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Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Sustainable Meetings Conference
By Mitchell Beer | January 8, 2010
With the 2010 Sustainable Meetings Conference coming up in Denver February 9-11, the Green Meeting Industry Council is circulating the top 10 reasons that this is a must-attend event.
This might just be the best, most in-depth green meetings conference the industry has ever seen. But the 10 reasons point to a bigger, wider value proposition than you might expect…
10. Green Strategies Save Money: Green meeting specialists know how to save money onsite—by cutting waste, working with local suppliers, and proving that the “eco” in eco-efficiency is about economy as well as ecology.
9. Earning Customer Loyalty: A sustainable meeting builds customer loyalty, showing participants that their organization cares about the bigger picture—even in hard times.
8. Improving the Onsite Experience: The skills and knowledge behind a sustainable meeting can help you create a smarter, more interactive learning experience for participants.
7. Competitive Advantage for Vendors: Hoteliers and other vendors who demonstrate green knowledge and performance gain competitive advantage in an economy where any advantage is crucial to the bottom line.
6. Measuring the Bottom Line: Green performance metrics can only succeed environmentally if they pay off financially. So green measurement is a great way to assess the return your organization receives from its meetings investment.
5. Managing and Mitigating Risk: Leading organizations like Oracle, The Gap, the American Institute of Architects, and the U.S. Green Building Council know that greening is the “right” thing to do. But it also mitigates risk. For top associations and Fortune 500 businesses, sustainable meetings are a great way to demonstrate good citizenship and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
4. Striking the Balance: Meeting professionals have been struggling to find a balance between live and virtual meetings and to cope with the mounting challenges surrounding air travel. The 2010 Sustainable Meetings Conference is a place to explore solutions that keep the participant experience front and centre.
3. Learning the Standard: The program for the 2010 Sustainable Meetings Conference is built around the green meetings standard that will soon be released by the U.S. Accepted Practices Commission (APEX). Learning the practicalities of this detailed new standard will be an advantage for every organization that participates in the conference.
2. Building a Network: The annual Sustainable Meetings Conference draws a network of senior, experienced meeting professionals who’ve built their green checklists into strategic action plans that support their companies’ core values and objectives. Attending the conference is the first step in making these thought leaders and decision-makers a part of your network.
1. Building Momentum: This conference is about getting green done! On the first day, the Future Leaders’ Forum and the Leaders’ Track will both deliver action goals for the year ahead. At the closing roundtable, GMIC will invite leading meeting experts and association leaders to discuss next steps for building a sustainable industry.
As a GMIC board member and co-chair of the conference program committee, I won’t even try to convince you that I’m objective about this meeting. I’ll just hope to see you onsite…
Topics: Airlines, Business Issues, Carbon Footprint, Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Meeting Industry Council, Green Meetings, Meeting Design, Meetings ROI, Meetings Technology, Onsite Learning, Virtual Meetings |
Comments Feed
January 14th, 2010 at 6:09 am
Thank you, The Edge, for leading this charge. As a person who became a more informed professional by attending GMIC conferences in Portland, Vancouver and Pittsburgh, I strongly urge your readers to make plans to be in Denver next month. As a business investment, little else can compete for the value this session represents.
See more about why the GMIC conference matters here: http://bit.ly/5RErzY
See you in Denver!
michael
January 19th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
[...] If you’re looking for more concrete examples on how to green your meetings and events, consider attending the 2010 Sustainable Meetings Conference, February 9-11, in Denver, CO by the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC). GMIC Board member and Conference Co-Chair Mitchell Beer also shares Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Sustainable Meetings Conference. [...]