Most people want to perform well at their jobs. It makes a difference in their paychecks, their futures, and their lives. But to make a difference in someone else’s life is important to many people, too. A meeting planner has the power not only to do that as an individual, but also as a professional. In fact, what a meeting planner does with just one meeting can make a huge impact on the community surrounding the event. This makes the concepts of “reduce, reuse, recycle” a critical component of his or her job.
The first step of this for meeting planners is reduce. This does not mean where can you cut corners, but where can you cut costs as well as waste. For instance, do the conference participants really need a plastic bag full of coupons for local restaurants and key chains with the event title on them? Probably not. Many conferences now use canvas bags, but they are slim and do not hold much. You might increase the sales of vendors who attend as well as provide a reusable resource by providing grocery-sized canvas bags. You could also eliminate any plastic gimmicky-looking doodads in favor of energy bars. Read the rest of this entry »