More than 30 organisations have joined forces to improve Sydney’s environmental performance by increasing use of renewable energy, reducing water consumption, and improving waste management and recycling. The partners include ICC Sydney, whose inventive design includes a community-funded solar array, a large rainwater tank, energy efficient lighting and waste diversion strategies. From CIM News Magazine…
Coffee in copious quantity sustains much of the meetings industry. Yet disposable coffee cups are in of themselves a major sustainability issue. As the sector aims to reduce its carbon footprint, one organiser successfully avoided the mountains of cups often left behind at events, while also helping fund clean water projects around the world. From PCMA…
Holding sustainable events can be hard work, and involve a variety of quite different challenges. The Vice President of Marketing for Oracle, Paul Salinger, discussed how to navigate the business aspects of sustainability during the Sustainable Brands 2018 conference recently held in Vancouver. Here are the four takeaways of his session. From PCMA Convene…
Some of the biggest names in the global startup community have been attending LAUNCH Festival Sydney. This is the first time the world’s largest startup event has been held outside San Francisco in its ten-year history. Founder passes were snapped up very quickly, and the event attracted more than 1,400 delegates. From CIM News Magazine…
The list of cities vying to host the Democratic National Convention in 2020 has been reduced to six: Atlanta, Houston, Miami Beach, Milwaukee, New York and San Francisco. The event draws 50,000, has economic impact of more than $200 million and throws a global spotlight on the host city. Photo: Maggie Hallahan. From Meetings & Conventions…
AIM Group International has run the second SIAARTI Academy CREM (Italian Society for Anaesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care / Critical Emergency Medicine). The innovative format of the first edition won several international awards, and the event returned to the small island of Lampedusa to leave behind a positive legacy for local operators. From Boardroom…
Leading researchers and physicians, and government health officials, have been in Melbourne for the 16th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. The event is the world’s largest in the field, and attracted over 2,500 delegates from 60 countries. Legacy projects included a free public forum. From CIM News Magazine…
When about 2,000 meeting delegates sat down for lunch at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Annual Conference, they were fed all plant-based food all conference long. In addition to the conference’s first-ever all-vegetarian menu, the organiser made another big move in 2017 by eliminating breakfast from the menu. From PCMA…
With an ever-increasing focus on the environment and growing demand for sustainable practice, green event and conference planning is now an established trend within the global meetings industry. Here are six areas to consider for a greener approach: the venue, carbon offsetting, the accommodation, the catering, technology and lighting, and the materials used. From the Event…
In the GDS-Index white paper The Iceberg just published in Research, Finland’s Visit Espoo is committing to serve only locally-produced vegetarian food and sustainable fish to association delegates. Would you ever serve only vegetables and fish to your event attendees? Would they accept such a proposal? From editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…
As any youngster with a fidget spinner will tell you, rotation can be fun. But when a UK convention bureau suggested to the organiser of an event that had stayed in the same city since it started that they should be rotating destinations, there was surprising friction. From editor’s blog at Meetpie.com…
The Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland is the latest venue to be farming produce onsite for the consumption of its visitors. The project, called “The Real FarmVille”, grows tomatoes, corn, mesclun and peppers. There are also chickens, pigs and even bees, not just for honey but for scientific study as well. From PCMA…
Events have the potential to make a lasting impact on organisations that plan and own them, participants attending them, and communities hosting them. A focus on legacy at every stage is therefore essential. Karen Kotowski, CEO of the Events Industry Council, offer five criteria for creating the right community impact. From PCMA…
In the second of three insights on the value of business and professional events, GainingEdge CEO Gary Grimmer and Gregg Talley, President and CEO of the Talley Management Group, analyse the crucial role professional associations and the broader “civil society” play across the whole of scientific and industrial development. Association meetings deliver the platforms and…
When city convention bureau leaders at ICCA’s Scandinavian Chapter set up the first Scandinavian Destination Sustainability Index – the precursor to the Global Destination Sustainability Index – they had two primary objectives: to drive sustainability across the region through competition, collaboration and raised consciousness, and to differentiate the Nordic region to non-European markets as the most sustainable…
The French Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition and IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, have jointly agreed to organise the IUCN World Conservation Congress. It will be held in June 2020 at Parc Chanot, Marseille, and France’s commitment to event sustainability was one reason for the country’s selection. From Boardroom…
The Global Destination Sustainability Index has released its second white paper: “Sustainable Destination Management Trends and Insights: The Road to a Circular Economy”. The GDS-Index is a partnership between ICCA, ICCA’s Scandinavian chapter, IMEX, ECM and MCI Group. The report draws from 40 cities that participated in the 2017 GDS-Index benchmarking study. From Meetpie.com…
Next year Grimaldi Forum Monaco and the Monegasque Company of Electricity and Gas will together install a photovoltaic power station on the venue’s roof. The solar farm will be the Principality’s largest, and the project comes in advance of the integration of the centre into an eco-district planned on land reclaimed from the sea. From Boardroom…
The Rehabilitation International World Congress (pictured), held in Edinburgh in 2016, fundamentally advanced approaches to accessibility and inclusion. The event’s legacy – and indeed the distinction between legacy and impact – was one of three case studies discussed at an IMEX 2018 session hosted by Iceberg partner GainingEdge. From Boardroom…
When most people think about international meetings they think about bed-nights and tourism expenditure. But hidden below the iceberg surface are the impacts that really count: knowledge creation and transfer, new solutions to societal issues, and opportunities for inward investment, partnerships and business deals. From ICCA CEO Martin Sirk via TTG Mice…
According to ICCA, almost two-thirds of international association meetings attract 250 or fewer delegates. Only seven percent welcomed more than 1,000 people, and just a tiny fraction (1.3 percent) attracted 3,000 or more. Small events can indeed be beautiful, but we hear little about them. From editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…
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