Has Your Conference / Festival Gone "Green"?

Have you considered ways to make your conference, festival, or sponsorship summit more eco-friendly? Are you looking for new ways to promote green initiatives at your annual meetings?

The Mountain View Art & Wine Festival is embracing a number of green initiatives to help promote recycling and conservation at its event in Miramar on September 6-7. The festival is positioning free-standing containers throughout its event footprint for consumers to depost glass/plastic bottles and aluminum cans. In addition, event organizers are offering large recycling containers in a central area on-site for event staff, vendors, and sponsors to dispose recycable items (e.g. cardboard, mixed paper, glass, plastic, aluminum).

In addition, the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival is encouraging event attendees to use public transportation and bicycles as a mode of transportation. The festival is hoping that this tactic (along with offering valet parking for bicycle riders) will help reduce carbon emissions and vehicular traffic. Festival exhibits will promote organic, natural, healthy, and eco-friendly products (e.g. Solar Energy, Cascadian Farm, Clif Bar, Planet Organics, Icelandic Glacier Natural Spring Water, etc.)

These are some simple "green" measures that are often overlooked. When planning your next event, be sure to consider new ways to help conservation and recycling efforts! 

A special thanks to Dan Beeman of Sponsorship Insights for his contribution to this column.