Do you consider yourself a big-picture thinker? Do you see the interconnections between the meetings industry and sustainability issues? A new online survey from Positive Impact is asking meeting professionals to contribute their thoughts on how the global event industry can be part of achieving the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.
The short survey, available in 22 languages, will identify sustainability action items and serve as the basis for an “acceleration commitment” that will be submitted to the United Nations for discussion in September at the U.N.’s first summit on SDGs since it set the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. Positive Impact and its partners in this project—Cvent, IMEX, Maritz, and the Oregon Convention Center—hope to communicate to the United Nations how engaging the event industry can help to achieve its sustainable development goals, which touch on far-reaching issues such as climate change, gender equality, hunger, and quality education.
Positive Impact will share the results of the survey and the resulting acceleration commitment at Cvent CONNECT Europe, October 14-16 in London, as well as through its own network.
“There is an urgent business case for the event industry to act to show they are part of the solution to reach the U.N. SDGs and not the problem,” said Fiona Pelham, CEO of Positive Impact. “Through this survey and the acceleration commitment we have an immediate and unique opportunity to collaborate with global governments and business on a strategic level and tell the story of the power of events."
