Reduce, reuse, and recycle should be your mantra as a meeting planner, but there are other ways to make a difference in the community where you are holding your event. Many times you can relate your activities directly to a community concern, or even a local crisis.   

Let’s return to your event with 100 participants. You are booking a weekend conference for luthiers, makers of stringed instruments (including guitars). Some will involve demonstrations, and instruments will be used for these. When they are done putting the finishing touches on a violin, it may be substandard for professionals simply because it was used in a rough demo.

Nearby the public schools in this town are suffering for funding, and have had to cut back on arts programs. You could make arrangements for these demo instruments to be donated to local arts programs, and even have the schools bring instruments from their stock for repairs to help the attendees get some hands on experience with maintenance.

That is only one of many ways you can become a force for good as an event planner. Other ways you can offer something to local communities is to donate leftover items to charities that could use them, possibly arrange to have leftover boxed lunches delivered to a homeless shelter immediately after the meal, or see how your groups can offer some service to the nearby neighborhoods.

Of course, as with anything else it will require research. You will have to read some news articles about the area to get your best ideas. Maybe you will need to ask someone in an official capacity how you can benefit the general population in the area immediately surrounding the event. The impact of your event–and consequently your impact on your client–will be positive and uplifting, making it a win-win-win situation for your client, you, and the community.