PCMA kicked off its 51st Annual Meeting in Toronto Jan. 7, with approximately 3,100 delegates meeting at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) to take part in the association’s first “zero-waste” major event.
“For industry organizations, it’s incumbent on us to give information to industry members on how to conduct green meetings,” said PCMA President and CEO Deborah Sexton. “I do believe that this industry itself can be very influential. [PCMA] will incorporate certain guidelines at [future] sites.”
Sexton said that although the next two locations for PCMA’s Annual Meeting have been contracted—Seattle in 2008 and New Orleans in 2009—the association will be reworking its RFP to include green meeting guidelines as part of the selection process for the site of its 2010 convention.
To be a truly zero-waste event, a convention must produce absolutely no garbage, meaning that all products used at the convention center must either be recycled or composted.
To make sure the Annual Meeting is indeed “zero-waste,” Sexton said PCMA spent anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 to remove compactors from the convention center and on other zero-waste logistical concerns.
As it has done for other meetings, PCMA is redistributing unused food items to the needy in the local community; food that has been partially consumed or that is otherwise perishable will be turned into compost.
Other methods to achieve zero waste included the removal of all waste bins at the convention center, leaving only three recycling options: paper, mixed drink containers and organic waste. PCMA contracted with an independent recycling and waste removal company, Turtle Island Recycling, to have trained staff on the MTCC’s loading docks to monitor all of the materials going out. According to PCMA, all output will be placed in clear plastic bags to be properly audited.
In other Annual Meeting news, PCMA announced the launch of its participation in the MeetingMetrics program, in conjunction with Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
Developed by GuideStar Research, MeetingMetrics offers an online meeting performance measurement service analyzing Return on Event, or ROE, information. Sexton said PCMA members will have exclusive access to MeetingMetrics for one year.
“MeetingMetrics is the first online system for Return on Event measurement, and we’re enabling our members to have exclusive access to MeetingMetrics for a year at the lowest possible price,” Sexton said. “It’s a do-it-yourself [system]. You go in and access a menu of all kinds of questions to ask. The results can be given to you in many different graphs.”
Sexton said MeetingMetrics, which is owned by GuideStar, is being road tested at the 51st Annual Meeting. The set-up cost for the system would range from approximately $5,000 to $6,000, including three to four hours of consulting services, Sexton said, comparing that price to a current cost ranging from $50,000 to $75,000 to study a major association event.
Sexton said MeetingMetrics is an especially valuable tool because a recent survey conducted by PCMA found that many CEOs don’t view meeting planners as being strategic.
“This project hands strategy to our planners,” she said. “Most of them can’t do this on their own because of the price, but this is within their budget.”
