Feature
C
onfex North came to Manchester’s
Victoria Warehouse on 3-4 July,
continuing to extend the reach of the
Confex brand outside London and across
the UK.
The event provided a platform for
exhibitors in the North to showcase
what they have to offer, while delegates
were invited to attend a programme of
speakers to keep them up-to-date on the
latest industry trends and developments.
EN’s Stuart Wood hosted a panel
discussion with members of our sister
magazine Conference News’ 30 Under
30, titled ‘The Future of CSR’.
The panellists comprised Kasim
Choudhry, Thinkfest national director,
Pathway Group; Matt Culverhouse,
CEO, TEN6 Creative; Posy Cuthbertson,
creative, WRG, a division of The
Creative Engagement Group; Will
Dalzell, head of events proposition
and innovation, Venues and Events
International; and Lizzy Dring, director,
Right Angle Corporate.
The discussion focused on
the evolution of corporate social
responsibility from an optional extra
into a mandatory, core part of all
businesses. Companies which have put
CSR initiatives at the top of their agenda
are the ones who have managed to
The future
of CSR
EN’s Stuart Wood hosted a panel
discussion at Confex North with
some of the industry’s rising stars,
examining the future of corporate
social responsibility
Photography: Mr Ladd Media
connect to a young audience, one is more
socially aware than ever. In the retail
sector, companies such as Lush and
Innocent have been highly successful
from marketing themselves in this way –
so what about in events?
Hybrid engineering
“There is a lot of change needed in
people’s mindset within the events
industry,” said Dring. “We still have
a bad culture of overwork, which is
causing a lot of young people to burn out
in event careers. People feel pressure to
work unsustainable overtime, and then
find themselves looking for a change of
scenery after two years.”
“Corporate social responsibility is evolving from an optional
extra into a mandatory, core part of all businesses”
L-R: Kasim Choudhry, Lizzy Dring,
Will Dalzell, Posy Cuthbertson,
Matt Culverhouse, Stuart Wood
When asked where change needs to
come from within the industry, many
panellists agreed that it should come
from the top down – that managers and
CEOs within events need to get their
staff on board.
Cuthbertson said: “I think it’s really
powerful when your boss or someone in
C-suite gets behind something you care
about – when management feels to be on
a level with everyone.
“For example, at TCEG we do ‘Meat
Free Monday’, which isn’t necessarily
about going veggie or animal welfare
– but more about reducing the amount
of meat we eat and therefore the land
and water usage, as well as the carbon
footprint, associated with producing
meat. It’s not obligatory, but it’s a kind of
tradition that we do here as a group.”
On the topic of sustainability,
Culverhouse said that many event
companies are talking the talk but not
walking the walk: sending out a press
release about removing 1,000 plastic
straws means nothing if that ethos
doesn’t carry through to every aspect
of your business. He also conceded that
events is, by nature, a difficult industry
to make sustainable, due to the travel
involved in bringing people together in a
physical space.
Cuthbertson posited hybrid events
as one solution to that problem: “We’ve
delivered hybrid events for some of our
clients at TCEG. There were a handful
of senior leaders still gathering in the
physical space, but the event really
‘lived’ online for this brand team. There
were scheduled streams, on-demand
videos and discussion walls.
“Consider Glastonbury – the TV
marathons with friends and family, the
online catch-up of your favourite artist’s
performance and all the social media
hype that surrounds it.
“As a remote viewer you get the
best of that live event, a much bigger
conversation, and in the case of our
client’s event we were also able to
include hundreds of delegates who
hadn’t been able to attend the live event
in previous years.” EN
August — 15