As long-standing conference organizers in the psychedelic community, Chacruna and Horizons jointly propose these transparency guidelines during this crucial time in the psychedelic movement.
As psychedelics grow in popularity, a new circuit of psychedelic conferences and events has emerged that is focused on their financial dimensions.
What was once a community primarily composed of academics, researchers, underground therapists, psychedelic enthusiasts, and traditional knowledge keepers, now also includes investors, executives, entrepreneurs, and their public relations agencies.
Many of these new events are produced by media companies that seek to monetize the content and stage time of the program, as well as the personal information of their audiences.
While this is common and accepted at many business-focused conferences and trade shows, it is a radical departure from the ethos, expectations, and traditions of academia and the psychedelic community.
Similarly, many speakers, including academic researchers, now hold financial stakes and paid consulting relationships which are relevant to the context and content of their presentations.
In order to encourage quality and integrity while still understanding that sponsorships and commerce may be essential in making events economically viable, we ask that conference producers, speakers, and audiences actively participate in creating transparency.
We advise that all parties observe the following recommendations when producing, presenting at, or attending a learning event:
- Events should publish a general statement on their curatorial and sponsorship policies on their website.
- All sponsored content should be clearly labeled and demarcated within the event website and program.
- Speakers should be explicitly informed of policies around promotional sponsorships packages involving speaking slots at time of booking.
- Speakers should be notified if anyone on their panel is or may be appearing in conjunction with a paid arrangement, and be given the opportunity to politely withdraw if this is not comfortable for them.
- All speakers should disclose their relevant business and financial interests and conflicts in both their abstracts and presentations.
Note: Chacruna and Horizons neither offer speaking slots as part of their sponsorship packages, nor allow sponsors to determine the content of their programs. Independent of such choices, we encourage everyone in the field to adopt these guidelines.
Art by Mariom Luna.
