Louisa Daley talks to Anita Howard, co-founder, ICE and Karen Carter, director of enterprise and marketing for Europe, Cvent, about ICE’s 2021 Benchmarking Report and how event professionals can be more sustainable.
ICE, the global community of corporate event planners, has recently shared its annual benchmarking report which focuses on the trends and developments within the corporate events sector, with sustainability being one of them.
To find out more, we spoke to Anita Howard, co-founder, ICE and Karen Carter, director of enterprise and marketing for Europe, Cvent at Cvent CONNECT 2021.
Louisa Daley: What did the 2021 ICE Report find in terms of sustainability, has it become an issue that event organisers are now looking to tackle?
Anita Howard: The report found that the most commonly cited challenge, by three out of four event planners, is to tackle the sustainability of their events. About a year ago, event planners were scared of the cost of sustainability and wondered if it was possible to be on the agenda at all. So, the ICE Benchmarking research came at a brilliant time. It’s really wonderful to see that everyone in the corporate world is thinking about how to combat sustainability because they want it and they need it, it’s in their DNA now.
Louisa Daley: Can you share some best practice for creating a more sustainable future?
Anita Howard: ICE have set up a portal where you can share your sustainable initiatives. There is the big picture and there is the small picture. We want people to start out with the small picture initially, as everyone’s got to start somewhere and there’s other groups that can think of the bigger stuff. It’s quite exciting that you can share these small things.
Karen Carter: A lot of organisations now are putting sustainability leaders in because at the moment, we don’t have those people in senior levels that are going to push for change. Those at higher levels need to get involved with driving sustainability. You also hear how change happens at grassroots and we are seeing that with the new generation coming in, as they care even more about sustainability and saving the planet.
Louisa Daley: Does sustainability have to be expensive? Can companies afford to make these changes before 2030?
Anita Howard: There are two sides to this. A lot of the things out there can become very expensive, so people get steered away from it. I think sustainability can actually be very cheap. It’s not where it was four years ago. I think the more we share, things could get cheaper. It’s about looking at the little things, like sharing sustainable graphics.
Karen Carter: I would flip it and say, can we afford not to? Initial costs may be high, but we need to look at the long term. If you are a company that’s investing in sustainable tools, certain things you only have to buy once and then you can reuse it.
ICE’S 2021 Benchmarking Report is sponsored by Cvent.
To read more about the report, click here.
