How To Make Your Hybrid Event More Sustainable

How to Make Your Hybrid Event More Sustainable

Use these tips to help your hybrid event have a more positive environmental impact.

How can your organization significantly lower its carbon footprint? Transforming your company events to align with your sustainability program goals and guidelines is an impactful place to start.

We’re here to help you make a difference. We’ve gathered data to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of hosting virtual events, in lieu of holding on-site events. Unsurprisingly, we’ve found that hybrid events produce significantly less carbon footprint than in-person events; we also determined that organizations can take additional steps to reduce negative environmental impact, even on virtual event platforms. Here’s your guide on doing just that!

Events Focused on Sustainability Mean Investing in the Future

What does sustainability mean for your company? Between keeping the health of our planet front of mind and wanting to save money for your organization, there is no question that investing in sustainability pays off. While the word “sustainability” can encompass many different initiatives across your organization, one trend that we’re seeing more of is hybrid events.

It’s no secret that the impact of COVID-19 has caused many previously in-person events to turn virtual for safety reasons. As the pandemic continues to disrupt our lives, organizations that adapt to these online lifestyle changes stay ahead of the curve in safety and convenience. But what if we told you hybrid events had a way of helping our planet as well?

The event business is one of the largest economic sectors in the world, with its direct spending of over $1 billion annually. Yes, that’s “billion” with a B. Between travel, transportation, hotel stays, food, waste disposal, marketing materials, and many other aspects, in-person conferences can create a huge impact on the environment and an organization’s carbon footprint. Looking at all those costs upfront, it may seem overwhelming and show no sign of change.

However, this is where you can make a difference. Discover small, smart changes you can make to your hybrid events that have proven to have large impacts on global carbon emissions.

Findings on Corporate Event Sustainability

Flights alone generate 66x as many emissions as holding a virtual conference according to the International Journal of Environmental Studies in 2021.

Hybrid conferences could reduce global emissions by almost 90%, according to the University of Cambridge.

Ways to be Environmentally Conscious When Planning Your Next Event

Consider these tips when planning your next hybrid event

Determine What Events You Can Shift to a Hybrid Format

First things first—take the time to determine what in-person events can be switched to virtual or hybrid. Even just switching one event over to a hybrid can have a huge economic and environmental impact. Not to mention, by doing this you can expand your reach and increase the number of people who can attend these events if you open it up to virtual admittance.

Reduce Your Paper Trail

Cutting back on paper can not only cut the costs of your event as a whole, but can significantly decrease the waste of paper you will go through. This can be easily implemented into your event before it starts by sending out invitations and RSVPs via email. You can also send out virtual packets detailing all the information people need ahead of time, without ever needing to pay for postage

On the day of your event, encourage virtual ticket scanning or mobile check-ins. With 6Connex’s hybrid event software, you can add in all the information an attendee will need in to a convenient app customizable for your event. This will give them access to all the information they may need in the palm of their hands, including session times, floorplan, maps, menus, and more.

This can also be a good opportunity to remind guests

makes them feel good, and also helps boost their trust in your organization.

Encourage Travelers to Carpool

For those who still choose to attend your event in person, travel will be necessary. If attendees are traveling outside of the host city, they will need to find transportation to the venue. While the most common solution is for an individual to take a taxi or Uber, there is a huge opportunity for carpooling that should not be missed.

Using the 6Connex app, you can connect attendees with each other and allow them to organize carpooling. Offering an incentive such as a free dessert or piece of swag for those who carpool is a great way to drive interest!

Source Local With Food and Drink

Sourcing locally not only helps boost the economy of small businesses in your conference’s area, but also has the added benefit of helping your attendees feel good about what they’re eating. Every local bakery, farm, and meat producer has a story, and you can take the time to share with your attendees what makes them so special.

If you don’t have the option of sourcing locally, choose suppliers with energy efficiency standards. Be sure to vet them for credibility before signing a contract. Additionally, offer sustainable utensils, and be sure the map of your event venue has highlighted any recycling areas to deposit any extra plastics.

Monitor Your Waste

Our trash can be our earth’s treasure if we treat it right. There are ways you can do your part to have a better impact—such as recycling materials, composting, or donating food waste.

Additionally, not providing any plastic water bottles can save your event money and cut back on unnecessary waste. That many plastics not being in a landfill is a major win!

Create Incentives for Sustainability

Speaking of incentives, learn what your organization can do for your guests to keep them excited about sustainability. For example, if a certain number of people carpool, then your organization will donate X amount of dollars to a charity in honor of the sustainability efforts put forth. This incentive doesn’t need to be a monetary donation. An alternative could be that you commit to partnering with an organization that plants a certain number of trees depending on the rates of your saved carbon emissions. Gathering excitement around sustainability efforts is the best way to gain event-wide participation.

Make Your Carbon Impact Report Readily Available

After your event, you should take stock and monitor the impact your event had on the environment. Emissions from travel, hotel, meals, waste, event space, and marketing materials should be monitored and reported back to your company. It’s important for you to understand the impact of your efforts and reevaluate what

worked and what didn’t to improve upon it for next time. For example, were there still high emissions of travel despite efforts to consolidate transportation? How can you fix that for the future?

You can then turn and share these findings with your conference attendees to keep them in the loop on how they personally had an impact on the planet. This can inspire your attendees to continue their sustainability practices outside of the event space.

Be Vocal About Your Impact

Go beyond sharing your carbon impact report with just your internal team and your conference attendees. If you made an awesome environmental impact with your virtual or hybrid activities, you should be vocal about it. Share your statistics on social media and your website to inspire other corporations to follow your example. Encourage your attendees to share these results and discuss their experience on their own social channels to get others excited about attending or hosting virtual events.

A Universe of Possibilities for Hybrid Events

If you’ve decided to make your event hybrid, it’s important that your technology is able to back your specific needs. 6Connex’s unique adaptive platform harnesses the power of imagination and technology to bring together exactly what you need to make your event memorable.

With our hybrid event software, you can create an entirely engaging experience for those in-person and at home, through:

 Streamlining event planning and production

 Tracking attendees across key attributes, such as booth visits, session attendance, content downloads, and brand interactions

 Reporting for attendee interest and behaviors to identify ready buyers and leads

 Establishing an evergreen virtual event environment that can continuously be used as a marketing tool to attract buyers and gather valuable sales leads.

 Prolonging your event sessions through recorded or online data

 And more!

Bringing IRL to URL

Your in-person and virtual events can co-exist seamlessly with our hybrid event platform. By leveraging 6Connex’s event technology, you can maintain and improve connection, collaboration, engagement throughout your entire event and organization. We help you build immersive experiences that your attendees will be discussing for months to come.

Our team of virtual and hybrid event experts is ready to help you build an event that is sustainable for the environment and for your company. Connect with us to see how 6Connex can help you meet your hybrid event goals.

About 6Connex Virtual Event Solutions

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About 6Connex Virtual Event Solutions & Event Tech

6Connex is the leading provider of in-person, hybrid, and virtual event technology for enterprises worldwide. Our cloud-based product portfolio includes in-person event apps, virtual venues, webinars, learning management, and more. Designed for corporations in need of engaging with communities in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid fashion.

6Connex is the leading provider of virtual and hybrid event solutions. Our secure, cloud-based platform expands audience reach and drives in-depth content engagement for marketing, sales, recruitment, training, and HR communities to make for successful online events around the world. Our product portfolio includes virtual environments, learning management, and webinars. Demand more from your virtual and hybrid event solution. Request a virtual event demo with 6Connex, or contact our event software experts for more information.

www.6Connex.com

Have Questions?

From marketing, sales, recruitment, training, and HR communications, to event planning, non-profits, remote offices, and more, we allow you to engage and transform big ideas into real-world results.

Please call 1.800.395.4702 or email us at sales@6connex.com.

Have Questions? Please call 1.800.395.4702 or email us at sales@6connex.com