Brighton - The Brighton Centre

© The Brighton Centre

Event name: Sustainable Events: The Future and You
Organiser: The Brighton Centre, in association with the ABPCO, Conference News and AVT Connect
Venue: Brighton Centre
Number attends: 60 conference and event organisers
Date of event: 5 June 2013

Why was the destination chosen?
 
The Brighton Centre is committed to reducing the environmental impact of events and making a positive contribution to people’s lives and the local economy. The Centre’s Sustainable Events Programme uses two world class International Standards for Environmental Management (ISO 14001) and Sustainable Events (ISO 20121). The Centre is part of The Sustainable Events Programme set up by Brighton & Hove City Council, to support organisers and help them make events more environmentally friendly. Following an extensive £1million refurbishment to its facilities, The Centre was the ideal venue for this event, having been effectively ‘upcycled’ to meet the needs of today’s event organiser. The conference team at the Brighton Centre led a tour of the recent renovations around the Centre to demonstrate the improvements made to enhance the venue's sustainability. Visitors were shown how new daylight mimicking LED lighting has improved the feel of the space as well as reducing electricity use by 85%.

The objective of the event

© The Brighton Centre

The one-day event was designed to provide conference and exhibition organisers with the opportunity to share insights, experiences and learn best practice on how to plan and run an event that minimises impact on the environment at the same time as generating greater excitement, better audience engagement and improved value for money. The event provided a chance to learn how such an event can significantly reduce cost, improve the delegate experience and help the environment.

Final word – testimony or quote from destination/organiser
 
Howard Barden, Brighton & Hove’s head of Tourism and Venues, was pleased with the outcome of a survey taken at the beginning and end of the event using the engagement technology: “Our aim with today’s event was to demystify what sustainable events are all about. I’m really pleased that 98% of people who came said they would be implementing sustainability actions at their future events.”
 
Howard continued “Our task now is to get the message out to anyone organising an event at the Brighton Centre or across the city that we have a support programme in place that will help them focus on a few key sustainability areas and put in place initiatives that will appeal to their delegates.”