Tag: Meetings Show

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The Meetings Show pledge to tackle food waste

With the help of WRAP’s Guardians of Grub resources, The Meetings Show will be encouraging its exhibitors and event buyers to help cut food waste and take sustainability seriously.

WRAP’s Guardians of Grub campaign aims to tackle the £3.2 billion worth of food wasted each year across the entire hospitality and foodservice sector and aligns with the Courtauld Commitment 2025 and the Mayor of London’s objectives that were outlined in his London Environment Strategy.

As well as tackling food waste, organisers working for parent company Northstar Meetings Group, will continue to challenge suppliers to further increase the use of recyclable and reusable products at the show while educating and encouraging exhibitors not to bring single-use plastic promotional materials and paper onsite.

Part of its 40 hours of free educational sessions will continue to help address the 1.1 million tonnes of food that the UK’s hospitality and foodservice sector throws away each year, 75% of which could have been eaten.

Jack Marczewski, Northstar Meetings Group’s Event Director, said: “Since our first show in 2013, we have been making great strides to further minimise our environmental impact. All of our floor covering is recycled with 50% being reintegrated by our supplier, for example. Yet, we can always do more, not only to help minimise the impact of the show, but also continue to play our part in educating and raising awareness of the tools and resources that are available by providing a stage for the industry to share best practice.”

The announcement has been welcomed by The Meetings Show host venue Olympia London.

Abbey Short, Catering Manager at Olympia London, said: “We are proud of the progress we have made so far with WRAP’s help, having already reduced annual food waste by 17%, since signing up to Guardians of Grub in September 2019. This has also helped increase our overall waste recycling rate to over 98%. Our commitment to eradicating food waste continues; we shall continue to engage with our clients, visitors and colleagues to understand behaviours and work collaboratively until we can say we are a ‘zero food waste’, in addition to a ‘zero to landfill’ venue.”

The capital’s international promotional agency, London & Partners, similarly welcomed the news as it has been working alongside the Mayor of London, WRAP and event tourism organisations, such as The Meetings Show to focus efforts on its key city targets.

Paul Black, Head of Business Events at London & Partners, said: “We are delighted that Olympia London and The Meetings Show are demonstrating strong commitment and action to reducing food waste working with WRAP at this year’s show and other events. The Mayor of London 2018 Environmental Plan has set out clear city targets to achieve in the coming years and the event industry has a fundamental role to play by convening the key people and companies necessary to take positive and immediate action”

Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues said: “We’re delighted to see The Meetings Show joining the fight to reduce food waste. We estimate that food waste, including food packaging, makes up around 30 per cent of London’s municipal waste. The Mayor has set strong targets in his Environment strategy to cut food waste by 50 per cent by 2030.

“Through our London Business Climate Leaders programme we’ve worked with major businesses to help them become more sustainable and cut emissions. It’s great to see the capital’s events and hospitality sectors are joining us to tackle this challenge.”

Marcus Gover, CEO of WRAP, said: “We will not tackle the impact of global warming if we don’t fix the food system, and everyone needs to play their part. If everyone in the hospitality and foodservice industry put as much passion into reducing waste as they do into creating delicious food, it would make a massive difference to cutting the damage food waste is doing to our planet. Guardians of Grub provides the tools to help everyone to reduce food waste without compromising on quality, or customer experience, and save money. It’s a double win; for the environment and for business.”

Meanwhile, Northstar Meetings Group has agreed to a ‘Better Meetings, Better Future’ partnership with Positive Impact and will be looking to introduce similar pledges across its portfolio of events. The company produces more than 80 face-to-face events in 13 countries in retail travel, hospitality, corporate travel, travel technology, sports travel, and the meetings and incentive industry.

For more information about The Meetings Show, visit www.themeetingsshow.com. EDGE Venues will exhibiting – make sure you pop by our stand to say hello!

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Networking highlight valued by millennials, but do not expect them to go it alone

A survey of meeting and event planners carried out by The Meetings Show has found that millennials value networking more highly than any other generation, but are reluctant to attend events on their own.

Overall, 59% of participants in the survey regarded networking events as an important part of their job, but this figure rose to 85% among 18-30-year-olds, who cited making new contacts (80%) and raising their profile in the industry (71%) as the key reasons for attending.

While the younger generation clearly see the value in networking, the majority – 85% – were averse to attending on their own, preferring to go with a colleague or group of colleagues.

More experienced event planners were happier to go it alone, with over a third (36.4%) of 31-45-year-olds preferring to attend by themselves.

Motivations for attending differed among the older generations too, with generating new business leads and meeting with existing industry contacts and friends being cited as key drivers by more than 50% of respondents over 30.

The survey also looked at the logistics which make the ‘perfect’ networking event and found that midweek events were most popular, with 69% preferring events held on Wednesdays, while more than half (52.2%) said they would be willing to travel no more than an hour to attend an event.

When it comes to the format of events, paired or group activities was the most popular option, chosen by 53% of respondents, although for the 31-45 age group appointment-based networking was preferred, while for planners aged 46 and over, seat rotation at a dinner was chosen by 70%.

David Chapple, group event director of The Meetings Show, said: “Networking is one of the core pillars of The Meetings Show, and so we are always reviewing the way we facilitate networking to make sure it’s of the most benefit to our exhibitors and visitors. The findings of the survey have reinforced just how important it is, especially for younger event professionals looking to grow their networks and raise their profile within the industry.

“Walking into a room full of people you don’t know can be daunting, which is why this year we have introduced a new initiative specifically aimed at helping junior event planners. If they have a senior colleague who is attending the show as a hosted buyer, then on the second day of the show the junior colleague will be able to join them for all of their appointments, as well as having access to the hosted buyer lounge, for a less intimidating introduction to the industry.

“With networking at The Meetings Show being provided in a number of different formats, all either on the show floor or within easy reach of Olympia, we hope that all of our attendees will benefit from the opportunity to come together at the show.”

The Meetings Show takes place on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 June at Olympia London. To register, visit www.themeetingsshow.com/register.

Watch and share the official 2019 Show Preview video here – https://youtu.be/vC-VkAP9Qgk.

Taking place on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 June 2019, The Meetings Show is the premier event for the UK inbound and outbound meetings industry, organised by Centaur Live (a division of Centaur Media Plc). Organised by meeting professionals for meeting professionals, it is focused around a large exhibition, networking opportunities and professional education. The hosted buyer programme – the largest in the UK – attracts buyers from the corporate, association, agency and public sectors. The show features destinations from over 50 countries across 6 continents, venues, hotels and key providers of meetings products and services.

The Show includes:

  • The Exhibition: Featuring destinations, venues, hotels and suppliers, the exhibition sits at the heart of The Meetings Show.  
  • Education Programme: Planned by education experts from across the industry, the conference sessions work in harmony with the exhibition and more than 10,000 meetings taking place on the floor.
  • Networking: The Meetings Show offers an unrivalled networking opportunity for event venues, event buyers and suppliers.  For those looking to see more before and after the show, there will also be fam trips visiting key destinations around the UK and internationally.

The Meetings Show has an Advisory Board that meets several times a year both in person and virtually, bringing together their wealth of experience, ideas and strategic understanding of the meetings industry.