What's your sustainability approach?

At IMEX I’d say our approach has always been positive—and also doggedly determined! By analysing every element of our shows, making incremental changes, sharing our successes and failures, learning from, and partnering with sustainability pioneers, our sustainability drive is yielding tangible results.

Roger Lehner, Senior Operations & Sustainability Executive, IMEX Group

Sustainability ideas to steal

Sharing as we learn has always been part of the IMEX ethos and, I believe, increasingly critical in the push toward a net zero event industry. Any successfully implemented initiatives are amplified if they’re adopted beyond our shows, and I’m never prouder than when I see this happen. There are plenty of stealable ideas in our latest sustainable event report.

What do elephants and events have in common?

One of my personal favorite stories from IMEX HQ this month is Emma Blake’s take on the work of the Elephant Queen Outreach team. She has three takeaways that all event designers can learn from—and no you don’t need an actual elephant to make them happen.

When a dogged approach works

Late last year I spoke to Exhibition World’s Catie Owen about our sustainability strategy for IMEX America. We’ve been working with sustainability consultants MeetGreen since our 2011 launch show, measuring as we go, trying out new initiatives, rethinking what hasn’t worked, making incremental improvements—basically just chipping away every show, every year.

Get going with the data you have

Data should act as a call to action, and carbon measurement data can provide the precise insights needed to make change happen for long-term positive impact on people, planet and profit. We spoke to isla CEO and IMEX Frankfurt speaker, Anna Abdelnoor, who tells us to get going with the data we have in this LinkedIn interview.

Still burning strong

Six years ago this month, we worked with EventMB (now Skift Meetings) on a series of case studies illustrating the transformative power of events. One of those events was AfrikaBurn, an event I’m delighted to see still leaving no trace, still holding true to their guiding principles of radical inclusion and communal effort, still “walking the tightrope between anarchic self-expression and dedicated civic responsibility”.

Image: Skift Meetings

PS. We’ve invited some of our star IMEX Frankfurt speakers to give us a preview of their IMEX sessions. Join intrepid adventurer Darren Edwards, live experience designer Michael Badelt and others on Wednesday, March 13. Register here

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IMEXfiles is our (almost) monthly collection of thoughts and ideas. If you’ve enjoyed this issue, please do share it. More IMEX inspiration here.