Welcome to the latest edition of Huddle’s Event Industry News. This week we focus on sustainability, with exciting news about partnerships, flagship events and trends in the industry. Plus, some new data that shows the sector surpassing 2019 benchmarks. Check out our quick rundown to stay informed.

IMEX Frankfurt Sustainability Pledge 

The return of live corporate events flagship event IMEX this year brought on much excitement, but also a renewed focus on sustainability in the global meetings and events industry. 

Organizers took the opportunity to call on all attendees to sign up to its People and Planet Pledge. This involved committing to four from a list of many possible actions. These included attending seminars on diversity and inclusion, choosing sustainable food options, talking to prospective partners about event sustainability and placing items in donation and recycling bins. 

IMEX Frankfurt also included People and Planet Village, an experience inspired by nature and highlighting evolving best practices in the industry. We all have a lot more to do, but it is great to see so many industry professionals stepping up and engaging with the challenges of building a sustainable meetings, conventions, and events sector. 

Scottish events group plants trees to offset carbon emissions, regenerate forest

The Scottish Event Campus, or SEC, has come up with a novel way of linking sustainability to their core business activities. They committed to planting one tree for each meeting taken during their participation in The Meetings Show, a recent industry event. 

More than 100 trees are to be planted in the Caledonian Forest, helping regenerate local woodlands, and offset global carbon emissions and going towards the organization’s goal of net zero carbon by 2030.

Face-to-face meetings are such an important part of all types of events, from experiential marketing to team building events and product launches. Finding ways of linking these basic parts of our activities to sustainable outcomes will be essential if the corporate live event industry is going to plan and execute a transition to a greener future.

Used grounds from event coffee to fuel biomass boilers

In another win for event managers incorporating sustainability into their operations, some venues in the UK and elsewhere are partnering with biomass operators like Bio-Bean to turn used coffee grounds into green energy.

In the UK alone, attendees produce more than twenty-five tons of coffee grounds each year, offering great opportunities for recycling.

Disposing of all that coffee this way not only produces usable energy to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels but prevents the coffee decaying and emitting methane while in landfill, further reducing greenhouse emissions. 

Meetings and events in 2023 will surpass 2019, according to IACC

The IACC has predicted 2023 will be the first year to surpass activity and spending levels in 2019. The results are derived from their recently released Meeting Room of the Future Barometer 2022.

A two-thirds majority of respondents said they would recover to 2019 revenue levels in late 2022 or 2023, Australian and Danish venues leading the way with the most dramatic predicted recovery. 

However, while global activity is predicted to out-pace 2019, some regions will take longer to bounce back completely. For instance, respondents in the Americas reported they were not expecting pre-pandemic revenue levels until 2024. 

The accompanying study shows 2021 revenue dropping to an average of 45% lower than pre-pandemic, shrinking to 8% below by the end of 2022 before rising above in 2023.

We look forward to helping more and more of our partners and clients rebuild, renew and expand their businesses as the event planning industry continues to build momentum in the coming months and years.

Positive industry response to repeal of inbound traveler testing mandate

In another sign of returning growth to the sector, events industry groups have responded positively to the Biden administration’s decision to lift the pre-departure COVID testing requirements for travelers inbound to the US. 

“As the face-to-face business events industry continues to work tirelessly to bring back international exhibitors and attendees to our conferences and trade shows, this welcome news removes one of the key barriers to jumpstarting our industry’s recovery and getting people from across the country and around the world back to business at our U.S. events,” said Thomas Goodwin of the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance (ECA).

We know from experience how logistically challenging group travel can be and removing this requirement will make life easier for event managers and clients alike. We hope these encouraging signs continue to lay the groundwork for a resurgent 2022-3.

That is all the event news from us this week. If you want to know more, contact an expert below

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