Two events, ten years apart, continue to provide legacies for their host communities and the world at large, emphasising the importance of long-term impact monitoring.
CEO of ICMS Australasia, Emma Bowyer, reports the company received news this month that outcomes of two events they managed continue to make an strong societal impact: the 6th IUCN World Parks Congress held in Sydney in November 2014 and the 26th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography in Melbourne in 2023.
Both events were secured for their respective cities by BESydney and the Melbourne Convention Bureau.
At the 6000-person 6th IUCN World Parks Congress at Sydney Showground in 2014, conservationists, environmental donors, policymakers, Indigenous leaders, businesses, and key global stakeholders gathered to enhance the status and impact of protected and conserved areas worldwide. The outcomes were encapsulated in the `Promise of Sydney’, a set of commitments aimed at achieving biodiversity conservation for both people and nature.
Confirmed actions now include: the enhancement to protect the Great Barrier Reef through integrating traditional ecological knowledge from Indigenous communities; the establishment of Namibian Community Conservancies that empower local communities to manage and benefit from wildlife conservation; and Costa Rica’s Payment for Ecosystems Services initiative that compensates landowners for conserving forests and natural ecosystems.
More recently, the local host of the 26th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography in Melbourne has this month begun sending out 750 diamond crystal structure kits that were used at the Congress, to regional and remote primary schools.
The Society has created a booklet to accompany the kits which details how students can make four crystal structures. Their purpose is to encourage students to take an active interest in crystallography and science.
At the Congress the materials were used to create a Guinness World Record diamond structure that more than 500 Victorian students helped build as part of a STEM-inspired exhibition at the Melbourne event.
Interest to receive the kits have been received from schools as far afield as Alice Springs to the Chatham Islands in New Zealand.
Ms Bowyer says it is rewarding to see a number of the longer-term legacy goals of these events begin to come to fruition.
“The short game is successfully managing the actual event, ensuring budgets and attendee numbers are achieved. The long game is about planning for future outcomes – future hopes – and that also has to be a part of the pre-planning phase,” she said.
“I think that as conference organisers we must remember what we are creating for our clients – a comfortable and productive space that helps attendees share ideas and engage in a positive way – can and does lead to greater long-term outcomes, often many years later, that can benefit many more people and many more communities.”
