EVENTIT, Scotland’s only trade show for business events, meetings, incentives and hospitality, has announced the efforts it has gone to in order to meet its sustainability goals.
The theme of this year’s event is sustainability and well-being, and while EVENTIT’s sustainability journey is just beginning, this year’s conference will see the show making a big effort to improve its sustainability and encourage others to do so too.
EVENTIT has partnerships with businesses who have sustainability right at their very core.
Judith Wilson, events director at EVENTIT, said: “The best way for the events industry to move forward in the right way is for it to become a much more sustainable industry. Events can often create a lot of unnecessary waste, and we want to help the industry understand specific ways to target this and to become more sustainable.
What better time to show how events can become more sustainable than at a showcase attended by people from all over the UK and beyond, who can put these sustainability methods into practice.”
The event will be held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), who earlier this year announced a 5-year partnership with RSPB Scotland, the UK’s largest nature conservation charity, to support peatland restoration in Scotland.
The partnership, which is part of the EICC’s commitment to mitigate operation impact associated with holding large scale events, will see £1 for every conference delegate, and 50p for every dinner guest attendee go to RSPB Scotland.
EICC will provide EVENTIT with an Impact report detailing its CO2 emissions to see if there has been an improvement on 2021 and to help the team plan for future improvements.
Event Cycle take unwanted event waste and give it a second life. They repurpose and redistribute items that are no longer needed to charities and community groups as well as back into the events industry.
On the day of the event, EVENTIT has pledged to have water dispensers as an alternative to plastic bottles and has asked all its exhibitors not to hand out delegate bags. There will be a virtual exhibitor handbook that can be accessed via a QR code and will ensure that there are sustainable food options available. EVENTIT continues to partner with catering company Leith’s, who are introducing new sustainable menus that incorporate more plant-based, locally sourced ingredients and who are looking into a wide variety of ways to reduce their food waste.
EVENTIT will also have a Quiet Room, a safe and accessible space that enhances an individual event experience by providing a gentle mental space away from the stimulation of events.
All exhibitors have been asked to use reusable and/or recyclable materials, to use QR codes as an alternative to printed leaflets and not to provide delegate giveaways as another way to reduce waste.
Sustainability is built into the upcoming EVENTIT FAM trip, which offers first-class rail travel from London, in partnership with Avanti West Coast and LNER, as a sustainable alternative to flying or driving. Unbaggaged will collect luggage at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station to enable visitors to walk between destinations and not have to carry heavy luggage with them, or get a taxi somewhere.
The FAM trip tour guides are from Invisible Cities, a social enterprise that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides within their city.
EVENTIT, open to all MICE professionals, is being held on 13 September at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and will feature more than 65 event suppliers from across the UK and beyond including ICC Belfast, Butlin’s Conference & Events, Eventsforce, Vii, Geronimo Sailing and Visit Inverness Loch Ness.
For more information on EVENTIT or to register your attendance please visit https://eventit.org.uk/