On March 8, 2011, the Northern California Chapters of Green Meetings Industry Council (GMIC) and International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) held their first joint educational program focusing on Best Practices in Exhibition Management
The keynote speaker Paul Salinger VP of Marketing for Oracle and President Elect of GMIC presented an outline “The Imperative for Sustainable Events” as envisioned by the leadership of GMIC.
By 2020, the Green Meetings Industry Council envisions a transformed meeting and event industry, driving towards sustainability which:
· Achieves strategic goals that serve the economic, environmental, and social interests of all stakeholders.
· Incorporates the principles of sustainability as standard operating practice
· Integrates international sustainability standards into its management, organization and reporting
· Impacts positively on the local and global society through diversity and inclusivity
· Promotes health, well being, creativity and business effectiveness
Oracle is setting the bar to achieve this vision today. Paul Salinger, Vice President of Marketing, and the internal champion and leader for sustainable events, provided insights into how, strategically and tactically, planners and suppliers throughout the event supply chain can come together to set the right objectives and achieve amazing results that bring sustainability into the forefront of event planning.
Following the keynote presentation our panel of industry professionals shared tips and explained how they are helping to make the new standards of going green easier and sustainable. Panelists: Joe Pestka, Jonathan Young, Justin Hersh and Johanna Walsh
In this panel session, attendees learned first-hand how leading organizations are developing best practices to deal with significant environmental and operational accountabilities, including, how they are anticipating the new APEX standards from the Convention Industry Council and how they will affect the many levels of the exhibition industry. The panel talked about how the new green standards apply to your event in areas such as venue selection, hotel measurements, catering options, print and promotional items, travel to the event, as well as transportation during the event and of course recycling and waste management. They also covered how to measure your event to see the size of your carbon footprint and dispel the myths that green meetings are more expensive and difficult.
Posts
