World Events achieves green goals

by Leanne Bell    4-Feb-10, 12:41

Event agency conference showcases its CSR goals to staff

Event World Events annual conference
Date July 10, 2009
Venue Escrick Park, York, UK
Group size 120





GREEN GOAL
The World Events annual conference, ‘Our Business Rocks’, aimed to communicate two business goals to staff. “One was to improve business through increasing our bottom line by one per cent and the other was to generate service delivery improvement ideas,” says senior marketing and CSR executive Vicky Pratt.

The agency also wanted to ensure the conference was quality-assured, with positive effects socially,  environmentally and financially. It was important to highlight the importance of CSR to staff.

EMBRACING BS8901
It was the first time World Events aimed to run a BS8901-compliant event. It was important to find an environmentally responsible venue that could measure and minimise the conference’s impact. The agency also wanted to involve suppliers keen to give something back to the community.

SUSTAINABLE APPROACH
World Events chose Escrick Park, an outdoor area in the northern city of York that has been sustainably redeveloped. Tipi-style professional event tents were used to create a sustainable village with a festival feel.

The company used sustainable events agency Seventeen Events’ online sustainability tool, Eventberry, to generate ideas on minimising the impact on the environment, including moving the event to a time of year with a more mild climate.

Staff collected food, clothing and books to donate to local charities. The collection formed the basis of a teambuilding activity, which met the social objectives of the event.

CLIENTS, COLLEAGUES, COMMUNITIES
Delegates were transferred by coach to reduce individual travel emissions. On arrival they registered in the tented village, were given Spot-me handheld electronic communication devices and mingled with suppliers.

The kick-off session began at 10am, which included a company update and review. At 11.30am, staff had a coffee break and spent time with the hotels, tech providers and DMC representatives in the suppliers’ village. 

A session on increasing service levels to clients and colleagues followed, culminating in a breakout session where groups devised practical solutions. A local caterer served lunch in recyclable cardboard boxes.

At 2.15pm, the group had an interactive session with the event’s organising committee. Delegates then split into groups and were given 20 minutes to create marketing jingles that communicated World Events’ selling points. They later performed these for colleagues, who voted for their favourite using the Spot-me devices.

Two hours of teambuilding activities began at 5pm. A staff awards ceremony, dinner and entertainment, provided by WorldEvents staff, followed, before delegates were taken home at 11pm.

CREATING A LEGACY
Eventberry is still analysing the conference’s compliance with BS8901, but Pratt says it looks like WorldEvents met its target. More than 50 bags of food, clothing and books were donated to charities. On the commercial side, WorldEvents is tracking the impact of the business messages communicated to staff.

“We’ve had fantastic feedback from staff, suppliers, the board and the organising committee,” says Pratt.

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