Purpose Driven Events – Sustainability, Accessibility & Inclusion in Unique Venues

WEBVTT
00:05.498 --> 00:08.479
So we move on to our second session of today.
00:08.784 --> 00:12.583
I'm looking at sustainability, accessibility, and inclusion in
00:12.679 --> 00:16.142
unique venues, and we'll start at the end and work
00:16.642 --> 00:20.117
our way back. I'm joined first of all by the CEO of a company called
00:20.165 --> 00:23.516
Event Decision, Matt Gray. Good to see you, Matt.
00:23.981 --> 00:27.475
You and I have spoken on several occasions before and crossed
00:27.523 --> 00:31.130
paths. Managing Director of Eventful, Claire Gardner.
00:31.226 --> 00:34.965
Claire, welcome. Come along today. We've got the Deputy Head of
00:35.465 --> 00:38.592
Events at Royal Museums Greenwich, Sophie Linin. Sophie,
00:39.137 --> 00:42.540
thanks for all your help so far today, helping to facilitate all of
00:42.588 --> 00:46.054
the panellists on these sessions. And Julia
00:46.554 --> 00:50.355
Danmairi, who is the founder and CEO of TranslateAble,
00:50.612 --> 00:54.464
joining us today. I've got it all right, I've got it all right,
00:54.480 --> 00:58.091
didn't I? Yeah, lovely. Okay, good on the pronunciations today. So yeah,
00:58.332 --> 01:01.936
Talking about accessibility and sustainability,
01:02.017 --> 01:06.102
inclusion, and I don't know if any of you caught the first
01:06.602 --> 01:10.236
session that was here a short while ago, and accessibility was
01:10.268 --> 01:14.321
mentioned very, very briefly, which is almost like we thought about the production and linking
01:14.417 --> 01:17.798
all of these conversations together today, because one thing that
01:18.298 --> 01:22.284
we spoke about at the start of the first session today was misconceptions
01:22.784 --> 01:26.289
and maybe preconceived ideas that event organisers might have when coming into a
01:26.789 --> 01:29.836
unique venue about elements of accessibility.
01:29.900 --> 01:32.680
First of all, physical accessibility is a big one,
01:33.821 --> 01:37.356
and it's something that has to be sort of looked at. And maybe,
01:37.758 --> 01:40.345
Sophie, I thought maybe if we could start with you, because you're from a venue,
01:40.361 --> 01:43.783
from somewhere that has to deal with this day in, day out.
01:44.121 --> 01:47.399
There's been significant changes and updates to legislation over the
01:47.899 --> 01:50.436
years. You will always be abreast of things, but how important a part does it
01:50.468 --> 01:53.425
play in the day-to-day sort of activities and operations of the venue?
01:54.227 --> 01:57.529
It's integral. We appreciate that
01:57.593 --> 02:01.120
our venues are different, but that is their charm.
02:01.280 --> 02:04.742
And so what we try to do wherever possible is be as honest
02:05.242 --> 02:08.285
and upfront with our clients at a really early stage about what that means for
02:08.785 --> 02:12.789
their events, and that includes accessibility. And where our venues are accessible,
02:13.383 --> 02:17.102
and the vast majority of them, all areas are accessible,
02:17.166 --> 02:20.500
but where some venues have some accessibility challenges,
02:20.997 --> 02:24.556
we put that in our very first communications with them so that
02:24.604 --> 02:28.579
they're very upfront. We are really open to talking with clients
02:28.691 --> 02:32.491
about the guests that they have coming, making sure that we
02:32.635 --> 02:36.258
are able to accommodate them in whichever sort of format that they
02:36.758 --> 02:40.009
need. And whether that means getting a
02:40.089 --> 02:43.984
translator in, working with our AV company to create captions,
02:44.657 --> 02:48.152
whether that means having additional staff to greet guests on
02:48.200 --> 02:51.615
arrival and explain the route through of the venue,
02:51.711 --> 02:55.061
all of those things. We try really to be as upfront
02:55.141 --> 02:58.573
and clear and helpful and welcoming to everyone that comes
02:58.605 --> 03:02.202
through our doors. I think it might be useful for this particular
03:02.702 --> 03:06.295
panel to maybe give some context to the people sitting here, and indeed for
03:06.795 --> 03:10.485
the recording, for anybody watching this back after today's event, as to the other
03:10.550 --> 03:14.017
3, your backgrounds and why you're representing and
03:14.098 --> 03:17.597
on the panel today. Matt, could we start with you and just tell the people
03:17.613 --> 03:20.969
watching and sat here today what Event Decision is
03:21.001 --> 03:23.987
and how you help venues and organisers? Of course, yes.
03:24.051 --> 03:26.893
So I'm part of the team at Event Decision. We're 5 years old. We're all
03:27.262 --> 03:30.588
We're a small team of event people. We're not
03:30.636 --> 03:34.589
techies that have moved into your space. We're all firmly event profs,
03:35.602 --> 03:38.831
and we, we do 2 things really. We measure the carbon impact of events,
03:38.928 --> 03:42.415
so 27,000 events now we've, we've delivered reporting
03:43.154 --> 03:46.271
on, and we look on a much wider basis on some of these other words
03:46.448 --> 03:50.530
around purpose and responsibility. So responsibility
03:50.578 --> 03:54.591
is a word I may say once or twice today, but Our elevator
03:55.091 --> 03:57.829
pitch, if you like, is we help anyone anywhere deliver an event more responsibly.
03:59.048 --> 04:02.960
And we've seen over 13 million
04:02.992 --> 04:06.166
delegates' worth and 10,000 events' worth of
04:06.198 --> 04:09.164
data going through that product that we call Impact.
04:09.869 --> 04:12.867
So, and it involves every single— we were just discussing what these words are here,
04:13.076 --> 04:15.994
which I'm sure we'll get to, and there's multiple meanings for all of it.
04:16.058 --> 04:20.034
But if you want a broad view of sustainability
04:21.188 --> 04:25.167
or social value, or how responsibly you deliver
04:25.667 --> 04:27.496
your events with those people.
04:28.840 --> 04:32.090
Claire, same to you. Tell us a little bit about Eventful so that
04:32.590 --> 04:37.266
there's some context for the conversation. Sure. So Eventful will be 25 years old next
04:37.766 --> 04:40.874
year. We're a venue sourcing, event management, and incentive agency.
04:41.549 --> 04:45.329
Personally, I've been in the events industry for 30 years, giving away
04:45.409 --> 04:48.789
my age slightly. But our
04:49.289 --> 04:51.734
role in the food chain for events is very much finding the right venue for
04:52.234 --> 04:56.060
a client. So that's very much understanding what it is that the client and
04:56.560 --> 04:59.800
the audience needs from a venue and matching it with the venue.
04:59.880 --> 05:03.100
So to Sophie's point about understanding what a venue from the
05:03.600 --> 05:06.880
beginning can offer, it helps us put the two together. Sorry, we went
05:07.380 --> 05:11.380
dark for a second because there's a
05:11.880 --> 05:14.540
lighting panel at the back of the room that I think somebody leant on,
05:15.040 --> 05:17.520
which is absolutely fine. Oh, it wasn't to tell me to shut up?
05:17.780 --> 05:20.920
Welcome! And you're done! It wasn't the
05:21.420 --> 05:24.600
modern technology of the hook round the neck and off the stage. OK,
05:25.100 --> 05:27.137
that's good to know. Julia,
05:27.539 --> 05:31.283
TranslateAble, tell us a little bit about the business and again
05:31.331 --> 05:35.509
some context. So we provide a range of inclusivity
05:36.009 --> 05:39.654
services really, so language services that can be interpreters,
05:40.072 --> 05:43.655
translation, captioning as well. We've got the lovely Mel here providing
05:43.703 --> 05:47.447
sign language, and I've been in the events industry for 20 years.
05:47.560 --> 05:51.577
I used to be event operations, so on the organising side, and have
05:52.077 --> 05:55.495
become a supplier since, and we basically work with all types of organisers,
05:55.527 --> 05:58.724
from agencies to conference organisers,
05:58.820 --> 06:02.435
exhibition organisers, to also partnering with venues
06:02.628 --> 06:04.770
to provide language services.
06:06.316 --> 06:09.973
I was thinking about this particular session today, and obviously we're here because we're under
06:10.473 --> 06:13.704
the Unique Venues of London showcase today and that sort of banner,
06:14.157 --> 06:17.713
but I was thinking actually, do we need
06:18.213 --> 06:22.182
to steer the conversation specifically down sustainability,
06:22.278 --> 06:26.318
accessibility, inclusion, diversity in unique venues, because really this
06:26.382 --> 06:29.989
is a conversation for every venue, really, isn't it? There isn't just a unique
06:30.489 --> 06:33.932
aspect to it just because, you know, there might be, you know, potentially with the
06:34.092 --> 06:37.635
physical access requirements in some older buildings and things
06:38.135 --> 06:41.402
like that, but when we talk about other elements of accessibility, really this
06:42.107 --> 06:45.955
is applicable to all events now, isn't it, Matt? Absolutely. I mean, we'd hope
06:46.455 --> 06:49.545
some of the services that Julia has to provide and that you do or
06:50.045 --> 06:53.072
don't across different areas of your venue and that you advise your clients on They're
06:53.572 --> 06:57.004
like event planning 101. Like, if someone can't get to your event or
06:57.504 --> 07:00.503
can't understand the content or can't see the screen,
07:01.337 --> 07:04.306
you're doing something fundamentally wrong. So,
07:05.253 --> 07:08.864
and some of those areas are, you know, almost legislated in terms
07:09.364 --> 07:13.213
of accessibility. So, and you're representing a brand during that event,
07:13.534 --> 07:16.952
and probably the worst sin for that brand is being
07:17.305 --> 07:20.746
called out on some of this stuff. You know, we've all seen over
07:21.246 --> 07:23.810
the years a LinkedIn post going, I tried to get— I went to an event
07:24.310 --> 07:28.410
in London last year held by a really massive registration
07:28.910 --> 07:32.391
platform that happens every year, and they
07:32.891 --> 07:36.032
invited somebody to come and talk about
07:36.532 --> 07:39.903
actually this stuff. And he was based in— is based
07:39.968 --> 07:42.694
in York, and he declined the invitation.
07:42.952 --> 07:46.401
He's wheelchair-bound. The only reason that he didn't want to come,
07:46.450 --> 07:49.513
and he's an expert in all this, is is just, this is far too much
07:49.609 --> 07:53.200
hard work and that venue is really tricky. And that's not
07:53.296 --> 07:56.952
great when you can't attract a speaker. Sure. So it's
07:57.481 --> 08:00.623
becoming more and more the norm, I think. Hopefully Julia will agree.
08:01.088 --> 08:04.856
And the venues and the agents are far more tuned in than
08:05.356 --> 08:09.441
they used to be. Please. I'll say, yeah, I do agree
08:09.489 --> 08:13.433
that kind of people are using these kinds of services more. But I think
08:13.933 --> 08:16.736
from my side, what I've also noticed, although people are more open to using these
08:17.236 --> 08:20.727
sorts of services, the focus does tend to be a
08:21.227 --> 08:25.264
lot of the time on budget rather than thinking about the individual
08:25.857 --> 08:29.175
that's going to benefit from the services that come from this.
08:29.640 --> 08:32.862
So I think there's kind of maybe some thinking to be done as to what
08:32.910 --> 08:36.597
we prioritise in events, that kind of rather the budget
08:36.661 --> 08:40.204
or the people at the end of it. From a consultative point
08:40.704 --> 08:43.715
of view, Claire, I don't know whether or not there's— is there still a reactive
08:44.215 --> 08:47.595
approach to this subject as a whole rather than a proactive approach?
08:47.676 --> 08:51.396
Is it people coming saying, we've had this specific request from somebody who's attending our
08:51.896 --> 08:55.293
event? Yeah, I think particularly our role
08:55.341 --> 08:59.126
as the agency, we don't have to be purely reactive to what the client's
08:59.607 --> 09:03.856
looking for. We can be proactive in that. So looking at the RFP
09:04.356 --> 09:08.908
process from the very beginning when we're speaking to venues, making sure we're gathering that
09:08.972 --> 09:12.756
information based on an understanding of who the audience is and
09:13.256 --> 09:17.328
who is attending and any requirements that we know exist, but not everybody
09:17.828 --> 09:21.516
shares what requirements they have. So we, we need to be looking at—
09:21.821 --> 09:25.527
yes, people— I myself am partially sighted, so I'm very sort of keyed
09:26.027 --> 09:30.966
into that side of things, but also neurodivergence and quiet spaces within
09:31.466 --> 09:34.753
a space, as well as people with physical disabilities. So if
09:35.202 --> 09:38.315
my team, when they're doing site inspections, has all this in mind—
09:38.652 --> 09:41.765
this is why site inspections are so important. When a client says they don't want
09:41.797 --> 09:45.506
to do a site inspection, I'm really nervous. So it's important
09:45.554 --> 09:48.944
for us to have those site inspections and do the walk and see
09:49.444 --> 09:53.040
it through the eyes of as many diverse people as possible.
09:53.217 --> 09:56.350
It's interesting you mentioned about the quiet spaces, because if you ask me,
09:56.575 --> 09:59.868
I'm fortunate enough, I have, you know, I moonlight as the
10:00.368 --> 10:03.097
host of the Event Industry News podcast, so I get to speak to a lot
10:03.597 --> 10:07.146
of people from a lot of different backgrounds, and the quiet room
10:07.901 --> 10:11.644
is the thing that I've seen probably the most progress with in
10:11.676 --> 10:14.871
the last sort of 2, 3, 4 years. I'm curious, just a show of
10:15.371 --> 10:19.158
hands, who's deployed a quiet room or, you know, a sort of quiet
10:19.658 --> 10:23.878
space at an event? Okay, is it something that was done because
10:24.378 --> 10:28.020
of a particular request, or is it something you just incorporate as
10:28.052 --> 10:30.894
standard? I'm curious to sort of maybe find out. What was it?
10:31.248 --> 10:34.956
Mine was a request. A request. It was a
10:35.456 --> 10:38.745
prom that I organised For a school, and they asked for a quiet
10:39.245 --> 10:41.940
space for a prom for a school. Fantastic.
10:42.968 --> 10:46.532
Fantastic. And yeah, I guess something we were
10:47.032 --> 10:50.337
talking on the first panel today, Sophie, was the importance of these
10:50.835 --> 10:54.175
really detailed venue visits. And once you can get a client through the door
10:54.207 --> 10:57.209
to actually see the spaces, you can look at what's achievable.
10:57.739 --> 11:01.881
Absolutely. We actually won't accept a signed contract
11:02.170 --> 11:06.383
until a client has done a show round for a myriad of reasons. But the
11:06.432 --> 11:09.228
ability to stand within a space,
11:09.486 --> 11:12.299
understand how it flows, how it feels,
11:13.863 --> 11:17.450
and pick up on spare rooms, spare spaces,
11:17.563 --> 11:20.588
things that can be transformed into quiet places.
11:22.568 --> 11:26.036
What the distance is between the stage and the person who's going
11:26.536 --> 11:30.012
to be sat right at the back. How it feels as somebody
11:30.512 --> 11:33.767
when they're first coming. What that walk from the station looks like. All of that
11:33.783 --> 11:36.976
is really, really important for our clients to understand because at the end of the
11:36.992 --> 11:39.366
day, we don't just want the client to be happy at the end of the
11:39.398 --> 11:42.526
event. We want all of the guests to have come. They're not going to remember
11:43.026 --> 11:46.296
the nuances of the suppliers and who was in. They're going to remember, I went
11:46.796 --> 11:49.472
to the Royal Observatory and I had a fabulous time. I went to the National
11:49.972 --> 11:52.761
Maritime Museum and I had a wonderful time. Or I went to one of those
11:52.793 --> 11:56.033
venues and I didn't have, you know, I didn't feel welcomed. I didn't feel included.
11:56.402 --> 11:59.915
I didn't feel wanted. All of those things. And that's the opposite of what we
12:00.415 --> 12:03.988
want. To achieve. I've had the good fortune of having both
12:04.085 --> 12:08.270
Julia and Matt recently on the Event Industry News podcast
12:08.992 --> 12:12.824
to talk about this subject, and I can't remember which one of you said it,
12:13.081 --> 12:16.192
and it might have been both of you, that was all— everything that's on the
12:16.692 --> 12:20.554
screen here actually can be accessed and used
12:20.618 --> 12:25.012
and has a benefit to every attendee regardless of
12:25.512 --> 12:29.502
any specific requirement that they might have. So actually, when people
12:30.002 --> 12:33.129
are still maybe pigeonholing translation services, for example, or closed
12:33.629 --> 12:37.079
captioning, Julia, as something that might have to come for a specific request or
12:37.368 --> 12:40.676
to benefit a specific attendee or
12:41.176 --> 12:44.641
group of attendees. It actually has a benefit to the entire audience,
12:44.690 --> 12:48.960
I think. Yeah, exactly. There's a stat that
12:49.089 --> 12:53.071
the younger generation— I can't remember the age exactly— but about 62%
12:53.119 --> 12:56.667
of the younger generation now will watch a programme
12:56.894 --> 13:00.759
in English with English subtitles. So I
13:00.792 --> 13:04.487
know that a lot of people think captions, it's for accessibility, but actually
13:05.398 --> 13:08.389
a lot of people just use captions in general.
13:10.020 --> 13:13.288
But I do also think sometimes we make it a bit difficult for people as
13:13.788 --> 13:17.381
well to know what we provide at events. So there are lots of organisers who
13:17.397 --> 13:20.720
will do things like captions, provide sign language interpreters, but then
13:20.770 --> 13:24.310
don't tell anybody about it. So nobody actually knows that
13:24.810 --> 13:27.250
they can attend the event, that the event will be accessible. So I think that's
13:27.750 --> 13:30.269
also a big part of it, making sure that people know what it is that
13:30.769 --> 13:33.700
you're providing as well as providing it. Is that something that you would sort of,
13:33.730 --> 13:36.710
you know, organisations and events that you're working with— Well,
13:37.210 --> 13:40.810
on the first bit, all my kids watch closed caption, so that I can't
13:41.310 --> 13:43.170
tell they're watching TikTok under the table at dinner time.
13:44.550 --> 13:47.850
But yeah, I mean, going back to the title, Purpose-Driven Events, I mean,
13:48.350 --> 13:51.347
you know, let's Let's move from theoretical into real. This is an event today,
13:51.428 --> 13:55.229
right? The purpose of that, presumably for you guys, if you're corporate,
13:55.310 --> 13:59.167
agency, association, whatever you are, is to learn more
13:59.215 --> 14:02.627
and see more venues upstairs. And damn sure their purpose is to
14:03.127 --> 14:06.341
sell their space. So that's the ultimate purpose
14:06.390 --> 14:09.967
of the event. It's revenue and awareness generating. And all
14:10.081 --> 14:12.687
this other stuff is there to facilitate that.
14:14.102 --> 14:18.606
This stuff isn't compulsory, right? It's not compulsory to take the food from
14:19.376 --> 14:23.624
over there, I think it is on this side, and redistribute
14:24.124 --> 14:27.904
that to the community afterwards. That's not the— it is a purposeful thing, but it's
14:28.404 --> 14:31.799
not the purpose of the meeting. Or to calculate the social value that
14:31.815 --> 14:35.390
even this event here is generating as we're sat
14:35.422 --> 14:39.398
here. There's a budget associated with the event and the proportion of
14:39.414 --> 14:42.784
that in pounds can be associated with social value.
14:43.201 --> 14:46.734
All that stuff is there. All this, you know, we're all sitting here able to
14:47.234 --> 14:51.390
support you guys in delivering a better
14:52.610 --> 14:57.283
event by doing some of this stuff to facilitate you educating
14:57.331 --> 15:00.767
your salespeople or selling your space or whatever
15:00.783 --> 15:03.770
it is you do to make the pounds and shillings go round and round.
15:04.139 --> 15:08.263
This stuff just makes it better. And there's tools out there,
15:08.487 --> 15:11.133
which if you want to go back and listen to our podcast, I will talk
15:11.633 --> 15:15.126
about forever, that can actually really help you
15:15.626 --> 15:19.953
do this stuff and show you how good your product is. You've got some KPIs
15:20.258 --> 15:22.567
or ROI on your event, acronym city.
15:23.625 --> 15:27.025
The idea of the event is, is to sell stuff or
15:27.525 --> 15:31.066
educate people. This stuff just helps you do it better. And there's
15:31.114 --> 15:34.412
tools that will help you and show you How good is your event
15:35.047 --> 15:38.565
compared to other people's? Compared to the person you're sitting next to right now.
15:40.122 --> 15:44.342
Dax, you're on your own now, aren't you? How good's your event product compared
15:44.842 --> 15:48.477
to theirs? And now you can tell. So all this stuff,
15:48.574 --> 15:52.171
which is quite wide, and social impact, and D&I,
15:52.447 --> 15:55.866
or E, or whatever you want to call it within that— they all have different
15:56.366 --> 16:00.110
definitions. But there are tools out there that help you actually quantify
16:00.610 --> 16:04.221
all this stuff and demonstrate therefore demonstrate your value to
16:04.721 --> 16:07.995
your boss and to your organisation. And it's
16:08.495 --> 16:12.201
kind of sustainability and responsibility in events is growing
16:12.314 --> 16:16.103
up finally. I'm curious to ask,
16:16.167 --> 16:19.635
or maybe another show of hands out here, social impact is
16:20.135 --> 16:23.424
a phrase that always sort of piques my curiosity when I see it.
16:23.473 --> 16:26.925
I'm like, okay, what do we actually mean by social impact at events?
16:27.506 --> 16:31.034
Anybody sat in the audience here organise events and they have
16:31.471 --> 16:35.339
something in their business or in their organisational structure that monitors
16:35.355 --> 16:36.787
or looks at social impact?
16:39.190 --> 16:42.581
Yes. Do you want me to explain? Excellent, but please, yeah, I'd love
16:43.081 --> 16:46.407
to know. Let me get you a mic, Dax, because then we'll get this
16:46.841 --> 16:50.559
on the recording. It's a very broad category, but I look
16:51.059 --> 16:54.670
at things like community engagement, Are we working with local people?
16:55.220 --> 16:58.813
I look at fair treatment of workers and just other elements that
16:58.926 --> 17:02.002
make sure that we're delivering a positive social benefit
17:02.505 --> 17:05.667
either geographically or employee-wise with the event.
17:08.692 --> 17:11.921
Anyone want to pick up on that? Events aren't— we're
17:12.421 --> 17:15.488
not building hospitals, any of us, are we? We're not building a bridge to connect
17:15.520 --> 17:19.704
between here and the South Bank. We're doing short-term interventionist
17:20.204 --> 17:24.174
stuff, but it still has a real value. Yeah, and certainly within
17:24.335 --> 17:28.181
Unique Venues particularly, I would hazard that
17:28.197 --> 17:32.251
at least 85% of the venues upstairs are charities.
17:32.764 --> 17:35.985
The reason they are
17:36.369 --> 17:40.103
part of Unique Venues of London is because events is not their sole purpose.
17:40.215 --> 17:43.805
Their sole purpose is as a museum or an art gallery or engagement
17:44.305 --> 17:47.993
with the local community or whatever it might be. And events generate
17:48.493 --> 17:52.358
really valuable revenue that goes right back into the organisation. So I
17:52.406 --> 17:56.755
know that of my events, the value
17:56.819 --> 18:01.071
that we give goes right back into our engagement
18:01.571 --> 18:05.661
with our local communities, our schools programme, our academic work.
18:06.046 --> 18:09.400
All of that is why we do what we do. And I'm sure I could
18:09.900 --> 18:12.096
go and work somewhere commercial and get paid a lot more money, but that's not
18:12.144 --> 18:16.046
why I do it. I do it because I know that I'm benefiting something
18:16.479 --> 18:20.284
bigger than myself. And when you are hiring
18:20.348 --> 18:23.126
a unique venue to, to host your event,
18:23.543 --> 18:27.043
not only do you know that your money is going not to line
18:27.300 --> 18:30.527
a fat cat's pockets but to go back into that, but also I think the
18:30.608 --> 18:35.424
guests that are attending that event get more out of it. They get that experience,
18:35.488 --> 18:40.257
the educational element, they get to exist somewhere
18:40.402 --> 18:44.159
that perhaps they've never been to entirely, that isn't
18:44.175 --> 18:47.964
sort of a bland conference centre or a kind
18:48.464 --> 18:51.095
of very commercial set-up event venue.
18:51.705 --> 18:55.463
You're in a gallery, you're in, you know, somewhere that is
18:55.639 --> 18:59.188
exciting your brain and your purpose, and then ultimately
18:59.252 --> 19:02.881
you're going to bring your family back and your friends, and it feeds into all
19:03.381 --> 19:06.406
of those things. Things. I think that's where unique venues can really benefit that social
19:06.906 --> 19:10.700
impact for an event. And social impact
19:10.748 --> 19:14.177
and social value is more on the radar now, and in fact
19:14.677 --> 19:17.718
it's linking again into the next session that we've got here, which is going to
19:18.218 --> 19:22.060
be talking about, you know, the next generation of event organisers. And again,
19:22.124 --> 19:25.441
it's a conversation that I've had many times, and I think that maybe one
19:25.473 --> 19:29.558
of the key drivers of improving accessibility and
19:30.058 --> 19:33.376
seeing this as the norm in events rather than specific add-ons is because
19:33.425 --> 19:36.156
of a better attitude from the younger generation. I don't know if that's something that
19:36.656 --> 19:39.498
you would agree with, Julia, or whether or not you think that the younger generation
19:39.998 --> 19:42.567
coming into the industry will be a driving force in all of this stuff just
19:43.067 --> 19:46.359
becoming part and parcel of organising an event. I'm not sure
19:46.859 --> 19:50.682
it's necessarily the younger generation, really. I think it's
19:51.182 --> 19:54.602
everyone's responsibility to do that. I will
19:55.102 --> 19:57.655
give a shout-out to one of the unique venues that we work with, Carlton House.
19:57.912 --> 20:01.249
Terrace. So they basically, kind of accessibility inclusion,
20:01.361 --> 20:04.490
super important to them, and kind of they will go
20:04.634 --> 20:07.987
out and seek companies to work with to provide accessibility
20:08.035 --> 20:11.420
services. They'll put them forward to people that come and do events at their venue.
20:12.255 --> 20:15.511
A lot of their, I think all their front of house staff are BSL
20:15.624 --> 20:19.618
trained as well, so anybody that comes into their venues, they can
20:19.650 --> 20:22.683
speak British Sign Language to them.
20:23.838 --> 20:27.092
So I don't think it's necessarily the younger generation that is the
20:27.592 --> 20:31.356
driver, but going back to the point that Matt made about
20:32.542 --> 20:36.469
that kind of we're not the kind of the purpose of
20:36.969 --> 20:40.284
the event, I kind of feel that DEI is a bit of a driver.
20:40.332 --> 20:44.163
I kind of feel like we build events to engage
20:44.179 --> 20:47.914
people, to teach them something.
20:47.963 --> 20:51.236
So I think it's super important that everybody can engage in it in a way
20:51.316 --> 20:55.233
that they're comfortable with, which is why for me I kind of think that things
20:55.249 --> 20:58.987
like sign language, things like caption are a necessity
20:59.487 --> 21:03.141
just to make sure that everyone does feel comfortable, everybody can engage
21:03.253 --> 21:07.588
as well. I've just scribbled down here sustainability
21:07.604 --> 21:11.543
and training because I know when we started
21:12.043 --> 21:15.683
to kind of have the conversation in the events industry about sustainability, and Matt
21:16.183 --> 21:19.769
and I joked about this, about, oh, we've got to recycle our coffee cups,
21:19.929 --> 21:23.200
you know, that's sustainability, you know,
21:23.216 --> 21:26.439
we've got to have bamboo plates and it's all going to be recycled.
21:26.744 --> 21:29.598
But you mentioned about the training, the BSL training,
21:30.095 --> 21:33.126
and sustainability is investment in people as well.
21:33.559 --> 21:37.086
It's reducing turnover of staff in a venue or an organisation
21:37.487 --> 21:41.384
because that makes your business a more sustainable business. So the training
21:41.416 --> 21:44.771
element— I see you nodding, Sophie— You know, that's an
21:45.271 --> 21:48.831
important part of it and is often overlooked when it comes to the subject
21:49.331 --> 21:52.584
of sustainability, I think. Absolutely. I mean, we've just trained
21:53.084 --> 21:55.820
all of my events team, and it's going through the whole wider museum, but I
21:56.320 --> 21:59.811
made sure that my events team were done very early of
22:00.087 --> 22:02.668
just basic carbon literacy training, you know,
22:03.415 --> 22:08.418
and being able to take people
22:08.548 --> 22:10.905
who are excellent at what they do and actually take them out of their comfort
22:11.405 --> 22:14.233
zone and show them just different things and experience,
22:15.019 --> 22:18.595
whether that is inclusivity training or neurodiversity
22:18.627 --> 22:21.802
training around how to talk to people, sustainability training,
22:21.899 --> 22:25.251
all of those different things create a more well-rounded person. It gives them
22:25.347 --> 22:28.699
more, more kind of hopes and aspirations
22:28.731 --> 22:31.826
and dreams of which to achieve, and I think it, it makes a company better.
22:32.243 --> 22:35.835
And, and so everything kind of works holistically
22:35.867 --> 22:39.731
in that, in that frame of mind. Is there a potential
22:40.231 --> 22:44.203
that— again, I'm looking at you, Claire, as questions are popping into my head about
22:44.703 --> 22:47.809
going back to the subject of unique venues and why we're here today— that there
22:48.309 --> 22:52.024
could be, again, a misconception logistically that doing
22:52.857 --> 22:56.383
an event in an old building or historic building in
22:56.448 --> 23:00.647
London could perhaps have an increased carbon
23:01.147 --> 23:04.445
impact compared to doing it outside of a big city?
23:04.734 --> 23:08.456
Is that a consideration that ever comes into play? I think it is a perception
23:08.633 --> 23:11.702
and it is something that we— there is an education element.
23:11.782 --> 23:15.928
And something that's sort of come into my mind as everybody's speaking is the
23:16.024 --> 23:19.511
why a venue is chosen. There's a lot of reasons.
23:19.897 --> 23:22.147
And a lot of time when a venue is chosen, you've got an invite to
23:22.647 --> 23:25.489
go to a conference, you don't know why that venue was chosen.
23:25.537 --> 23:28.928
It's just where the conference is happening. So to your point,
23:28.992 --> 23:32.511
Sophie, about what you do at your venues and
23:33.011 --> 23:37.002
what what the Carlton Terrace offers. Do all the attendees know that? Is that communicated
23:37.502 --> 23:41.300
to all the attendees? After the event, is there opportunity
23:41.396 --> 23:44.844
to share some of the historical impact, getting a sense of place?
23:45.357 --> 23:49.398
So I think there's a big role of the comms teams
23:49.671 --> 23:53.520
who are putting on these events as well to make sure that's all
23:54.020 --> 23:57.737
communicated. But to be specific with your question about unique venues,
23:57.834 --> 24:00.980
it's perception. But also there's a lot of unique Grade
24:01.480 --> 24:05.283
II listed, Grade I listed hotels out there that have same challenges.
24:05.813 --> 24:09.377
So it's not just unique venues. And as everybody
24:09.474 --> 24:12.781
has different challenges with different
24:13.281 --> 24:16.394
things, some hotels— like, I really
24:16.894 --> 24:20.938
struggle with patterned carpets. If there's patterned carpets on stairs, that's something
24:20.954 --> 24:24.471
I really struggle with. But that's not something you can you
24:24.503 --> 24:28.356
consider when looking at a venue. That's something that I struggle
24:28.856 --> 24:32.499
with. I just think there's a big communication
24:32.531 --> 24:36.112
piece there that needs to happen so the audience understand why a venue
24:36.128 --> 24:39.580
is selected. I've never come across
24:40.080 --> 24:42.582
that before, what you've just said about the patterned carpets. But as soon as you
24:43.082 --> 24:46.516
said it, it makes complete sense. Who's come across it before?
24:46.741 --> 24:49.615
Who's never come across what Clare's just said before?
24:50.177 --> 24:53.051
And who did what I did, which is go, oh wow, that makes so much
24:53.083 --> 24:55.812
sense. Yeah, of course. You know,
24:56.454 --> 24:59.231
why is there not a resource platform? Is it, you know, why is there not
24:59.841 --> 25:03.197
a platform with all of these little golden nuggets of information on
25:03.697 --> 25:07.740
there, Matt? I have to be honest, none of our platforms actually
25:07.852 --> 25:11.464
talk about patterned carpet, but I think we know why they do patterned carpet,
25:11.528 --> 25:14.129
right? Yes. Yeah, yeah. So, um,
25:14.819 --> 25:18.496
yeah, I mean, when it comes to carbon stuff, we We tend to delineate stuff
25:18.689 --> 25:22.879
inside and outside the room. So the biggest decision that
25:22.944 --> 25:26.637
you will make, if you're making one on the basis of the carbon footprint
25:27.137 --> 25:30.298
of your whole event, is your destination. Bar none.
25:31.598 --> 25:35.034
You could literally serve Argentinian beef out on
25:35.147 --> 25:38.197
plastic straws and do all that stuff within your event, and the
25:38.697 --> 25:42.821
largest part will be getting there. So choosing where your destination location
25:43.415 --> 25:47.187
is by far the most when it comes to carbon. Even for this event
25:47.687 --> 25:51.039
here, I'm not going to say by a show of hands who drove here.
25:51.183 --> 25:55.019
No one drives to Somerset House today. So assuming
25:55.035 --> 25:58.743
we've all come on the District Line or whatever, it'd still be the largest
25:59.243 --> 26:02.723
part of this event, even including the— and then there's the Ubers
26:02.916 --> 26:05.724
probably with people with all their stands and stuff. So,
26:06.206 --> 26:09.542
but whereas everything— so that's outside of the Inside the room
26:09.574 --> 26:12.348
on carbon, it's relatively small,
26:13.807 --> 26:17.301
but it's massively visible. It's the most annoying thing
26:17.350 --> 26:20.011
about events. Outside the room, huge impact,
26:21.197 --> 26:24.403
and nobody sees it. You're not even considering it. We're all
26:24.903 --> 26:28.010
in our own worlds at these events. Inside the room, your food,
26:28.026 --> 26:30.864
your lanyard— there was loads of talk about lanyards in the early years.
26:31.233 --> 26:34.340
It's like, do the best you can. It's not going
26:34.390 --> 26:38.010
to impact your carbon. Everything inside the room, it's just what
26:38.510 --> 26:41.942
it looks like. Food, you put it in front of your people's faces. Of course
26:42.442 --> 26:44.971
they're going to go, oh, it's an event about sustainability and they're serving beef.
26:45.100 --> 26:48.570
That's dreadful. Well, that's an optic. That's your
26:49.070 --> 26:52.685
choice. That's your brand and your customer's choice what you serve. And the serveware
26:53.185 --> 26:56.661
and your bamboo plates and all that stuff, that's great. There's usually
26:57.161 --> 27:01.059
crockery on site. Just please use it. So there's
27:01.075 --> 27:04.682
loads of disparities in the carbon side as well. The biggest choice from
27:05.182 --> 27:08.529
a venue perspective, from an agency perspective, will be where do
27:09.029 --> 27:12.889
you put it? Where's everyone coming from? I'm curious to know whether or not
27:13.659 --> 27:17.378
the exhibitors who are upstairs, whether it was specifically part of
27:17.426 --> 27:20.888
the sustainability aspect restricting the exhibitors.
27:20.952 --> 27:24.944
I don't know if you've all noticed upstairs, they've only got one or two pull-up
27:25.444 --> 27:29.256
banners. It's fairly consistent. They were told specifically what they could and couldn't bring
27:29.689 --> 27:33.160
because of the space restrictions. But it also meant that the types of pull-up banners
27:33.660 --> 27:36.740
that they've got, they could travel on the Tube because they throw them on their
27:37.240 --> 27:40.300
shoulder and bring— Nobody's got big— Is there anybody that we can ask? Where's Event
27:40.800 --> 27:43.890
Industry News when you need them? You're UPL. Was that a factor?
27:44.140 --> 27:48.480
It was a factor. I won't say it was the
27:48.980 --> 27:52.500
factor, but it certainly was a factor that was discussed. OK, well,
27:53.000 --> 27:55.900
there you go. And there's no harm in that, I don't think. I think that's
27:56.400 --> 27:59.475
one of the points, is that you don't have to say. Yes, it was.
27:59.523 --> 28:02.156
Yes, it absolutely was. You could say yes, it was a small part of it,
28:02.236 --> 28:04.211
but a small part of it is better than no part of it.
28:05.608 --> 28:08.546
And sometimes these elements are actually competing with each other because,
28:09.044 --> 28:12.287
like the sustainability in travel, if somebody— the gentleman you
28:12.787 --> 28:16.012
mentioned earlier travelling from York— it's not always possible to travel,
28:16.751 --> 28:20.267
you know, by public transport. They may need to have vehicles
28:20.299 --> 28:24.008
which does have a larger carbon, but then it improves their accessibility to
28:24.072 --> 28:27.618
that venue. So sometimes you're having to look at payoff,
28:28.083 --> 28:31.003
as it were, between the 2 elements.
28:32.094 --> 28:36.282
I'm looking at time and half an hour in. I'm certainly
28:36.782 --> 28:39.105
not going to wrap things up. But what I am going to do is give
28:39.555 --> 28:43.309
people who have sat here today the opportunity to maybe pick the
28:43.809 --> 28:47.208
brains of the experience that we've got on stage. Has anybody had an event or
28:47.721 --> 28:51.243
had a request from a client where it falls into this subject matter,
28:51.275 --> 28:54.741
sustainability, accessibility, that maybe they would like to
28:55.241 --> 28:57.961
sort of put their hand up and be willing to ask our panel if they've
28:57.977 --> 29:01.276
got any guidance or advice. Anybody come across this and would like
29:01.356 --> 29:05.021
to share something? Silence again, Matt.
29:05.736 --> 29:08.399
Oh, okay, we hand the mic again.
29:10.219 --> 29:13.610
So because we're at this Unique Venues event,
29:14.567 --> 29:17.936
this is a 2-sided question. One is, what should we expect
29:17.968 --> 29:21.533
venues to tell us from a data standpoint connected to this?
29:22.464 --> 29:25.964
And secondly is, what should organizers ask of venues
29:26.157 --> 29:28.260
in their brief when it comes to these elements?
29:29.288 --> 29:33.800
Would you like to jump in with the first part?
29:33.944 --> 29:36.947
I can do either or both. I mean, as far as I'm aware, from an
29:37.447 --> 29:39.821
event decision perspective, it's entirely up to the organizer what they want to share.
29:40.223 --> 29:43.289
It's their event. If they want to say this event here was—
29:43.789 --> 29:46.629
I'm not asking about what to share with attendees. I'm asking about the relationship between
29:47.129 --> 29:50.772
the organizer and the venue and what should the organizers
29:50.868 --> 29:54.738
be expecting venues to provide them from a data standpoint
29:55.238 --> 29:58.896
connected to these and what questions should the organizer
29:59.396 --> 30:02.622
be asking the venues when they're trying to assess if the venue is a good
30:02.670 --> 30:07.069
fit for them from social responsibility? I see. So questions each way between organizer
30:07.422 --> 30:10.985
and venue? Well, shall I let the venue have a crack at that
30:11.018 --> 30:15.126
first? Otherwise I can— Sophie? So I think it's
30:15.626 --> 30:19.203
always going to be dependent, and I will be very frank.
30:19.540 --> 30:23.280
We, with my venues— I have 5 venues— and
30:23.376 --> 30:27.003
we are not yet able with the
30:27.806 --> 30:31.562
systems that we have in place— all of my venues are Grade I listed— and
30:32.062 --> 30:35.571
we are not yet able to provide really accurate kind
30:36.071 --> 30:39.819
of electricity data for a specific event
30:40.319 --> 30:44.741
timeframe. We have estimates that we can give based on previous events
30:44.805 --> 30:48.284
of a similar sort, but it's really, really difficult to give accurate
30:48.316 --> 30:51.827
data. So we're always very honest. If somebody wants to be
30:51.843 --> 30:55.369
able to— they say, I want to be able to exactly track my carbon footprint,
30:55.385 --> 30:58.528
I need this information from you— we'll say, this is what we can provide and
30:59.028 --> 31:01.851
This is what we can't, and we have lost business on the basis of not
31:01.884 --> 31:05.304
being able to provide that. And we accept that, and it is something that we're
31:05.400 --> 31:09.318
working internally to continue to get better at. The National Maritime Museum,
31:09.334 --> 31:13.059
for example, is really tricky because it gets electricity from about 5
31:13.559 --> 31:17.314
different points, and we just can't work out how to measure
31:17.814 --> 31:21.553
all of them, make it specific to the event, and then merge them
31:22.053 --> 31:25.937
all together. What I always really recognise,
31:26.050 --> 31:29.392
and I say this as a board member of UVL rather than as
31:29.424 --> 31:33.199
a venue, is when venues are working towards specific
31:33.699 --> 31:37.136
goals. So when I get a client coming to me
31:37.636 --> 31:40.044
and they say, do you have a sustainability policy? And I say, yes, here is
31:40.544 --> 31:42.823
our sustainability policy, and that's it,
31:44.124 --> 31:47.290
I go, well, that was a tick box. They haven't read it,
31:47.804 --> 31:51.177
they don't care about it, that was an irrelevancy, they just needed to tick
31:51.257 --> 31:54.982
on a form somewhere internally that they've checked. What I like to
31:55.482 --> 31:59.028
know is what goals are they currently working to? Are those goals
31:59.445 --> 32:03.314
being measured? Do they have timelines in place? And are they on
32:03.814 --> 32:07.408
track to achieving those? And if they're not on track to achieving those, why aren't
32:07.908 --> 32:11.342
they? Or if they are, what's the next goal? So I like to ask really
32:11.647 --> 32:15.725
in-depth leading questions like that, and that usually gives a better indication of
32:16.078 --> 32:19.177
where a venue is at in their sustainability journey, and it is a journey.
32:19.514 --> 32:22.677
Some of our venues within the, the 90
32:22.725 --> 32:26.033
member venues are really far ahead and they are able to give
32:26.533 --> 32:29.790
really accurate things and they're leaps and bounds. Some of them are really small and
32:30.111 --> 32:33.419
they're just trying to get rid of single-use plastic on their site,
32:33.740 --> 32:37.401
but that is as valiant an effort as some of the really larger stuff
32:37.497 --> 32:41.174
depending on the scope of opportunity that they all have.
32:41.624 --> 32:45.319
So I always look for really really smart objectives,
32:45.624 --> 32:48.838
timed goals, things that
32:49.338 --> 32:52.338
they can talk honestly and accurately with you about,
32:52.455 --> 32:53.928
and where they're doing well and where they're not.
32:56.813 --> 32:59.053
Okay. Did we get the second part of that as well? Is that all?
33:00.560 --> 33:03.561
Yes. Excellent. Thank you very much. Just to add to that,
33:06.318 --> 33:09.948
so we deal with 200 agencies on behalf of corporates and
33:10.448 --> 33:13.191
corporates direct. In the last 3 weeks,
33:13.801 --> 33:17.141
we've had 3 massive corporates that we've all heard of
33:17.173 --> 33:20.689
that we're desperately not allowed to mention their names. I don't know why,
33:20.705 --> 33:24.174
because it's a good thing. And they're moving their Scope 3 stuff
33:24.639 --> 33:28.300
from a payment to a consumption base, which in real language what
33:28.332 --> 33:31.993
that means is they've said to their supply chain agencies, venues,
33:32.106 --> 33:35.734
and other suppliers, we want the carbon footprint of what you're doing for
33:35.798 --> 33:39.233
us. We don't— it's wonderful that you're ISO this or
33:39.733 --> 33:42.860
Ecovadis that or a B Corp or whatever you are. Well done, thank you,
33:42.924 --> 33:46.278
crack on. We want the actual impact of what you're doing for us.
33:46.792 --> 33:50.050
Haven't seen it so much over 5 years. Last 3 weeks, 3 of
33:50.082 --> 33:53.052
them. 3 of them combined probably do half a million events.
33:53.469 --> 33:57.337
So whether that's— I don't know if that's rolling out across wider corporate,
33:58.091 --> 34:01.398
um, or if it's just coincidence But 3 of them have said— so if
34:01.898 --> 34:04.562
you're an organizer out there and you don't know how,
34:05.734 --> 34:09.186
I would suggest you find out how you can do that. It doesn't
34:09.686 --> 34:13.361
matter if you go to Julia's venue and they can't provide you the exact
34:13.521 --> 34:16.749
kilowatt-hours that you've consumed. There are
34:17.249 --> 34:20.763
people— Event Decision can get it close enough that you will not know.
34:21.309 --> 34:24.809
It doesn't matter that you don't know if 21 or 22 meals were served.
34:25.306 --> 34:28.692
You've got to find out how you could do it. I'd love for you
34:29.192 --> 34:32.785
all to just do it tomorrow, but in reality, find out how you might
34:33.285 --> 34:35.834
do that, because by the time a client's asked, it's too late.
34:36.316 --> 34:40.104
Like, you're faffing around trying to find a supplier, and there's agencies out
34:40.604 --> 34:43.940
there not too far from me that measure every single event that
34:44.440 --> 34:47.455
goes through the door. Isn't that right? There is.
34:48.594 --> 34:51.114
I mean, but that— just speaking from an agent's perspective, perspective as well.
34:51.627 --> 34:55.409
Not all our clients request this data. So this
34:55.909 --> 34:59.591
is our company's policy, both Eventful and our sister agency Cheerful 21st.
35:00.040 --> 35:03.421
Any events that we're fully managing and we're on site for, we work
35:03.921 --> 35:07.251
with Event Decision to capture that data, whether the client wants it or not.
35:07.347 --> 35:10.825
We then know the events that we're producing, what that data shows.
35:10.873 --> 35:14.254
So I think it's something that we as an agency can also
35:14.543 --> 35:17.814
drive the conversation forward as well. Julia, did I see you wanting
35:17.830 --> 35:20.512
to come in on that? I did. It was just on the organiser side of
35:21.012 --> 35:24.510
things, just because I used to work on healthcare events. So the
35:25.010 --> 35:27.946
kind of questions that we asked of the venues really, really depended on the audience
35:28.446 --> 35:31.430
that were coming to the event. So there was one particular show that we used
35:31.930 --> 35:34.144
to go really, really in-depth on, and it'll be things like,
35:35.091 --> 35:38.624
can you provide big bottles instead of sachets because some people can't tear sachets?
35:38.704 --> 35:42.332
Can you provide chairs with arms in your catering areas because people people need
35:42.832 --> 35:46.775
it to stand up? Do you have kind of chunkier
35:46.823 --> 35:50.399
cutlery so people can grip? So the questions that I asked as
35:50.431 --> 35:54.088
an organiser really depended on the audience that we'd have
35:54.120 --> 35:58.386
coming. Even something like if it was something a
35:58.450 --> 36:01.305
bit more of a healthy kind of event, asking the caterers what menus they could
36:01.385 --> 36:04.945
provide to cater to the audience. So all the questions we asked are tailored
36:05.445 --> 36:08.414
around the audience we had coming to the event, but it also did help if
36:08.463 --> 36:10.719
venues were really forthcoming with what they could do.
36:11.525 --> 36:14.974
As I mentioned, Carlton House Terrace, them saying, actually, all of our staff
36:15.474 --> 36:19.086
are trained in BSL. It's helpful if venues are transparent with what they can
36:19.586 --> 36:22.748
also do. There's a couple of great examples there about
36:22.893 --> 36:26.072
real practical questions. The arms on
36:26.168 --> 36:29.650
chairs for people to be able to stand up, chunkier cutlery.
36:31.287 --> 36:34.497
Again, quick show of hands, who might have asked a question similar to
36:34.514 --> 36:37.083
that, those questions of a venue before?
36:37.436 --> 36:40.296
Who's never thought to ask something as simple as that?
36:40.826 --> 36:43.927
And again, there's no right or wrong answer to this. It's just— that's why we're
36:43.943 --> 36:47.189
all here. It's an opportunity to learn and find out
36:47.237 --> 36:50.451
things. And Julia, there's one thing that I haven't asked you that I wanted to
36:50.951 --> 36:55.175
ask, and it relates— you provide services
36:55.833 --> 36:59.384
that I would historically have said, oh, you provide those to the event organizer.
36:59.786 --> 37:02.778
What is the split now in your business at TranslateAble,
37:04.338 --> 37:07.876
where you provide your services to event organisers but to venues directly?
37:08.342 --> 37:10.996
How many venues now come to you to say, we would like to engage you
37:11.496 --> 37:14.936
with these services? So quite a few. We find that kind of a lot of
37:15.275 --> 37:18.947
people that we've— it does seem to be more organisers, but they're kind of recommended
37:19.446 --> 37:23.152
by venues. Interesting. Okay. Again, I keep mentioning Carlton
37:23.652 --> 37:27.275
House Terrace, but they basically will kind of have that
37:27.308 --> 37:31.304
in proposals to their clients saying, have you thought about accessibility
37:31.432 --> 37:35.092
services? But most of our services are direct to organisers,
37:35.108 --> 37:38.992
but a lot come via venues. So there's still clearly, and same
37:39.024 --> 37:42.940
with you I guess Matt, and the more the venues understand about
37:43.679 --> 37:46.792
this, the more that they can then push that out to organisers. And again,
37:47.226 --> 37:50.564
we've talked, we've used the word cyclical a few times today already,
37:51.142 --> 37:54.770
there's that, you know, communicative process that goes on then between venue,
37:55.091 --> 37:58.624
organizer, attendee, and background again. Yeah,
37:58.768 --> 38:02.638
interesting. Any other questions before we sort of start to wrap
38:03.138 --> 38:04.725
up and look for final thoughts from our panel?
38:06.010 --> 38:09.446
Okay, well, we'll come across. Matt, maybe, you know,
38:09.719 --> 38:13.283
a nugget takeaway, something that you give people today if they are thinking about any
38:13.299 --> 38:16.864
of these subjects today, particularly sustainability one. Yeah, just prepare yourself
38:16.928 --> 38:20.396
when your clients ask for this stuff because they will. 5 years ago,
38:21.569 --> 38:25.246
I wasn't involved in any of this stuff and I was answering
38:25.743 --> 38:29.131
RFPs for an agency going, oh, we try not to fly wherever
38:29.631 --> 38:32.471
possible, i.e., go away, we're not interested.
38:33.210 --> 38:36.598
And, you know, 5 years ago, to calculate
38:37.098 --> 38:41.013
the carbon footprint of an event, let alone the social value, or even benchmark
38:41.513 --> 38:44.642
your performance, all of you lot, so we can show how good you are.
38:44.706 --> 38:48.078
Just, it didn't exist. So it's come on so quick that
38:48.578 --> 38:52.365
in the next few years, try not to be surprised by client requests,
38:52.895 --> 38:56.171
which we all see as demands, don't we? Before I come to you, Claire,
38:56.219 --> 38:59.237
I'm just going to share something very quickly that just— I remembered something from an
38:59.737 --> 39:03.235
event I did 3 years ago now where we asked people
39:03.735 --> 39:07.426
how far they traveled and by what means to get to the event,
39:07.747 --> 39:10.838
by way of trying to measure carbon impact and travel and everything.
39:11.501 --> 39:15.007
And the person was connected to an organization
39:15.056 --> 39:17.981
that promotes sustainability. And on their registration,
39:18.380 --> 39:21.932
because I was able to access that data, it said that they traveled 1 mile
39:22.953 --> 39:25.322
by car to Excel.
39:27.600 --> 39:31.504
What they didn't mention on the registration— what they didn't mention on their registration
39:32.004 --> 39:36.635
was that they'd flown from Portugal into London City Airport
39:37.135 --> 39:39.161
And sometimes when we're capturing this information and reporting it back, I think we do
39:39.177 --> 39:42.613
have to be brutally honest. If we're going to make any sort of positive
39:43.113 --> 39:47.125
impact in any of these subjects, people have to be honest with their
39:47.625 --> 39:51.203
data and with their responses. And that's organiser, attendee, anybody connected
39:51.703 --> 39:54.318
has to give honest responses and provide,
39:54.672 --> 39:57.016
because otherwise the data is just going to be warped. I just thought I'd throw
39:57.516 --> 40:00.869
that in there because I remember just seeing that and chuckling at it. Actually,
40:00.917 --> 40:04.096
you don't. You'll have most of that information already. You know where your people come
40:04.145 --> 40:07.307
from if you're an organiser. You don't need to ask them everything. You don't come
40:07.356 --> 40:10.326
from Lisbon to London by train. So, you know,
40:10.727 --> 40:14.131
somebody who can do this stuff can just go, oh yeah, there is a flight
40:14.179 --> 40:17.759
there. So don't worry that you don't ask every single thing.
40:18.273 --> 40:22.110
We know what the footprints of events look like. Apologies, I was interrupting the
40:22.610 --> 40:26.092
wrap-up there. Claire? That's OK. I think for me it
40:26.140 --> 40:29.878
is this wider Looking beyond the practicalities,
40:29.975 --> 40:33.777
the capacities, and is there natural daylight. It's looking
40:34.277 --> 40:37.820
at why you're choosing a venue and the bigger picture. So looking at
40:37.852 --> 40:41.477
the sustainability, the accessibility, and the considerations of
40:41.977 --> 40:45.248
the audience. Understanding why you're choosing a venue for
40:45.748 --> 40:48.119
more than just the practical side of things. Sure.
40:48.777 --> 40:52.547
Sophie? I would just really encourage everyone to
40:52.756 --> 40:55.837
to head back up to that showcase and talk to the venues. I think there
40:56.337 --> 40:59.513
is a misconception that unique venues are a bit sort of stuck
41:00.013 --> 41:03.220
in the mud, or that they're not able to answer a lot of the questions
41:03.720 --> 41:08.100
and queries that we've looked at today. And I think unique
41:08.600 --> 41:11.823
venues are really trying really hard to help and make everything
41:11.871 --> 41:15.772
better. And I think they also offer a really exciting,
41:16.044 --> 41:19.865
different alternative that actually fulfils a lot of these queries
41:20.379 --> 41:23.656
just by the very nature of what they are. So I really hope that if
41:24.156 --> 41:26.981
you haven't been upstairs already, that you head back up there and get chatting to
41:27.270 --> 41:30.403
lots of those lovely venues. And Julia, final thoughts,
41:30.419 --> 41:34.820
maybe a nugget of advice for the people here today? I'd say be proactive.
41:35.655 --> 41:39.301
So just because, for example, you don't have
41:39.333 --> 41:42.594
deaf people attending your events and you don't have sign language interpreters,
41:43.092 --> 41:45.777
it may not mean they don't want to attend your event.
41:46.508 --> 41:49.495
They may just think they're not catered for. So I'd say be proactive.
41:51.440 --> 41:54.305
Can I throw one more thing in there as well? It relates to captions,
41:54.370 --> 41:58.465
just to use the captioning technology. It's so
41:58.482 --> 42:01.889
accessible now, just on a laptop, and for any sort
42:02.389 --> 42:05.506
of techies amongst you, if you've got a mixing desk at your event, the chances
42:05.554 --> 42:08.631
are it's got a USB output on the back of it. You can connect it
42:09.131 --> 42:12.209
to a laptop and you can get captions using any number of different platforms really,
42:12.225 --> 42:15.526
really quickly. But what that also does, it doesn't just benefit people in the room
42:15.752 --> 42:19.166
being able to follow along on those captions. You've then captioned
42:19.360 --> 42:23.249
your entire session. Your entire agenda and schedule has
42:23.749 --> 42:27.784
been captured in writing. And I've taken the
42:28.284 --> 42:31.818
text out of those platforms before, popped them into Copilot or Gemini or
42:32.318 --> 42:37.819
something like that, and within 30 seconds you've got a full written synopsis
42:38.319 --> 42:40.977
synopsis and a written text roundup of your entire event just by using a tool.
42:41.475 --> 42:44.943
So some of these tools and some of these options that you've got
42:45.443 --> 42:49.279
available to you, you might think, right, it's for that solution, but actually
42:49.519 --> 42:53.245
it can have a number of benefits once you start bringing and addressing some of
42:53.277 --> 42:56.986
these issues. So I just thought I'd share that before we thank our
42:57.486 --> 43:00.518
panel on this second session this morning, Matt, Claire, Sophie,
43:00.599 --> 43:01.225
and Julia.