A very important change implemented for our 2009 annual meeting was a very deliberate, strong push toward ‘going green.’

Knowing that our annual meeting was going to be in San Francisco, we made it a priority to utilize the many resources that the city and convention center had to offer. The Moscone Center assisted the AAD in achieving a diversion rate of approximately 60 percent of waste (more than 100,000 pounds) generated during our annual meeting!

This was done through Moscone's recycling, composting, and donation programs. Moscone was able to collect all leftover paper/cardboard products (including program books, etc.), registration bags, signage, banners, carpeting, and food-service products — redirecting them to the appropriate recycling/donation facility. We plan to use this model in future annual meeting cities, pending each respective city's infrastructure to handle it.