More than 120 event planners are attending the Sustainable Events Summit today (18th February) at 30 Euston Square in London. The event will focus on "Who is doing what, how and why?", covering the sustainability practices adopted by event planners in their live events.
Nestle's head of sustainability Inder Poonaji, Coffee Republic's founder Sahar Hashemi and Cori Drogemuller, external communications manager of Cisco will be taking part in a debate on 'Why sustainability makes business sense' chaired by C&IT news editor Alison Ledger.
Hewlett-Packard head of events Jane Culcheth-Beard and Innocent head of creative Dan Germain will also be speaking at the event.
The Sustainable Events Summit was created through a partnership between agencies Smyle and Positive Impact, with support from a variety of other businesses and industry bodies.
In a letter to Rick Stainton MD of the Smyle agency and SES co-founder, Mayor Boris Johnson said: “The event will build on the learning from last year and of course build on the legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which showcased best practice knowledge and expertise to the UK events industry.”
The Mayor praised the 2013 event for creating a “chance for a wide range of global brands to come together, share knowledge and best practice and make sure that sustainability continues to be an integral part of staging future events.”
Corporate representatives from Unilever, Barclays, Fremantle Media Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, FICO, EY, and Tata are all expected to attend SES.
Rick Stainton said that the SES was more than just an event to raise the profile of sustainability in the events industry: “SES has been contributing hugely to our strategy at Smyle and has enabled us to have new and rewarding conversations with brands.
“The event has allowed Smyle’s team to develop and think differently about how events encompass sustainability, thus empowering the team to bring new, fresh and creative ways of thinking to our clients’ live experiences.”
