One + July 2011 - (Page 87)

1 2 YOUR PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION is proud to have been an early adopter of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) since signing the United Nations (UN) Global Compact in 2007 and being the ﬁrst industry association issuing CSR reports on an annual basis detailing our efforts to create a more sustainable organization and industry. Coming a long way since those early days, MPI has launched a selection of “thought leadership initiatives” including Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Meetings, sponsored by InterContinental Hotels Group and the MPI Foundation. The objective of this speciﬁc initiative has been to demonstrate practice leadership and provide the very best in content across all distribution channels, equipping members and the meeting and event industry with the latest knowledge and skills to be successful in their careers. The initiative has been guided by a high-level advisory council, including leading ﬁgures from Oracle, the UN, Microsoft and the U.S. Green Building Council. The advisory council helps shape and guide top-level strategy for the initiative and has been instrumental in the design of the recently launched Sustainable Event Measurement Tool (SEMT). Free for MPI members, the tool continues to make waves in the industry with its robust and comprehensive design that allows planners and suppliers to measure the impact of their events and provides charts and data required by all three upcoming sustainability standards for the industry. Having undergone a thorough beta testing period, the tool was recently unveiled following a series of updates, most importantly allowing suppliers to have free access to the tool. The Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, launched in May, will, in fact, be implementing MPI’s SEMT on a national level. If you are interested in capturing the metrics of your event and demonstrating The Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, launched in May, will be implementing MPI’s SEMT on a national level. ROI and leadership through sustainable events, check out the tool: mpi.sustain ableeventtool.com. Leading the Way MPI events are also paving the way in demonstrating best practices. The ﬁrst event ever to be certiﬁed by the British Standard 8901 (BS 8901) Sustainable Event Management system standard was MPI’s 2008 European Meetings and Events Conference in London, and MPI has continued to have its annual meetings third-party certiﬁed. To guide you through what at ﬁrst can appear intimidating, MPI has made sure to provide case studies on how we set about using the standard, setting goals and targets and how we scored. These case studies and reports, white papers, research, archived webinars and live sessions, as well as other useful documents, are all stored on our content portal: mpiweb.org/portal/csr. BS 8901 is the starting point for an international standard for the meeting and business event industry—and MPI has represented its members on Project Committee 250 for ISO 20121 to ensure the standard is as easy to understand and implement as possible while maintaining a robust approach to sustainable event management. MPI is also represented on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Event Organizers Sector Supplement Advisory Group. Through practice leadership and education around the disclosure framework, MPI aims to guide the industry into a more responsible future, and feedback from the use of the supplement will be passed back to the GRI to include in the ﬁnal document used for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. MPI will be providing comprehensive guidance and materials in line with the launch of these standards to help members implement them within their businesses, making what seems at ﬁrst highly intimidating into something easy to understand and apply within your business. Following one of the most comprehensive social legacy programs in the business at the 2010 World Education Congress (WEC) in Vancouver—seven social projects demonstrating offsite and onsite CSR possibilities—MPI has seen particular success in its partnership with Clean the World. Having not been active in Canada previously, MPI provided Clean the World with mpiweb.org 87 http://www.mpiweb.org/portal/csr http://mpi.sustainableeventtool.com http://mpi.sustainableeventtool.com http://www.mpiweb.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of One + July 2011

One + July 2011
Contents
Energy of Many
Impressions
Paradigm Shifts, Part II
Web Watch
Agenda
Thoughts+Leaders
Ask the Experts
Recognizing Community and Organizational Excellence
Overheard
Art of Travel
The Prism Effect
Top Spots
Connections
Irrelevant
Using New Tech for Old Purposes
So You Think You Can Dance
Don’t Use Tech You Don’t Understand
Are You In It to Win It?
Anything is Possible
Night of the Radishes
Well Played
When People Come Together, Magic Happens
Size Matters
Building a Better FAM
One Bar at a Time
MPI + CSR
Industry Insights
Your Community
Making a Difference
Until We Meet Again

One + July 2011