Insight: Issue 109 | 26 October

Ding dong, another PM’s gone…

In the week were we said so long Lizzie and hello there Rishi, our intrepid troops have once again been scouting far and wide to bring you the latest and finest in events news. So, what’s cooking this week you ask? We’ve got for you:

UK Events Industry Alliance launches manifesto at Westminster; The Business of Events announces programme for UK Policy Forum; New tool will measure societal impact that conferences have in Edinburgh; The GREENTECH FESTIVAL: London welcomes around 1,200 visitors, successfully exploring how climate crisis can be transformed into opportunities; and Drone swarms represent the destroyed architecture of ancient monuments.

UK Events Industry Alliance launches manifesto at Westminster

The UK Events Industry Alliance (EIA) launched a new manifesto at a parliamentary reception in Westminster, London, 19 October.

The event welcomed guests from a cross-party group of MPs in addition to government and shadow ministers and many association members.

Working on behalf of the events industry associations, the Association of Event Organisers (AEO), the Association of Event Venues (AEV), and the Event Supplier and Services Association (ESSA), the EIA provides a secretariat and platform to work together to achieve common objectives for the good of the events industry.

The alliance aims to influence key initiatives and changes that can have a direct impact on the events sector.

Rachel Parker, director of EIA said: “The EIA represents world-class venues, helping organisers host high profile shows across key business sectors serviced by accredited suppliers. We aim to be the voice of the events industry – representing business events.”

The Business of Events announces programme for UK Policy Forum

The Business of Events has today announced the programme for its 2022 UK Policy Forum, which will take place on 02 November at the QEII Centre, Westminster, London.

The Policy Forum is being held in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, VisitBritain and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Events. It will see leading destinations, venues and event organisers from across the UK come together to discuss how to achieve growth in the business events sector and how business events can support the delivery of national policy objectives.

The event concludes with a reception, hosted by the QEII Centre.

The Business of Events is supported by several organisations, including VisitBritain, VisitScotland Business Events, ICC Wales, The Belfry, Visit Wales, and the Business Visits & Events Partnership.

Check out the full programme here.

New tool will measure societal impact that conferences have in Edinburgh

The Business Events Shaping Tomorrow (Best) tool has been developed to evaluate the positive outcomes from the hundreds of business events hosted in the capital each year. It works by inviting those involved in the conference to provide qualitative data and content which relates to how the conference performed in areas such as wellbeing, food choices, volunteering levels and social interactions. This data is collated and verified with organisers awarding an accreditation based on their positive contributions to the city.

The tool has been created by a collaborative group comprising Convention Edinburgh, the EICC, The Kimpton Hotel, Edinburgh Airport, The University of Edinburgh Hospitality and Events Collection, Assembly Rooms and the National Museum of Scotland. By sharing good practice, and encouraging collaboration, innovation, and wellbeing, the group believes the initiative will drive positive societal impact.

Stephanie Lee, cluster director of sales, InterContinental Edinburgh The George and Kimpton Charlotte Square, said: “The new initiative is a platform which awards businesses for contributing to a responsible Edinburgh, through their conferences and events. It has been designed to bolster the city’s business events sector by recognising the positive contribution of events within the community.”

The GREENTECH FESTIVAL: London welcomes around 1,200 visitors, successfully exploring how climate crisis can be transformed into opportunities

The GREENTECH FESTIVAL (GTF) celebrated the second stop of its World Tour in London, on October 13th and 14th. GTF and its partners, including this year’s Partner Country Italy, global founding partner Audi, conference founding partner Vodafone Business, Mini and e.ON, gathered at The Truman Brewery to explore bold visions, inspiring concepts, forward-looking projects and green solutions.

Festival highlights include:

• A clean-up activation in partnership with Hubbub, fishing plastic litter out of the river Thames.

• Keynote speakers such as Sir Paul Smith, Bella Lack and Charlie Martin.

• A ‘Bootcamp’ activity, dividing groups into moderated and themed workshops to address complex challenges. Topics included Energy for Tomorrow, Vibrant and Sustainable Communities and Financing Change.

Marco Voight, co-founder of GTF said, ”We believe that with the unprecedented crisis comes incredible opportunity. This year’s Greentech Festival in London was all about the idea that we can and must find new ways to replace outdated business models and ways of living to proactively contribute to our future and want to make change happen.”

Using drones to represent the destroyed architecture of ancient monuments

And finally, here’s a little thing we spotted on Twitter and thought we’d include just because it’s super mega cool. It’s the peeps of @cyberdroneshow rebuilding some destroyed architecture of ancient monuments. Beautiful, elegant, interesting and simply awesome – more of this kind of thing and less fighting please humans of Earth.

That’s us for this week, home y’all enjoyed it – catch you on the flipside for another flagon of events news from around the UK and beyond. And who knows? Our new PM might have lasted the week….