he five Scandinavian member countries of the International Congress and Convention
Association (icca) have joined together to form what they’re calling the world’s first “sustainable meetings region.” CVBs, DMOs, venues, and other travel and tourism agencies from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden signed the Scandinavian Sustainable Meetings Accord — which is intended to “advance sustainable development within the meetings and events industry” — at the icca Scandinavian Chapter annual meeting in Tampere, Finland, this past March. Why Scandinavia? Two reasons,
according to project leader Guy Big- wood, sustainability director for the MCI Group: Scandinavia is “world famous for its environmental record” as well as for its “custom of consensus and debate.” MCI used both to power the three-year process that led to the creation of the accord, which is made up of 10 actions, including: › Engaging our clients, partners, and other interested parties in dialogue about economic, environmental, and social sustainability for our industry.
› Encouraging private-public collabo- ration with other destinations to share Scandinavian best practices and solu- tions and, in turn, to learn from others. › Providing resources to planners to identify responsible, sustainable, and certified suppliers in our community in order to help planners create more sustainable events. › Calculating the CO2 footprint of a defined Scandinavian meetings indus- try and aiming to reduce this by 20 percent by 2020. “We aim to inspire, encourage, or
‘push’ every organization to speed up its sustainability programs,” Bigwood said. “Most people are just going too slow.” And after Scandinavia, the world.
“At MCI we have used this approach on various projects for different cities,” Bigwood said. “However, this is the first time that we have managed to get a group of nations to agree to it. I have had various CVBs already approach me to be included. I am hoping we can roll it out in Asia later this year.”
Scandinavian Sustainable Meetings Accord + Nightclub & Bar Show 1,000 balloons.
$500 cash. Shaken, not stirred.
GROUP SHOT
A Drop to
Drink
Nightclub & Bar (NCB) Convention and Trade Show: A balloon drop was the perfect garnish for the Shake It Up! Creative Cocktail Challenge on the show floor of 2012 NCB — held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on March 12–14. More than 34,000 attendees and more than 600 exhibiting companies participated in the event. For more information, visit ncbshow.com.