So your clients always want, and indeed they deserve that little bit of something special from their events and programmes. They want to experience something that they and their clients will remember forever, something they will talk about, treasure, or stay with a long time.
The question is often how to do this?
I ask you, what experiences in your life can you remember the most? What are the ones that you share about with your family, friends and colleagues?
I would propose that those events, those moments in your life, that mattered, that stay with you, are those that have meaning to you.
Sustainability is an easy way to create meaning in your events, to leave clients feeling that they made a difference, that they created value for others or the planet and that they made a positive impact.
Now if you want to up level things, then make these aspects experiential, get the clients deeply involved in whatever it is that is going to create these impacts, so it is them who is contributing to the value and meaning, it is them creating the positive impact in the world, not just by donating or offsetting but by DOING.
When you spend your time on meaningful things then your life has meaning, in its actual form.
In terms of the best built experience, you could also bring in educational aspects, as well as the doing aspect.
For example….
You take your clients to go and see a local artisan or other positive impact project, perhaps outdoors, so they are in nature for the day. Some experience where they taste and truly experience the local culture, where they get to be part of the activities there, whether that is olive picking or repainting a children’s home, or something operational I.e converting all their trips to public transportation.
And…. For the cherry on the cake… you give them the results!
So in the case of the above; some olive oil they pressed to take home, the look of the children’s face when they enter the home and see the newly painted space, the data of how much carbon they saved from their conversions.
Which from the above has the most meaning to you?
Everyone has different importance allocated to different things (ie you might have chosen the most meaningful was the social project helping the children’s home, and yet your colleague might say the most meaningful was the hands on local economy support of the olive picking, and another might choose the environmental impacts of the public transport). So spread the activities involved throughout your programme across the spectrum of the ES and G.
Then, when your clients get home, they will feel amazing. Every, last, one of them!
And you’ll reap the benefits, not just of you doing good in the world, but of your clients telling everyone how great you are.
Every sustainable investment has a multitude of benefits, for you, your company, each other and the planet.
Gayle Murphy
CEO Global Green Events Ltd
