PCMA Seattle Tips for Greening Your Meeting

Last week, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) met in Seattle for their annual educational conference. One of the goals for the 3,400 person, 4-day event was to have a “negative carbon footprint,” or be as environmentally conscious as possible. While the Seattle convention didn’t match PCMA’s 2007 Annual Meeting in Toronto as being a “zero-waste” event, the association and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center (WSCTC) undertook a wide variety of green initiatives for the show.

· To reduce plastic waste, individual bottled water was not served--all attendees were provided with a reusable water bottle to fill at several water stations located throughout the WSCTC.
· The 2008 registration bags, produced by BrandAdvantage, were made from organic jute and recycled nylon. Extra/unwanted bags will be donated to a local charitable organization.
· All trash cans in the PCMA meeting space were removed and replaced with recycle bins.
· Most pre-event marketing was done online or piggy-backed on partner mailings.
· All PCMA Annual Meeting printed material was printed/copied on post-consumer recycled paper.
· Print-on-Demand stations for handouts reduced the paper waste in the concurrent sessions.
· Programs were only distributed to those who requested one.
· Plastic name badges and Expocards were being collected and recycled.
· All excess food were donated to a local food rescue program.
· Menu selection focused on locally grown produce and featured some organic food items free of environment-harming pesticides.
· Live trees were used for décor, centerpieces and as giveaways, to be planted later.
· PCMA’s partners were encouraged to print on recycled paper and to print and ship a reduced quantity of marketing collateral and amenities to reduce waste.
· PCMA collected and stored any unused/excess partner collateral as inventory for future events, thus reducing future print requirements. If partner collateral was not reusable, PCMA said it would recycle it.
· Evaluations for each session were still paper, to better ensure attendee completion.

· According to PCMA, green tactics that have been implemented by the WSCTC include:

· An overhaul of the Center’s lighting system was conducted to replace outdated equipment with new and more-efficient fixtures.
· New touchless faucets and self-flushing toilets were installed to reduce water consumption.
· The WSCTC recycling program recycles paper, wood, metal and plastic products. As a result of the recycling initiative, the WSCTC has recycled: 174 tons of cardboard; 2,460 lbs of aluminum cans or 79,200 individual pop cans; 186 tons of mixed paper, plastic and glass recycled; 12 tons of scrap metal were recycled; an estimated 8,000 wood pallets were shipped to the WSCTC and sent back with the shipper to be reused; all computers and office machines that are updated are recycled; all spent fluorescent bulbs and ballasts are recycled; all spent AA, AAA and 9V batteries are recycled; 3,328 gallons of kitchen grease was recycled and reused by a rendering plant; and 23,968 meals were sent to local charities this past year.
· The WSCTC also partnered with a local company to recycle PCMA meeting banners.
· Buses ran on bio-diesel fuel.

While Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest in general, is considered a leader in the green meetings movement, PCMA said planners should expect a similar level of “greening” at the two upcoming Annual Meetings, held next year in New Orleans and in Dallas in 2010.
Interestingly, PCMA will explore a variety of community-building programs for the New Orleans convention. Attendees are asking if they can come early to the annual meeting on Friday and Saturday to work in community programs to help the people of New Orleans.

Information obtained primarily from Meetings West Magazine online

Coming soon: 2008 Trends from the ISES “The Special Event” international conference in Atlanta, and Entertainer Hiring and Contract Tips.