Last week 240 of close to 600 members of GMIC met in Denver, CO for the annual conference (). GMIC can look back at a tremendous growth since the start in 2003 and the last year saw a 67% increase of individual membership and 30% increase of corporate members and this during the worst recession the world has seen for ages.

The number of actors in the event industry that realizes the profit making power of being part of the solution to the planets problems instead of contributing to them increase fast. The demand from the corporate customers to arrange meetings that reflects their company’s sustainability vision and mission increases even faster (be it from fairly low figures today, but…)

A common challenges for most business sectors is the lack of a robust and scientific definition of Sustainability (or Green or CSR or CR or..) and to solve that the board of GMIC has decided to use the frame work of The Natural Step (www.thenaturalstep.org) to better understand the challenges and turn them into opportunities for the members and the industry at large.

“Legacy counts” and Denver is a good example of that, a lot of sustainable practices and routines that were introduced for the Democratic Convention in 2008 are today standard practice. One of GMIC's objectives is to spread best practice and through that contribute to transformation of the meetings industry creating a more successful and sustainable global marketplace.

To make that happen the growth of the organization continues and during 2010 GMIC expect another 400 individual members as well as a speedy growth outside the US. Four international chapters is a first step and the question is where will we see the first one chartered?

The list of “take away’s” from the conference is long and among the highlights were how Learning Design and Hybrid Meetings can contribute to sustainability and also the food challenge where Food Mapping is a positive way to solve the problem with local and seasonal menus.

Standards and schemes was another theme where we currently see good initiatives like BS 8901, ISO 20121, APEX and GRI event supplement popping up across the globe. To measure and report transparently is a powerful tool to get things done and especially for meetings and events that by nature are short life-projects which makes it extra important to have access to tested and approved tools to use. The meetings industry is unique in being very public and communicative and with this goes a possibility and maybe even a responsibility to try to be a role model for other industries in the inevitable, profitable and fun journey towards a sustainable future. The old definition of luxury as wasteful and excessive is being replaced by a new one where efficiency and sustainability are key elements. Before you plan your next meeting, be it for your organization or for a customer, please visit the GMIC web to get at few good ideas and join the movement towards a better world and why not when you are there sign up for a membership to get the latest knowledge in depth.

Jan Peter Bergkvist, Sustainability Advisor at SleepWell and Director of the board, at GMIC.

Jan Peter Bergkvist
Sustainability Advisor
+46766336868
Sleepwell AB