Apologies to everyone for the cancellation of yesterday's Forum on Trafficking in Endangered species due to technical problems.

It is still unclear as to why the problems arose but we can say that they did not originate here and when we did set up earlier in the day, there were no problems with the platform.

We did note that the internet was generally slow while we were preparing and this morning while our domestic internet is running above the contracted speed (according to speedtest), international internet is running at less than 10% of that - and barely more than the old dial-up speeds.

But it was not only connections from here that were in trouble. Around the world, people tried to access the Forum only to be left in limbo with a message saying they were waiting to join. We know of at least 20 people like that because we were communicating with some of them off-platform while trying to resolve the problem. However, the admin panel told us about only one.

We will re-arrange the Forum shortly and tickets will be valid for the rescheduled event. If attendees would prefer a refund, please let us know through email as noted in your confirmation note.

Again, we are annoyed and frustrated but mostly sorry at having wasted the time of speakers and delegates.