Eco-friendly initiatives can elevate your event brand and engage audiences, while remaining cost-effective – with a little help from social media. By Kevin Durkee, August 05, 2010

Kevin Durkee

When Tim Hortons stopped giving napkins with their doughnuts in the name of trees, you know something’s up. When
I inquired about the change, the drivethru attendee told me, “We’re trying to save trees and go green.” Nothing on
their website states Tim’s has an environmental marketing platform. So this eco-enthusiasm might just be at the store level; either that or they’re letting their actions speak for themselves. But this further highlights the efforts companies, brands and consumers are expending toward going green.

Are the meetings you shepherd looking for a smaller carbon footprint? Whether it’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ you should take big steps forward and offer some green value. It’s good engagement.

The challenge for planners is to have green initiatives woven into every effort of the function. For example, insist the transportation for the event be a pre-organized mass alternative. You’ll save some fuel and participants will get the opportunity to network with fellow attendees. Present with no paper; provide all files on a USB key or, even better, a download link. While reducing paper and waste, the presentation will be livelier — and with fewer distractions, people will be more engaged.

Since most forms of social media are green, and by using what everyone already has — such as a mobile device or PDA — going green has never been easier.

Encourage your group to download an app or visit an online portal for instant updates. No more printing new schedules and agendas in the wee hours of the morning, when you can simply send out a text, tweet or e-mail to the group, to highlight a change.

Here are two ways of using social media technology to green your efforts and drive engagement:

1. Start a Facebook page for your meeting: Facebook offers a number of functions and tools to capture
attendees (instant feedback, messaging and notifications). The Facebook tabs are customizable and by adding photos, bios and overviews, your speakers can link-in ahead of time and answer questions from your attendees. It reduces the need for paper invites, programme elements and binders.

2. Live Twitter feedback: Engage your audience at your next presentation by asking them to tweet thoughts, comments or notes live during the presentation. While driving further engagement, it allows the entire group to hear other points of view and further lets your presenter clarify their position. Best of all, the content and notes are online, so attendees can return to them at a later date. It saves time and paper, while simple online links attached to the tweets direct attendees to the source materials.

These digital social connections not only allow for a well-informed group, but also offer instant feedback. Social media are perfect for surveys, reactions and improvements for next year’s event.

A practical example of social media tools at work was the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show, in Las Vegas, in January. This consumer electronic extravaganza is a multi-day, multi-venue, multicontent- stream giant for the industry. CES offered a free mobile app containing the entire programme guide, assorted maps and seminar schedules in one place. It featured instant updates, live news and info feeds, plus a unique time-saving function where attendees could select their seminar sessions, and they’d be instantly added to the calendars with detailed times, locations and info. Truly engaging.

So before you print those big event binders or overstuffed registration kits, stop and think about where you can go “green” and where can you engage your group with social media. If you handed over a lanyard with a USB clipped to the badge, and told your attendees they didn’t have to carry around (and home) pounds of paper — they’d thank you.

— Kevin Durkee is the executive vice-president of The JetStar Group in Toronto. He can be reached at kevin@thejetstargroup.com.