That's, I think, I mean, the program is always good. There's always, you know, sessions that you want to be there. And it's a pity that sometimes they coincide with other sessions that you would like to attend as well. That's a given, but something that never ceases to amaze me when I'm here is the amount of people that you can meet and how much you can learn from people from other continents, from other countries, you know, how you can understand their experiences, see how many things are similar and how many things are completely different. That I think it's the greatest value added from this event is how many people from all over the world are here. It's really a truly global event.