The corporate view A corporate event planner, who asked to remain anonymous, shares their sustainability journey “People have been talking to me about
sustainability for a long time, but it’s only since my company introduced an ethical code that it has been a deciding factor. We work with certain venues because they’ve got great sustainability policies. “When working with venues we ask them what they do about repurposing food, where does it go to, what do they do with water, do they recycle towels? We don’t just give out delegate gifts for the sake of it, we do things with purpose. We also try to repurpose event collateral, we don’t do things with the event name and date on them, so we can use them time after time.” “It’s about challenging suppliers, using local suppliers and produce. Don’t put food on your menu that’s not in season, look at making small changes. If I’m sending stuff out I make sure there’s no single use plastic, that everything is compostable and that we only use UK suppliers. It’s slightly more expensive, but only a little. A lot of the things we do make a small difference, and if everyone makes a small difference it has a big impact.”
The agency view Speaking at the Sustainability Now!
webinar curated by isla, Toby Lewis, CEO of Live Group, shared his thoughts on the importance of locality... “The regional roadshow is going to make a significant comeback. That allows people to walk,
cycle or drive a short distance to a regional show. If you layer on the tech on top of that, there’s a real advantage to being able to have a national and regional conference on the same day. “If you run an event at a destination and you want people to attend, you need to present them with something that sits outside of the content days. People want experiences – and that could actually be part of the journey. “You’re looking at where people are coming from and maybe meeting in small groups, sponsors hosting those groups, there’s all sorts of stuff we can do. Who wouldn’t want to go on a train to another country, if on your train there was a carriage full of people who were coming from your country? It sounds brilliant. “Before Covid we were really struggling to get people to do the incentive as well, I hope that has a rebirth. I hope people think, ‘I’m flying to Barcelona, I’m actually going to do that thing that I’ve ignored for the last decade, because why wouldn’t I? I’m there, it helps support the place I’m actually going, even better’.”
10 MAY 2021 mitmagazine.co.uk
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