Reinventing the Wheel

The three-arrow logo which has come to symbolize, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle needs a makeover.  Somewhere in this concentric circle, we need to integrate, Rethink.  Rethink, before any of the other "R"s.

Hasn't the hospitality industry been rethinking our events lately anyway?  Given the current economic, societal and environmental atmosphere, we as meeting professionals still have a need to connect, educate and inform our participants.   Enter such strategies such as virtual meetings, hybrid meetings, meeting apps and social media.  The meetings industry has reinvented the toolbox more in the past several years than during any period in my entire thirty years of planning experience.

So it is with sustainable meetings.  Early in the event production proces, reinvent how your meetings are being managed with an environmental filter.  Run all of your decisions through the Rethink filter by asking these questions:

• Is it necessary to do this?
• Is there a better way to achieve the same objectives?
• Have we reviewed our options in the last six months?
• If the green option costs money, can we recoup that cost somewhere else?
• What other use could it have?
• How will this event reflect the values of my organization?

In our experience, the last question on this list is the one corporations are concentrating on.  How a corporation is perceived through their events has become a part of the risk management equation.  The values of an organization are becoming more and more transparent, never more so than during a sponsored event.

Rethink as if your professional and personal survival depend on it...they might.