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The Best #eventtech Tweets from January 2016

EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

Virtual reality beaches, upmarket event transport services and live event streaming apps: Here s a quick roundup of January s most interesting #eventtech Tweets.

Brilliant Transport

In an interview with Entrepreneur Magazine, the wave-making CEO of industry up-and-comer Brilliant Transport talks about filling the upmarket, hands-on, relationship-focused void left by cheaper one-off services like Uber and Lyft. In other words, if you can t afford a fuck up, this is who you call.

Event Manager Blog reviews EventPilot

All-in-one event production apps don t always do a great job of supporting large-scale events. In January, Event Manager Blog took a look at Event Pilot, the new app purpose-built for large and complex meetings . The details are in the post, but the final verdict reads:

Pros

  • the visual calendar and schedule planning options are outstanding
  • the app is fully accessible offline
  • even the largest of events can go completely paperless

Cons

  • the app file size is bigger than other event apps to account for the offline content
  • no native version of the app for Blackberry or Windows Phone
  • if something goes wrong with a 3rd party integration people can assume it is the app itself, when it is actually an issue with the integrated tool
Using Slack for Engagement

https://twitter.com/eventgrid/status/690009629494005760

Slack is a killer project-based productivity and collaboration webapp. If you ve never had the pleasure, let me assure you my friends, Slack is the bomb-diggety. In this post, Event Grid covers the basic features of using Slack as an event production pro.

Congestion App

Um, yes please?

We ve all been there. The time comes to leave the big game, Black Friday shopping, or some other event that draws a crowd, and everyone is left shuffling their feet due to the inevitable congestion. Fujitsu wants to change that and has begun field trials on a smartphone app that gives incentives to those who would wait it out. Using an artificial intelligence-enhanced system it calls Human-Centric Zinrai, the app aims to find the best candidates for staying behind and the incentive most likely to entice them to do so.

Hunger Games Exhibition

Check out the photo gallery from this immersive, tech-heavy Hunger Games installation in Discovery Times Square.

Virtual Reality Miami

How do you make guests reluctant to leave your experiential activation? Temporarily transport them to a sunny beach in the middle of winter.

Dubbed the Virtual Voyage, Kayak developed a VR experience that transported visitors to sun-soaked Miami for a few minutes. The venue was also themed around the concept of a summer holiday, allowing guests to literally experience the sand beneath their feet as they viewed and listened to the beach.

Redifining Service in the A/V Industry

And he wants to see A/V people take a shower once in a damn while.

Periscope

Periscope, periscope, periscope. Do we hear the rumblings of a new buzzword?

The Periscope app allows anyone with a smartphone to broadcast or view a live stream. The technology to enable instant access to a global audience may be one of the most profound innovations in the event industry over the past decade. Why? Because broadcasting live events takes event marketing outreach to a new dimension.

Capture more leads with RFID

Five Gifts for Every Event Planner s Wish List

EVENT DESIGN

With Christmas coming up, it s time for all you event planners out there to review the year and tally up whether you ve been naughty or nice. Did you organize your time well? Go eco-friendly with your event venues? Take care of your contracts ahead of time? Use local vendors? Refrain from having a meltdown in front of your staff? Avoid having leftover cake for dinner?

Then you, my friend, deserve to reward yourself with a few gifts that will make your life a heck of a lot easier in 2016. Sure, event planner fun might not be the same as normal people fun, but if you like us are familiar with long days spent keying in logistics on your phones, and long nights losing sleep over stage girders, then these doo-dads are just for you.

Event Management Blog: Best Christmas Presents for Event Producers

Drones

Let s start out with something that s actually fun drones. There s been a lot of buzz over the past year or two about the potential uses of drones in large-scale events, from deliveries and advertising to dramatic unveils. Their biggest use, however, seems to be capturing videos and photography. Just strap a camera to those babies, achieve lift-off, and soon you ll have birds-eye shots of your event beyond what you ever imagined. (Don t forget, of course, you need qualified operators able to comply with FAA standards.) Personally, we think it s all just an excuse to play with remote-controlled top helicopters, but so what? We need to get our jollies when we can.

Event Organizer Blog: Best Christmas Presents for Event Planners 2015

Zapier Subscription

Now for something a bit more practical: an app. Generally speaking, it isn t wise to try and impose your (however well-intended) ideas for organization on type A personalities, but believe us when we say any event organizer would happy to receive a subscription to Zapier. A favorite among organizers, this webapp-automation service helps integrate all the different sites and apps that you and your staff may be using (Mailchimp, Twitter, Dropbox, Facebook, Instagram, Todoist, etc.). For example, need the info from your web forms transferred to a Google docs spreadsheet? Zap it. Need your Evernote notes turned into a Trello card? Zap it. Need web-based schedules to appear in your calendar? You get the idea. While the basic version of Zapier is free, the subscription plans, which range from $20-125 per month, can handle a greater number of zaps, more tasks for month, connection to premium apps, task logs and more.

Event Producer Blog: Best Gifts for Event Organizers Book

Getting Things Done

This one s an oldie (relatively speaking) but a goodie. Released in 2002, this self-help book aims to up your productivity while easing your panic attacks through a system based on prioritization and delegation. Written by David Allen, a management consultant and executive coach, Getting Things Done helps you focus your energy strategically and most importantly for people whose work contains a creative element helps you achieve a Zen state that ultimately frees your mind up to work on more important matters.

Event Organizer Blog: Christmas Tech Gifts for Event Planners 2015

iPad Keyboard Case

If there s one thing that defines event planners, it s that they re always on the go, whether that means meeting with clients, liaising with event partners, or inspecting the venue. With all that travel, it just doesn t make sense to lug around a laptop, which is why a lot of planners now rely on iPads. One of the best ways to get the most bang for your buck out of your tablet is by buying a good keyboard case, which functionally transforms it into a lean, mean working machine. Our recommendation is the Belkin QODE Ultimate Pro Keyboard Case for iPad Air 2, which boasts perks like backlit keys, magnets that hold the tablet at two viewing angles, and a detachable keyboard. Whether you re using your tablet to send emails or make a presentation, this case (or one like it) well help multiply its functionality.

Event Organizer Blog: Christmas Gifts for Event Planners

Mindfulness Meditation Course

Over the past few years, scores of studies have been released revealing the benefits of mindfulness meditation, a practice that has the potential not only to reduce your stress levels, but to improve your focus, clarity and creative thinking. For those of us who don t have the time to sit down with a book or take a class, a good option is to take an online course like this one, offered by UCLA, which combines lectures, discussion and practice in a six-week-long session.

The Virtual Audience: Tactics for tackling engagement problems of the future

EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

Hybrid and virtual meetings are becoming commonplace, but both event planners and attending audiences are split on the issue of virtual attendance. In the fourth annual American Express Meetings and Events Report, hybrid meeting technologies in other words, partial in-person attendance coupled with partial virtual audience attendance were names as one of the four empowering digital event solutions for the current year, but at the same time, as reported by Skift:

The AMEX report asked how many meeting planners offer virtual meetings at least 50{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of the time, dependent on the group s size. Attendees were asked how often they attend online events based on the same criteria. Planners responded that they offer an online meeting option at least 50{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of the time for smaller events (10-49 attendees), compared to 42{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3}, 32{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} and 24{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} for medium, large and very large meetings (500 or more attendees), respectively.

Meanwhile, 38{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of attendees participated virtually in at least half of their small meetings, going down to 18{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} for very large meetings. It would seem as a meeting grows in size, the perceived value of attending that meeting increases due to higher levels of available networking opportunities and educational experiences.

A total of 68{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of planners argue that attendees are too easily distracted when they attend virtual meetings, while almost half (45{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3}) of attendees agreed with that view. Furthermore, 74{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of attendees and 85{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of planners responded: In-person meetings are more valuable to me because they allow more social interaction.

So how do you connect in a genuine, authentic way to a virtual audience? We collected a few tips from the experts and from our own experience.

Match the Experience to Real Life

As much as possible, create an experience online that mirrors the attendee s experience in other areas, maintaining a thread of familiarity. You can do this by structuring the virtual content to be similar to television programming the viewer is used to seeing, or by striving to keep virtual content as in line as possible with an in-person experience.

Event Production Blog: Virtual Hybrid Meetings Tips

Keep Segments Short

A study conducted in May of this year posits that the average human attention span around 8 seconds in 2015, down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 is now worse than the average goldfish. If you present your event in long, unbroken streams, you re much more likely to lose your audience than if you attack the content in easily-digestible chunks.

Use tech to keep the audience connected to each other

Not only is it too easy for virtual viewers to get distracted, they can also easily feel disconnected from the events on the ground. The Amex report suggests that event organizers:

Poll the webcast audience live, then push the poll results for the audience to see, and discuss the feedback live. Use polling features that display both percentages and easy-to-read pie graphs, to allow the audience a glimpse of how their fellow remote audience members are responding.

but structure for response delays.

While snappy back-and-forth dialogues between virtual attendees and live presenters sound great in theory, in real life, delays between attendee input and answer can cause disruptions and lower the quality of dialogue. Even if you test drive your technology, it s very hard to get a realistic assessment of how your event networks will respond to a heavy attendance load, so it s best to structure any live-to-virtual back-and-forth so that delay issues are minimized.

Any other tips? Let us know in the comments.

Unique Event Formats: CityDash

EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

This is part of Decibel s series on Unique Event Formats, where we feature off-the-beaten-track approaches to event organization, and some of the more interesting ways event producers are bringing people together.

Everyone has super agent fantasies, man. Don t tell us you ve never wanted to hand someone a manila envelope under a Viennese bridge. Or back-handspring through a laser field. Or evade Storm Trooper ninjas while cracking riddles. You want to do this. I want to do this. All people want to do this. And now you can.

What is it?

CityDash was actually created by the guys over at Fire Hazard, who specialize in high-energy immersive experiences , and who totally did not pay us to write this (no, really. We re just super into it.). With plots inspired by action RPGs, CityDash is a multi-player live action game that blends brainpower with motive power. From the horse s mouth:

[Citydash is] an hour-long team game in which players try to locate hidden codes while hiding from guards. Finding the codes scores points, but being spotted by a guard stops your team from being able to use some of the codes. The game rewards caution and stealth as well as speed and cleverness, and requires teamwork and strong leadership to win. Each team plays with a smartphone logged into the Citydash web site, which provides them with clues about the location of the codes. The codes are printed on small stickers which are hidden in difficult to find places: under benches, on the backs of signs etc.

Decibel actually batted around the idea of creating an IRL immersive experience at one point, but there were ton of moving parts, the planning required was incredibly complex and the project timeline couldn t handle starting from scratch, so we reluctantly set that aside. Seeing what has been done with Citydash, our hats are off to the organizers.

Why it s cool

I m sorry, did you not see the part about evading guards? You need another reason? Ok: how about we throw in chased by the Mad Hatter . CityDash events can be themed, like the upcoming Alice in Wonderland version slated to run in Adelaide ( Peer around corners, duck behind cover, and recruit passers-by to help you outwit and outrun the Red Queen s guards. Will you escape detection.. or lose your head? ), or the May 2015 version with a Sherlock Holmes twist ( Can you stop the evil Professor Moriarty before he destroys England? Will you uncover all of Moriarty s calling cards in time to evade disaster and attend tea? ).

How do I hold one?

Wise to get in touch with the dudes that invented it, wethinks. Yes, you could do your own, call it something else, blah blah blah. But events like this require more than knowing where to put the port-a-johns: the narrative element is key, and the timing is also touchy. So do call in and partner with the experts for consulting and help organizing.

The 12 Best #eventtech Tweets from November

EVENT DESIGN

It s been a big month for event tech, not the least of which reason being that on November 14-16, the Event Tech Awards were held in Paris and Las Vegas, highlighting some of the most exciting innovations in the field from the past year. These days the age of the smart phone we tend to focus on stuff like apps and social media when we talk about event tech. But there s a lot more going on, from smart bracelets and virtual reality to sensory tech and Twitter walls. To try and get a handle on some of the more exciting developments in the world of event tech, we collected 12 of the best #eventtech tweets from the last month. Read on to get the scoop!

Oooh: Five Incredible Tech-Driven Interactive Brand Experiences

EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

We know, we know, in 2015, most immersive brand experience are tech-driven it s hard to find one that isn t but these five feature cutting-edge experiential technology at their core.

Delta at TEDx2015

https://youtu.be/8_VWKEt2e3w

Delta jumped into the TEDx fray with a booth inspired by travel writer Pico Iyer and dubbed Stillness in Motion . The booth was driven by biometric sensors that matched the participant s heart rate to an immersive lighting display, creating a personalized trance-like sensory experience.

Flying Over Wimbeldon

The virtual reality experience launched by Stella Artois allows participants to see Wimbeldon though the eyes of Rufus the Hawk, the event s beloved pigeon-thwarting mascot. While you can participate in the experience online at Flylikerufus.com, Stella Artois also has a stationary location at Waterloo Station in London.

Holographic Tennis

More from the sports-o-verse, American express outdid themselves celebrating the start of the US Open with a holographic wall that allowed attendees to play a live-slash-virtual match with tennis celebs.

From Eventmarketer.com:

Here s how it worked: As fans munched on complimentary eats, they watched Sharapova, James, Puig, Isner and a few lucky members of the crowd step onto the court to use interactive, responsive tennis rackets designed to translate, in real-time, the players every move. As the athletes played a real-life tennis game, every stroke and movement of the ball was transformed into 3D graphics, animations, sounds and video projections. Holographic appearances from tennis legends rounded out the experience.

Kenzo s Interactive Aquarium

Paris-based fashion brand Kenzo educates the public about the dangers of overfishing with its interactive aquarium display window benefiting the Blue Marine Foundation. The window s abundance of virtual fish slowly begin to disappear and are only replenished by the purchase of a t-shirt.

Google Photos Food Truck

Google Photos took to the road with a mobile tour allowing participants to pay for lunch with a picture.

https://youtu.be/r0QSQANxY08

High-tech prototypes: futuristic event design projects guaranteed to make you feel old

EVENT DESIGN, EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

As the maker revolution revs into high-gear, the future of spatial and experiential design is being built by small studios and labs experimenting with a medley of digital and IRL technologies. The results are pretty inspiring.

Cerebral Activations


Standing ovation on this one: way to integrate art, tech, and awareness-raising campaigns that add to an ambiance of empowerment rather than creating an awkward fundraisey vibe. Plus, this is so multi-disciplinary, we re not even sure what to call it. Art for a cause? Brand activations with lasers?

When a loved one gets cancer and you re not a doctor or a superhero you quickly feel like a bystander. And that feels S*! {04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3}# . With this punching bag we can step in the ring and join their fight. Punching cancer in the cells to raise funds for cancer research. Watch the film above.

Love. Check out more about this wicked project at interactivepunchbag.com.

Digital Wallpaper


The guys at Vienna-based design studio Strukt took projection-mapping small scale, turning an office into a digital disco after hours by projecting beams of light onto existing wall features. Naturally, Pac Man was also involved.

Or you could just, you know, turn the attendees themselves into wallpaper:

Interactive Flowers


Standard bouquets? What-ev-er. These two projects merge nature with interactivity. The first is a touch-reactive, Arduino-powered flower prototype that reacts to touch by opening and closing, much like the touch-me-not plant. The has been made using textiles and plastic parts. The second, Adaptive Bloom , is perhaps a little more avant garde a responsive art wall of floral radness.

Interactive Surfaces


Built for a Dresden exhibition all the way back in 2009, this interactive statistical strip merges physical design features with digital projection for flawless public data presentation.

On behalf of the German Hygiene-Museum Dresden, ART+COM has developed a statistics strip for the exhibition Work. Meaning and Worry to visualise and process large volumes of data and facts. Besides, seven interactive media stations with projections are integrated into the strip, where visitors can change different parameters by turning knobs and thus retrieve various data. 50 small monitors contrast the figures on the wall with individual perspectives: using touch screens, interviews with over 100 people are embedded into the statistics strip.

IBTM: Top Ten Tech Innovations Set to Transform the Events Industry

EVENT INDUSTRY

Event professionals from around the globe recently flew to Barcelona for IBTM World, an annual three-day conference that bills itself as the leading global event for the meetings and events industry. There, the more-than 15,000 participants got the chance to network, share knowledge and resources and take in exhibitions. It s a nice gig if you can get it for those of us who weren t able to make it, though, IBTM has something else to offer: A list of the top ten tech innovations that are transforming the events industry. Read on to learn about the best apps, solutions and technologies for designing your perfect event.

InitLive

The winner of this year s Technology and Innovation Watch Award, InitLive is a mobile app that works in tandem with an online cloud service to facilitate scheduling and communication between managers and staff. This clever little guy is able to automatically adjust staff schedules around conflicts as they arise and notify designated people at the appropriate time of their meeting or task. For those of you who are sick of running around, this is a great tool for organizing staff and volunteers.

EventPilot

This conference app offers instant offline access to meeting and event programs, as well as daily schedule building, a powerpoint slide viewer, a note-taking function, CME credit tracking and more. The app is specially designed for medical and scientific meetings that feature a number of information-rich presentations.

Loopd Inc.

Aimed at corporate events, this system relies on beacons placed around the event space, chips embedded in conference badges and a mobile app to track attendees physical location as they move through the event. At the end of the day, attendees can see where they spent their time and access related documents for each point, while marketers can see who visited their booths. It s great for attendees, because they won t have to constantly take notes or exchange business cards, and for vendors who want to follow up with potential customers or gather data for next time.

Interactio

Forget all the headaches that come with translation headsets this app does away with them by allowing attendees to listen to translations for talks on their phones or tablets. Users can simply select their language and plug in to live translations from interpreters on-site.

EventCollab

Built by professional event planners, EventCollab provides a cloud-based platform for event teams to communicate and share info such as schedules, documents and to-do lists. Organizers can create circles for each group, both in and outside their company, who they need to work with and access information about where each group is work-wise at a glance.

CDEP

Sick of endlessly downloading and uploading info from one database to another? Then plug into CDEP (which stands for Conference Data Exchange Protocol), a universal language for data exchange created by Slidebox that allows different devices and technologies (for instance, a registration database, presentation software and mobile app) to sync up their data.

The Mash Machine

Created by The Mo Joes, the Mash Machine is a nifty little device through which attendees can create music together. The intuitive interface is made up of tabletop and blocks, each of which represents a snippet of sound that can be combined and re-combined as you move the blocks around on the tabletop. The Mash Machine works as an ice breaker, a tool for team building, an interactive DJing device and more.

Path Event Learning Platform

This web-based learning management system created by Blue Sky Broadcast allows organizers to post content from educational events, including lecture recordings, e-learning presentations, and live webcasts for users to access on multiple devices. It also allows for online registration and reminders for virtual training programs.

SocialPoint Audience Engagement Platform

Want to up your audience engagement? Then check out this cloud-based software, which turns attendees into active participants by helping to facilitate live polling, Q&A sessions, surveys and more. You can even get your audience directly engaged with the material by turning it into a trivia game they can play on their phones. Pretty neat!

AroundThen

Help facilitate networking among attendees with this app, which uses Bluetooth to help users find, connect with and message one another. Users can even connect after the event through location-based networking. The app also offers features like auto check-in, delegate badge printing, moderator messaging for audience participation and more.

The 5 Most Terrifying Experiential Marketing Vehicles of All Time

LOL, MOBILE MEDIA

No, man. Promotional vehicles are not whimsical client engagement tools. They re harbingers of fiery doom. They re existential crises imbued with motive force. Behold:

Event Production Blog: Oscar Meyer Wienermobile Mobile Media Vehiles

The Wienermobile

Look, hot dogs are delicious, OK? No one around here s saying otherwise. But there s a certain amount of willful ignorance involved. Every time you wrap your lips around an over-processed sausage, your brain is making a subconscious command decision to suppress questions like, Are there horses in this? and Why is it the color of tonsils? But one eyeful of the Wienermobile and your cerebral cortex is flooded with images of SOMETHING. It s a giant, glossy, plastic intestine stuffed with glossy, plastic flesh and driven by a crack team of wiener cultists that reportedly have ties to US congress:

The hotdogger position of driving the Wienermobile is open to U.S. citizens, and the job lasts from the first of June until the following first of June. Only college seniors who are about to graduate are eligible. Both current hotdoggers and Oscar Mayer recruiters visit college campuses across the country in search of the next round of hotdoggers. Candidates are screened from an average of 2000 applicants. Every March, a pool of thirty final-round candidates are brought to Kraft Foods and Oscar Mayer headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, for interviews. Each vehicle can hold two hotdoggers, and twelve people are chosen. Currently there are about 300 hotdogger alumni. U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan was not a hotdogger, but reportedly drove the Wienermobile one time as a guest during a summer job as a Kraft sales representative.

Woah.

Event Production Blog: Terrifying Experiential Vehicles
Photo via Eventxchange.biz

Meow Mix Mobile

So, we want it to look a little like an acid-induced hallucination from the Disney adaptation of a popular Victorian children s novel, but we also want its eyes to fix passersby with an accusing, manic stare that bathes the darkest reaches of the soul in the floodlights of judgement, slavering gleefully in anticipation of their fall from grace. Like a real cat. Cool?

Event Production Blog: Experiential Marketing Vehicles

Planters NUTmobile

So, basically:

201601-road-show-vechiles-nutmobile-histk

Avoid spending your summer fighting ants in the backyard by following the NUTmobile on Twitter.

Best DC Event Production Companies: Decibel Mangement

City Bus Snake Wrap Copenhagen Zoo

You know what I don t have enough of in my life? Violent reminders of my mortality. What I want what I think most people want, really is a hint that civilization s dominion over nature is little more than a comforting delusion, and that we re all really one meteor strike away from returning to the boiling jungles from which we once emerged.

Event Management Blog: Event Management Humor

Butagaz Mobile Gas Tank

This shiny mound of fiery death on wheels was built in 1962 as a promotional vehicle for the butane distribution company Butagaz, and made its first appearance at the Tour de France. I can t even look at this thing without bracing for the inevitable explosion. Maybe, like, pre-Bruce Willis, when we all still believed that gas tanks on trucks could remain inert during transport, maybe in those golden days, you could get away with marketing via an oversized explosive device at a major sporting event, but this is a no-no in a post-Die Hard world.

It Isn t Easy Being Green: How to Make Your Conference More Sustainable

EVENT INDUSTRY

The sustainability movement has gotten seriously trendy over the past few years so much so that we sometimes forget there s more to it than buying bamboo shoes or Uber-ing a hybrid. Properly applied, sustainability strategies can have a big impact, both in terms of reducing your event s carbon footprint and raising awareness among attendees. Read on for four great ways to help make your conference a little or a lot greener. https://unsplash.com/photos/5tpf6dSY6WU

Event Production Blog: Use Recyclable Paper at Events

Do Away with Disposables

Among the biggest sources of waste at large-scale conferences is the sheer volume of paper that gets used, from invitations to nametags, signs, printed programs, and more. Luckily, we live in an age when technology offers an easy solution for paper-free events. For example, you can replace invitations with e-vites, employ reusable nametags, and use an app for the meeting s agenda rather than printing it on handouts or you can simply email the info out ahead of time. Sometimes, of course, handouts are unavoidable. In that case, you can take a few measures to reduce your paper waste. For example, use recycled paper for your handouts, print information on both sides, and don t pre-stuff bags allow attendees to choose which print-outs they need. Best case scenario, though, you re able to cut out 99{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of your paper use. After all, everyone has smart phones these days why not put them to use?

Event Production Blog: Green Conferences airplanes

Location, Location, Location

Another great way to reduce the carbon footprint of your event is minimizing the amount of travel required for your attendees. We know, we know you d love to book your next conference in Hawaii, but Mother Nature will thank you for making a more practical choice. Aim to hold your event in a city that is relatively central for the majority of your attendees and served by direct flights. And don t forget local travel arrange for hotels nearby the event space so that attendees have the option to either walk there back every day or take public transportation. For longer commutes, consider providing hybrid cars or other low-/non-polluting vehicles to shuttles your guests to and fro.

Event Production Blog: Educate Conference Attendees

Educate Your Attendees

If any of this is going to work in the first place, you ll need to lay the groundwork by raising awareness among your attendees that this is a specifically green conference. This isn t just good PR it ll help you accomplish your sustainability goals by getting everyone on the same page as to what you re doing and how they can help. In your communications with attendees, make sure to emphasize a few specific measures that you re taking and enlist their help. For instance, set up an electronic registration and check-in system to avoid paper waste; get people to download agendas ahead of time to reduce the need for printouts; draw guests attention to recycling bins, and encourage them to opt for reusable drinking containers rather than water bottles; offer rewards for carpooling or taking public transportation rather than driving. You get the idea.

201511-green-conferences-food

Reduce Food Waste From Beginning to End

We re all guilty of it: overloading our plates just because, taking two bites of something and then leaving it to languish. While you can t always control how much food people pile on their plates, you can make them aware of food waste as an issue by mentioning it as a focus in your sustainability goals and providing composting bins alongside the trash and recycling. Beforehand, take a look at the data from past events to try and gauge how much food you should order, and have a list of local charities or food banks where you can donate leftovers. And don t forget the logistics! Further reduce your carbon footprint by ordering from caterers who provide seasonal, locally produced menus and using reusable plates and silverware rather than disposable.

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