A Green turning point for MPI

21/06/2010

With the European Forum for Sustainability in the Meetings Industry, this will be the first time that all the MPI European chapters join forces on green issues.

Led to rotate in a different country every year, this first edition, conducted by MPI Belgium, aims to educate meeting professionals – a long term goal for MPI – and help them to be more conscious about the environment and the local community and above all give them key concrete tools to meet differently.

The event will take place the 27 ^th and 28 ^th of June in green world heritage site Bruges. And speaking about the lovely city, philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says: “Many people call Bruges the Venice of the North, but after your stay, you will probably call Venice the Bruges of the South”.

The Flanders city has been developing its sustainable policy for some years with the support of the CVB Meeting in Brugge and Toerisme Vlaanderen : some of their actions include the use of hybrid city buses, massive use of bicycles or convention venues within walking distance from hotels, for example. Bruges is also host of other green events such as I-Sup 2010 (Innovation for Sustainable Production) which took place last April. Due to the ash cloud, more than 130 participants weren’t able to reach Bruges. Instead of cancelling the event, the organizers found alternative solutions like video conferencing with video screens so that almost all the speakers held their conferences all the same.

The European Forum for sustainability itself, directed by Charles-Eric Vilain XIIII, a consultant who worked for Brussels and Lille CVBs, is trying to be a green model: all communication about the event will be strictly on the web. The programme will set up a big debate between caterers, hotels, and destinations as well as case studies : one case study will concern the major convention – COP15 – with Guy Bigwood, MCI Group Sustainability Director, another study will look specifically at a destination with Meeting in Brugge and a last one all about meeting attendance with “How to reduce no-shows”. No-shows cause a great deal of waste, and people who confirm yet don’t attend an event are strongly invited to donate to dontspoiltheparty.org in favour of UNICEF. Among the speakers are Kathleen Bertier, Chairman of MPI Belgium and Director of Meeting in Brugge, Roger Simons, newly appointed MPI CSR manager and the polar explorer Dixie Dansercoer. Do not hesitate to join them!

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