MONTREAL—The Green Meeting Industry Council’s (GMIC) annual Sustainable Meetings Conference will be held April 22 to 25 at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure. The annual event, which has been growing in size each year, will include many educational as well as networking opportunities. An area for exhibitors is also part of the conference.
A highlight of this year’s event is a keynote presentation by John Picard. Picard is the founder and CEO of Picard Associates, a company founded on the principles of bringing a natural systems approach to traditional business issues. Picard is one of the preeminent environmental consultants in North America. Since his start as a residential and commercial builder in the 1980s, he has pioneered a philosophy of natural systems and sustainable design in his work as a green building engineer, corporate strategist and thought leader. Over the past 20 years Picard was involved with the founding of the U.S. Green Building Council, became the original member of Interface’s Dream Team, and has helped dozens of corporate clients globally.
Educational sessions will cover the following topic areas: Sustainable Events for Beginners; Sustainability Principles for Meetings and Events; Innovation and Design; APEX Standards; Act Local—Give Back to the Community; Green Strategies that Create Business and Attendee Value; Control vs. Influence, the Evolution of Green Meeting Design; The Value of Green Certification—Hotel Focus; Engaging Suppliers for Sustainable Event Success; Mobilization and Sustainability; Happy Together—How ISO 20121 and APEX Work Together; Green Menu Engineering as a Decision Support Tool; Choreographing Sustainability Efforts—Microsoft Case Study; Global Reporting Initiative Event Focus; Applying the Business Case for Sustainabilty; and Edinburgh to Moscow to Hamburg—Green Meetings in Three European Cities (Case Study).
Building on the momentum from the 2011 Game On! event, the 2012 GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference will continue to apply gaming theory principles to the learning design—but this year attendees will choose their level of engagement.
The conference will also include an IMEX Future Leaders Forum and pre-conference workshop on the Principles of Sustainable Event Management. All attendees will have the option of offsetting their travel. A $15 offset purchase will support the Fredericton Landfill Gas Project located in New Brunswick, Canada. This project involves the installation of a landfill gas management system which covers 120 hectares. In addition to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, the project also reduces landfill odors and other harmful air pollutants. As it is also the first provincial landfill site to build a landfill gas management system designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the project will facilitate technology transfer for replication throughout the country.
For more details on the Sustainable Meetings Conference, click here.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
