BUYER QUICKFIRE
What is the singlemost effective change you canmake to create a sustainable event? Ensuring that your events attract a largely local audience and speakers can make a considerable difference to your carbon footprint. Organising a hybrid event where international delegates access the sessions virtually could be another option. While the experience of physical events and networking can never truly be replaced by virtual alternatives, we have decided to prioritise virtual and hybrid events not just because of the pandemic, but as a conscious business decision to reduce the carbon footprint of our events. What has been the response to implementing sustainable practices at Refinitiv events? Overwhelmingly positive. Internally, our company has done a tremendous job in instilling a commitment to sustainability
this journey in trying to organise more sustainable events, however, have only gotten us positive feedback, and in a way, helped us stand apart from competitors. At the moment, environmental sustainability seems high on the agenda, what can we do to bring social sustainability to the forefront? Sustainability is often associated with environmental issues, but social matters such as diversity and inclusion (D&I) should form a critical part of any sustainability policy.
organisation‐wide, by pledging and working
To ensure that the high‐level D&I targets translate into more diverse and inclusive environments on the ground, I have also been given the mandate to create a D&I policy for our marketing and comms campaigns, including events. The objectives of this policy include: • Saying no to all‐male panels and increasing the gender/racial balance of events. • Creating a more diverse pool of speakers and spokespeople through regular public speaking training and a central database. • Offering a more inclusive environment at both our physical and virtual events to people with special needs.
towards a set of ambitious environmental and social targets. So it was only natural to walk the talk in terms of how we show up at our events, especially with events being such a prominent communications channel. Many warned that striving to become more sustainable by removing give‐aways or printed materials from our events will impact our delegate experience negatively. Transparency about both our achievements and our challenges on
We often forget to appreciate that every single green step counts in the path to become more sustainable”
34 MAY 2021 mitmagazine.co.uk
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