Alessandro is an international award winning researcher who has been company director for over 30 years and managed a myriad of national and international companies. 

Since 2007, his roles have included Cultural Attaché to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he has developed contracts for the State government in Australia as cultural ambassador. His clients have included Qantas, The Marriott Hotels, Sofitel, Peroni Italia, Opera Queensland and the Gallery of Modern Art. He has been the Secretary General of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and founder and Executive Producer of the Official Italian Week for the Italian Government for which he received a Knighthood from the President of Italy in 2010. 

Alessandro has extensive experience in property development and has a strong international digital marketing background. He has a Master’s degree in International Business and is completing his PhD on the role of emotional engagement on consumer behaviour. 

His role has been in the creation and management of strategy, events and all levels of collaborations with Italian and Australian Governments with particular focus of development of cultural understanding via high level artistic expression and entertainment. Publications

Emanuela is a founding Director of Medicinal Organic Cannabis Australia (MOCA). Her expertise includes business management, strategy development, research, and business planning. She has extensive experience in working with both State and Federal Government. Her work within the Information Technology industry at national and international levels have been a progression from business consulting to project/program management.  Emanuela encapsulates a high level of technical and functional knowledge of Strategic Marketing and Management control in banking systems with a knowledge of complex financial and banking structures. 

During her tenure working with the State Government, Emanuela managed the Customer Insights and Analytics project, with the focus to gather and correlate whole-of-government data. She established a Business Intelligence and Performance Framework to provide a clear structure (including a set of standardised KPIs) together with a design of technologies, processes and procedures to enable a game-changing opportunity for the Queensland Government to understand and improve performance through a greater understanding of service delivery across the Government.  Emanuela holds a Bachelor of Engineering with major in Robotics and Automation from the Polytechnics of Milan, Italy. She is passionate about human rights and helping to support and sustain disadvantaged kids.

Dr. Arno Hazekamp (1976) is an internationally acclaimed cannabis researcher biochemist, and former Head of Research and Education at Bedrocan BV - the official grower of medicinal cannabis in the Netherlands. 

Arno earned his Bachelor’s degree in molecular biology, followed by an MSc degree in biopharmaceutical Sciences at Leiden University, the Netherlands. His PhD thesis was focused on the medicinal use of cannabis, and the practical issues that prevent it from becoming part of modern medicine. 

Since 2002, Arno has been involved in the Dutch national medicinal cannabis program as a specialist in quality control, administration forms and chemical analysis. He is a board member of the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines (IACM), an active international lecturer and medicinal cannabis advocate. His mission is to build a bridge between the needs of patients and the demands of modern medicine through research and education.  Publications

Eliane Karsaklian, PhD, has lived and worked in several countries for more than 20 years, and has extensive knowledge and experience in intercultural relationships and negotiation techniques. She masters five languages and spends half of her time researching and teaching international business, and half consulting with companies in their international activities’ development.

She is an internationally known speaker, award-winning researcher, and professor who directs the Master Program for International Negotiation at Université Sorbonne in Paris. Dr. Karsaklian also is the founder and president of Ubi & Orbi, which helps companies create multinational partnerships and productive working relationships with their overseas employees.Her research activities have led her up to develop tools to work with international negotiators, expatriates, and diversity managers. 

She has led several companies—Discovery Channel, Gucci, Sanofi-Aventis and Walt Disney World—to build relationships that created or expanded their markets. She has published several articles and books in the field of international business more recently Sustainable Negotiation: What Physics Can Teach Us about International Negotiation. Publications