Sustainable Events Dog Walk (Podcast)

ONE SMALL CHANGE TODAY Behavioral Psychology (n) the study of the connection between the human mind and people's behavior. Bystander Effect: a phenomenon in which people fail to offer needed help in emergencies, especially when other people are present in the same setting. Studies of this tendency, initially described in response to well-publicized failures of bystanders to render aid in emergenci...

My first ever RERUN! This is a re-edited version of the classic episode, #9 Event Pros are LEADERS: In this episode, I dive into the premise of event planning as a powerful form of leadership. Event planners shape environments that influence attendees' actions, ideas, and emotions, making us natural leaders in the process. I how to incorporate sustainability as a benefit of your leadership. I shar...

Buzzword: defined as "A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply used to impress others." If you listen to this podcast then for you Sustainability should NOT be a buzzword... But if you don't feel l...

Using the 4 Pillar approach we look at ways to make event transportation more sustainable. Without taking away flights or events at destinations, how would you consider your opportunities to improve the environmental, social/community, personal health, and economic sustainability of your events? How can your transpo vendors and experts support you? Follow @PositiveImpactEventConsulting on YouTube...

Educating the world about what is sustainable, how to make more sustainable choices, and how to support real sustainable action is the 12th of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In this episode I talk about the power of educating your attendees, clients, audience, and marketing about your sustainability goals, action steps, and expectations. I also challenge you to convert the st...

Food is infinitely complex, necessary, and a big element of our human lives - let's use the 4 Pillar approach to consider some food choices and how they can be improved from an environmental, social/community, personal health/wellbeing, and economic vantage point. Follow @PositiveImpactEventConsulting on YouTube to get the video feed! To ask a question for a future walk email: AlyciaDrubeEvents {a...

We covered Step 0 - get your baselines We covered Step 1 - do the best you can with the information you have. Progress over Perfection. Better is Better. Use your own energy wisely and always look for low cost (energy, money, or time) ways to address each pillar. 4 Pillars of Sustainability Environmental Social/Community Personal Health/Wellbeing Economics Now we cover Step 2 - How do you keep goi...

*One Simple Change TODAY* Signage - Your ONE simple change for today is (for planners) ask for and/or (for printers) make a policy that all Signage materials must be recyclable. I would NEVER advocate for less signage - so that means we need to be smart about the qualities of all our helpful signs. As with all materials it is part of the "know how every item exits the event" policy, in this case r...

The next evolution of event planning is cooperative sustainability! Have you heard of events sharing a carpet install? This week I talk about maximizing your environmental and economic sustainability by collaborating with your venue and the events before and after yours to preserve things like carpet installs, expensive tech rentals/deliveries, and other drop off/pick-up decor. You could wind up w...

This is a conversational episode in which Alycia is talking through some of the communication failures of the Sustainability movement and within event professional education. She covers: Why don't we talk about Sustainability more openly? Should event prof educational events be demonstrating instead of teaching? How do we make sure teams have all the same knowledge, expectations, and mandates all...

Get the overview on the Events Industry Council certification that I earned before I started Positive+Impact Event Consulting - Sustainable Event Professional Certification (SEPC) https://eventscouncil.org/Sustainability/SEPC Follow @PositiveImpactEventConsulting on YouTube to get the video feed! To ask a question for a future walk email: AlyciaDrubeEvents {at} gmail.com or go to the Google Form:...

Looking for a simple method to improve your sustainability metrics (in any Pillar: environmental, social/community, personal health, economic) that doesn't change your workload? Consider what The Sound Hotel in Seattle did with their Cocktails for a Cause. By doing a charitable donation profit share they: 1) Do good in the community 2) Let consumers know their company values by which charities the...

We often think Entertainment is a self-contained element of events, the qualities are predetermined but I say NO, let's use the 4 Pillar approach to consider how our entertainment choices can be improved from an environmental, social/community, personal health/wellbeing, and economic vantage point. Follow @PositiveImpactEventConsulting on YouTube to get the video feed! To ask a question for a futu...

In this episode I do a bit of a blinded audit on an event I visited last week. Rather than an episode of solutions it's an episode of reviewing an event and asking questions. Questions like: Who needs to be responsible for making better decisions? How does chain of custody change waste management? Do we need to change the expectations of clients or planners? How can planners be sure to offer more...

When you feel overwhelmed that the systems you work within can't handle the beautifully sustainable plan you've designed, A) you're not wrong or crazy, that is a real problem and it sucks; B) don't give up, send up the smoke signals that show the powers-that-be where the weaknesses are in our local systems. Remember events are invisible to the outside world, so regulating for us and solving our pr...

PlasticFreeJuly.org is the resource to take your plastic free pledge, get info and resources and learn more. I encourage you to take the opportunity to make a switch you've had your eye on, make it a group effort with your team, family and/or neighbors, and follow along to learn what hidden opportunities you have to make a plastic free choice. This episode was not made in affiliation with Plastic...

In this episode, despite my victorious comments, I have not mastered the audio problems. You can tell I go straight back to pounding the pavement by the end. In the bulk of the episode you'll hear about what kind of oversight and intervention will eventually creep into your events. Your decision is whether to be prepared and have the changes roll off you like water off a duck's back or wait and ga...

SUMMER TIME! Let's go over some ideas to make sure your Outdoor Events are maximizing your sustainability choices. - Environmental - Try to use renewable power, or cleanER when that's not an option. Reduce trash onsite by encouraging water vessels be refilled and by getting outdoor friendly dish rentals (like Bold Reuse, R.World, even CORT.) If you use compostable be sure to check: is it commercia...

Sorry for another week of questionable sound quality. Inclusivity starts with our language. Our understanding of the world is rooted in the words we use, our brains literally process the world based on language. In this episode I outline a bit of the understanding and perspective that helped me transform my thoughts around inclusive language and practicing new ways of talking. I was HIGHLY influen...

Happy Pride! This month is all about visibility and action for the LGBTQ+ community. As event pros it is our highest duty to facilitate community, this week you will get a handful of ideas on where to look to expand your inclusivity. For more info on the intersection between accessibility needs and the LGBTQ+ population look into books and papers by Dr. Devon Price Follow @PositiveImpactEventConsu...

A Couple ideas for improving your AV Sustainability in each of the 4 Pillars. This is an example of quickly reviewing and brainstorming ideas to improve your metrics in Environmental, Social/Community, Personal Health/Well-being, and Economic in one sector of your event, today AV Production. Follow @PositiveImpactEventConsulting on YouTube to get the video feed! To ask a question for a future walk...

When you or your clients have the knee-jerk reaction "We can't, that's not in the budget" what does that really mean? On this episode I expose the difference between "we literally have no more money to spend" and "I don't want to spend my money on THAT" which is what it often comes down to when people use the excuse "no budget." As always it boils down to planning ahead, and knowing your intension...

On this episode of One Small Change Today we talk about DECOR Starting today add to your planning, spreadsheet, etc. a question for every item that you (or your vendors) bring to site: What happens to this item at teardown?  For your existing programs you may go straight down the line and enter "trash" for all but as you start to consider for every single item in every design you will natural...

Transcript: [Dog bark] Alright, then let's go. Hey friend, today is going to be a short admin episode. As you can tell, I'm doing a bit of an ASMR special. Last week, I choked on some food like the elegant swan I am, and in the aftermath, seem to have picked up some sort of throat infection, and so I have been croaking like a dead frog for days. And so I just wanted to pop in for a quick message o...

There is a bit of wind noise in this recording, I have reached the limit of my sound engineering lessons and need to go back down the rabbit hole. Thank you for your patience with me, Renee doesn't even TRY to help so it gets hard.   This week I go through analyzing the overlap in a couple different lessons in communication I've been learning recently. These lessons apply throughout your...