No Swag Left Behind......

Recently, I had the opportunity to read a blog post from a gal named Jen , author of the blog “The Martha Project” titled, “So you are going to be hosting Blogher at your hotel……”

Jen penned an…….let’s call it  “instructional” post for the Chicago Sheraton to assist them with catering to the needs of the 2013 Blogher Conference attendees. Her post has sparked a firestorm of comments and a wee bit of a controversy.  

One piece of advice jumped off the page and sadly….provoked a physical reaction that caused me to spill my morning coffee.

I love my morning coffee.

What could possibly have caused such a reaction?

This:

 

Who knew?

Not me.

I had no clue that there were still conferences that did that kind of thing. I had no clue that there were still conferences where attendees would receive so much “swag” that they would have to leave three feet of “stuff” stacked in their closet with a note explaining that housekeeping could have it.  If you don’t want your crap….what makes you think that Housekeeping does? And why does it suddenly become the responsibility of Housekeeping?

That was the comment that made me spill me precious java.

As a sustainable meeting planner, swag is looked at very carefully, very thoughtfully. I am a wee bit horrified that a high level event such as Blogher may not have a policy in place to limit wasteful/unwanted swag. And while we are on the subject of policy……Jen advises that the hotel should come up “….with a policy for items left behind in the room for housekeeping”.

Ummmmm…..no.

The Blogher conference organizers should be creating the policy surrounding swag and communicating that policy to expo or tradeshow participants. If Blogher already has a policy surround swag then.....the Blogher conference attendees should have an ethical policy NOT to accept items that they will not use or items that will simply get left in their hotel room for Housekeeping to manage or dispose.

There is a silver lining…..If the attendee’s of Blogher are the “shopping powerhouse of the family”, then this conference has a tremendous opportunity to influence behavior.

YAY!!!! OPPORTUNITY!!!!

I know many sustainable meeting planners who would LOVE the opportunity to green the Blogher conference….myself included.

After I cleaned up my coffee and poured a fresh cup, I immediately sent this tweet to Heidi Thorne. 

Heidi is a promotional products marketing expert and speaker and has a background in the tradeshow and hospitality industries. She is also editor of the Promo With Purpose Today blog and author of SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business. 

Heidi is also a friend and I knew that she would have something to contribute to this conversation:

I totally agree that it is not the hotel's responsibility to deal with the overabundance of swag, it's the conference's. Being from a hotel background, I recognize that this creates a difficult scenario for the Housekeeping Department. Housekeeping personnel are instructed not to mess with guests' belongings. Say the Housekeeping Manager observes one of the staff walking out with a bunch of these items (since Jen says they were nice). Was it given to the staffer? Or stolen? It puts the Housekeeping staff in a difficult position.

In Jen's defense, I understand the problem. I've been to these types of affairs myself and come home with a TON of swag that I don't know what to do with. What I usually do is donate it to our local charities. But for those who are traveling by air and have to drag the swag home, it's a problem.

What I'd suggest is a "Share the Swag" collection bin near the exits of the conference on each day. Since it appears that many of the items were of good quality, they could be donated to a local charity, maybe a women's shelter. The charity may even agree to pick up the items in exchange for some plugs during the conference or even a donation. Otherwise, the conference could box them up and ship them to the charity. True, sponsors may be a bit unsettled by this plan. But alerting them in advance of the program may make them think twice about what they are giving away.

It is also the conference's duty to guide sponsors on what is appropriate for the group. Conferences can even limit the amount and type of swag that is distributed, selling those limited items as sponsorships. For example, a conference could have a T shirt sponsor, a water bottle refreshment sponsor, etc. I've observed a couple of events over the years who have done this and I think it's the alternative to a giant bag o' swag that no one wants. It also eliminates the duplication of items. No one needs three water bottles.

Thanks Heidi! You have provided some great tips. Thanks to Jen from "The Martha Project" for sparking so many different conversations about the importance of rethinking giveaways. The time for deciding what to do about the swag is BEFORE the event, not during.

Judy

Are you Fired Up?

The 2013 GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference is literally right around the corner and I have to tell you......I am fired up!

I have said it before and I will say it again, the annual GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference is where I look to to receive my shot of Vitamin Green and this year is no different.

The lineup of speakers is is basically a "who's who" in the sustainable event industry. They even included lil ol' me on that list and for that, I am truly humbled.

Excited much? Yup....you could say that. How many opportunities do we have to spend time with some of the Sustainable Meeting and Event Industry most knowledgeable and connected individuals. Folks like Jaime Nack and Tahira Endean - event professionals who come with a boatload of experience.

I hear we are also going to "Wake the Tiger" with Joe Oliver which isn't as scary as it sounds unless of course...someone brings a real tiger #notlikely

This is big!

This is massive!

Maybe I should sit down before I hurt myself.

My point is (when I am really excited, it takes me awhile to make it) I sense great things are going to happen at the 2013 GMIC Sustainable Meeting Conference - Look out Chicago! We are going to Create Sparks!

Judy

Need a bit of VITAMIN GREEN in 2013?

I look forward to attending the GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference every year! I hope to see you in Chicago where we will be Creating Sparks!

Pens In Space

We have all heard the “space pen” pseudo legend: a kind of/sort of/trueish story passed down for generations since the 1960’s when we began sending folks to the moon. A story that grew and changed over the years until it finally became an uber ridiculous example of some overachieving agency spending millions of dollars and countless hours developing a pen that writes in zero-gravity.

The question still remains: why not use a pencil?

Did the early astronauts need to sign legal documents while in space or was it simply a case of someone not seeing the forest for the trees? Was it an overwhelming urge to improve on something that didn’t really need improving?

Perhaps it was the “simple equals boring” theory.

Why do we insist on over-thinking? We spend a lot of time, resources and energy trying to determine whether or not the zebra has white stripes on a black background or black stripes on a white background. Why not just enjoy the zebra for the beauty that it is, and focus our energy somewhere more worthy?

In our zeal to constantly be improving, evolving and changing, we sometimes (often) miss the point.

Yup…..we could have used a pencil.

There is something strange happening in the green meeting industry, a pre-epidemic of sorts where reduce, reuse and recycle is being trumped by “redesign" (imagine rethink/repurpose injected with performance enhancing drugs).

Why?

The beauty of sustainability is that it needs little, if any, embellishment. It needs no bedazzling. It will always work in zero-gravity.

It requires commitment. It requires partnership. It requires communication. It requires education. It requires persistence. It doesn’t always require a label that says, “NEW and IMPROVED”.

How can we resist the urge to over-think?????......resist the urge to throw glue all over the project and glitter the crap out of it (metaphorically speaking of course….)

How can we resist the urge to “redesign” when “rethink” is the most appropriate R to use?

Here are some that I came up with – Keeping Sustainability Simple (KSS):

1. Communicate your skills and abilities early in the planning process – if you are aware of a strategy that is proven, if you have valuable knowledge to share that will help streamline a process – share it with your team. You can convince them that this time, the space pen is unnecessary.
2. Reduce – Ask yourself: Do you need it? Is it necessary? Can it be combined with something else? Can it be replaced with a product or service having less of an environmental footrprint?
3. Reuse – Can I use it again?
4. Recycle – What am I going to do with it when the event is over? Can it be recycled?
5. Repurpose – One example: Creating conference bags out of old vinyl signage
6. Every now and then….get back in the box – There has been so much emphasis on thinking outside of the box that honestly…..there is no one left in the box anymore. And do you know what? That is where we keep the pencils.......and they write just fine

Judy

After the Final Rose

Ahem (clears throat…shuffles nervously) my name is Judy and I am a reality show junkie. I have watched: American Idol (but generally just the audition stage), The Celebrity Apprentice, The Amazing Race, Top Chef, Top Chef Canada, Top Chef Just Desserts, Project Runway, Project Runway All Stars, America’s Next Top Model, Britain’s Next Top Model, Australia’s Next Top Model and Canada’s Next Top Model.

Weekly, I may tune in to watch those zany Kardashians as they take New York, L.A. and Miami and I will admit to watching Kim marry Whatshisname. I cry when they Say Yes to the Dress in New York and Atlanta and I root for my favourite nuptials during Four Weddings and Four Weddings Canada. I love watching Tabatha take over a salon each week and last but not least…..I have sat in judgement of The Bachelor and Bachelorette wherein a teeny, weeny part of me hoped upon a rainbow that the Bachelor franchise would head north (and yes, wishes do come true).

It can safely and accurately be established that I watch a myriad of reality shows, but would like it to be known that I draw the line at the Jersey Shore, have lost interest in Survivor and refuse to watch Hoarders, Intervention and anything else that involves creepy obsessions lest I begin identifying mine.

56% of my PVR is filled with reality television programming that I haven't enough time to watch. Frankly....there aren't enough hours in a day/week/year.

Don’t judge me.

I am pretty sure that I love reality television for the same reason that I love planning meetings and events. Anything can happen!

Why did I tell you any of the above? Well….unlike some of my colleagues who do fancy, schmancy research for their blog posts or perhaps....book learnin'…I prefer to fall back on what I am familiar.

Reality Television.....yup, that old chestnut.

I know reality television. So…sit back and relax because I am going to take the giant leap of comparing post project wrap up with the “After the Final Rose” ceremony on The Bachelor. I lean on my strengths people…I lean on my strengths.

“After the Final Rose” ceremony is the part of the Bachelor show where Host, Chris Harrison sits down with all the gals who were unsuccessful in luring/baiting/manipulating the Bachelor. Now…..any reality television producer will tell you that they don’t go into these without having a pretty good idea of what might happen, what might be said...they have a goal. In fact, I think they cast for these shows in such a way that they have a pretty good idea what will work aka “what conflicts” will develop.

Event planners and producers also go into each project with goals and objectives. They plan their events in such a way that they have a pretty good idea what will work and the conflicts that they will avoid. Decisions are made early on to ensure that different aspects can be measured post-event. They are banking on this.

You can’t create an event or produce the event and then go back and say, “I would like to measure the impact of this or that”….unless you have a time machine (which would be pretty darn cool), you simply cannot do that.

Last year I was fortunate enough to team up with Shawna McKinley from MeetGreen (Shawna also has a great personal blog here) as well as the group from QuickMobile to design and create a sustainability game called Get Your Green On [GYGO] which would then be embedded into the Event Camp Vancouver mobile app. (Event Camp Vancouver was the brainchild of Tahira Endean, a Dreamer/Doer extraordinaire).

Going forward, both Shawna and I knew that we wouldn’t be satisfied with just creating the game and then walking away afterward. We both love data too much…eek! Luckily, we were working with an amazing team from QuickMobile who completely understood what we wanted….what we needed.

Recently we were asked, “when did you start working on the Get Your Green On wrap up?” I replied, “before the event began”.

From the very first meeting, and as we proceeded to design the game challenges, we considered the possible outcomes. For example: Check in Codes could be tracked back and tallied according to sponsors, vegetarian meals could be calculated, we could measure how much water was conserved by our attendees through their use and documentation of how many minutes they showered each day (we provided shower timers).

We didn’t waste an opportunity….we didn’t waste a game challenge.

Which brings me to today and not unlike the “After the Final Rose” ceremony, we have gone back and looked over the game carefully, trying our level best to document our experience in such a way that you may find it enlightening and inspiring.

If you are interested in downloading a copy of the Get Your Green On White Paper – I should probably ask…..

Will you accept this rose?

Judy

I'll trade you!

After reading the blog post of Heidi Thorne of Promo with Purpose Today about Promotional Tradeshow Lanyards - How to save money and go green, I was inspired to write one of my own which I think (hope) complements it.

The badgeholder and lanyard....they are simply a given for conferences and events. We have come a long way in greening that industry with lanyards made from recycled pop bottles and badgeholders made from corn, but how can we take this one step further? Heidi talks about asking attendee's to give back their badgeholders at the end of the event. Some relinquish theirs without even asking, others seem to want to hold onto them. What can we do to encourage more attendee's to hand theirs back which ultimately addresses the first and second "R" - Reduce and Reuse (we can use them again at the next event).

Trade the attendee something for their lanyard! At one of my events I asked the caterer to bring in freshly baked chocolate chip cookies when there were only 10 minutes remaining to the event. The smell was heavenly and everyone's mouth was watering. Standing at the exit, our staff "exchanged" or "traded" a cookie for a badgeholder and lanyard. We got over 80% back!

Have a draw! Advertise throughout the event that there will be a draw from those who hand in their badgeholders/lanyards. At the exit, have containers clearly marked for that purpose. We have given away such things as an IPOD, but wouldn't a Kindle be great!

Heidi was right about being fairly generic with the lettering on the lanyard. That way, you can reuse it at any future event.

If you have personally collected a number of badgeholders and lanyards when attending conferences and events, give them away to non-profit groups in your community to use for their smaller events. They often need badgeholders for support groups and seminars.

Judy K

I spy with my green eyes....

"Clean the World".....I met a representative of Clean the World at a conference I attended in February. They have an amazing program operating in the states. Of particular interest to me is the soap recycling program. We have all used those little hotel soaps and thought...wow, what waste we are generating, there has to be a better way. (It is estimated that 2 million bars of soap end up in landfills each year - source National Geographic)

There is a better way and Clean the World has a wonderful soap recycling program. Working with hospitality partners to educate their staff on the soap and shampoo program, they provide bins which housekeeping uses to deposit collected soap. They use two recycling methods, re-batching and sterilization.

Rebatching applies to moderate/heavily used bars. Soap is cooked to remove all impurities and reformed into 2-ounce bars.

For the remaining 90% of slightly used bars, the soap soaks in a sanitizing solution and then treated with a steam/pressure combination. It is then tested for pH level and cooled for packaging.

For green meeting planners, this is another way for you to be socially responsible. Clean the World donation stations can be set up at the hotels where your attendees will deposit their bathroom amenities at the end of the day.

Your attendees get to see first hand how this program impacts the environment and helps save lives:

After the meeting, Clean the World will provide the actual totals of the donated items that were collected during the event and the number of families that will benefit due to the organization’s participation in the program.

More information about the program can be accessed at www.cleantheworld.org

They also have a facebook page and a channel on Youtube. I am in the process of finding out if their operations extend to Canada....will keep you posted.