Simon Clark - Taking Liberties

It’s always nice to be back at GTNF, the annual tobacco (and nicotine) conference, although it’s also true that fings ain’t wot they used to be.

When GTNF was launched in 2008 (in Rio) it was called the Global Tobacco Networking Forum and vaping was still in its infancy so I don’t know if it even got a mention.

I didn’t go to Rio but I’ve attended every GTNF (bar one) since - Bangalore (2010), Antwerp (2012), Cape Town (2013), West Virginia (2014), Bologna (2015), Brussels (2016), New York (2017), London (2018) and London again (2021).

The exception was Washington in 2019. I can’t remember why I didn’t go but I assume it was because of my (self-imposed) rule that if I’m not invited to speak I won’t go because it’s not worth the money if I’m only there to make up the numbers.

I’m sorry if that sounds self-important but rules are rules! Truth is, as the representative of an unfashionable cause (smokers’ rights) I’m holding on by my fingertips and I have to take a stand.

The last GTNF I can honestly say felt pro-tobacco took place in Cape Town in 2013 when our hosts, led by some plain speaking South African tobacco farmers, made their views very clear.

‘Stop apologising’ seemed to be their message and as I remember, and wrote at the time, it was rather refreshing.

The following year, in West Virginia, I was given - for the first and only time - a keynote speech to talk about Forest and our work but even then the agenda was changing in favour of speeches and presentations about tobacco harm reduction and reduced risk products.

To be clear, I have no problem with the industry evolving in that direction as long as the interests and choices of confirmed smokers are acknowledged and respected and to be fair, while they may be marginalised, GTNF has never completely abandoned them, unlike every other tobacco or nicotine-related conference.

Anyway, at some point in the last ten years (I can’t remember which year) GTNF changed its name to the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum. It may have been 2015, the year we went to Bologna, because I remember sitting next to another delegate - from America - who was obviously perplexed that anyone would want to defend smoking.

I felt like saying, ‘You do know this is a tobacco industry event?’, but it was obvious even then that I was in an increasingly small minority of delegates who were prepared to say anything in defence of smoking.

Nevertheless even I was surprised when in 2017 the PMI-funded Foundation for a Smoke Free World was launched at GTNF in New York. Not even Lewis Carroll could have made that up.

Anyway here I am at GTNF 2022 and this year I’m speaking on a panel that will address the issue of prohibition.

The session however is not part of the main conference that begins at the Four Seasons Hotel tomorrow. Instead we’re like the warm-up act, one of three afternoon sessions before the Welcome Reception at the Hay-Adams Hotel this evening.

It will be filmed though so there should be an opportunity to watch it, and all the other sessions, at a later date. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime here are some of my favourite GTNF moments. They stand alongside some of my best memories of working for Forest:

Bangalore (2010): Our arrival at our seven-star hotel at six o’clock in the morning following an eleven-hour flight is a moment I shall never forget as rose petals were showered on our heads by staff standing on the mezzanine above the spacious reception area. My large luxurious room lived up to the warm welcome and even better was the covered outdoor bar where we gathered for drinks. The Australian cricket team was staying there too and after the conference was over I spent an afternoon at the Bangalore Test match in the company of journalist Mick Hume, founding editor of Spiked. How we weren’t killed crossing a busy main road on our return to the hotel remains a mystery.

Antwerp (2012): Without question, this was the most bizarre conference location ever. Overnight delegates stayed in one of two hotels but the actual conference took place on board two boats that spent the day (and much of the evening) at sea, and there was no escape! On the second day we were advised to take our passports and all became clear when we found ourselves in a small town in the Netherlands where we were given a guided tour followed by a street party in our honour. Extraordinary.

Cape Town (2013): Regrettably, in hindsight, I saw relatively little of the city because having been warned at length of all the terrible things that might happen if we left the security of the hotel compound I erred on the side of caution. Nevertheless I had a wonderful view of Table Mountain from my room at Mount Nelson Hotel (named after Horatio not Mandela) and I enjoyed the post conference excursions to some of the local vineyards. The whale watching? Not so much.

West Virginia (2014): The conference venue was The Greenbriars, an enormous almost Gothic building (and golf resort) in White Sulphur Springs, a small town in the middle of nowhere - four hours by road from Dulles Airport, Washington, or six hours by rail. Unforgettably, the welcome reception took place inside a nuclear bunker that had been built beneath the hotel in the Fifties so that, in the event of a nuclear strike on Washington, Congress could continue the business of government underground. The bunker remained a secret until 1992 when it was exposed by the Washington Post.