Exploring the role of human and child rights in event planning and strategy

Positive Impact and corporate event planners explored the role of human and child rights in event planning and strategy to advance SDG 16: peace, justice and strong institutions.

Aligned with the 2021 theme of the UN International Day of Peace, a select community of global corporate event planners joined an experiment to explore the role of human interaction in progressing SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

On Tuesday 21st September (International Day of Peace), over 24 hours, they took part in facilitated networking, experiments, roundtables with UN bodies and engaged with over 20 hours of content. This included reports on previous human interaction experiments.

There was a £150 (approx $210 or €170) overhead per person that we could not avoid. Therefore in addition to the requirement to be a corporate event planner to attend this event there was a minimal administration fee.

What was included?

A roundtable with a Unicef UK to explore the role of human and child rights in event planning and strategy, and three experiments to explore how events can enable inclusion and participation through consideration of human and child rights.

These experiments were:

• An experiment into the accessibility challenges and how event planners might address them.

• An Academic experiment into inclusion and participation using the hat theory.

• An experiment exploring stakeholder engagement for planning an event with the consideration of human and child rights.

Explore was an impactful event series. Don’t take our word for it, hear from previous attendees:

“At Explore, I learnt new and innovative ways of transforming myself and my organisation to connect, alongside providing input into these explorations too. I think being innovative and explorative is important to keep up with the digital pace of the event industry that is highly affected by the Covid 19 situation”

— Elena Staszak, Partner Communication & Event Lead, Microsoft

FAQ

The following FAQ was included on the event registration page:

What is the agenda? 

The agenda will continue to be updated until the day before the event and will be found in the LinkedIn private group that will be launched before 21st September. You can understand more about the content of the day above. To understand what the Explore #5 agenda will be like, view the Explore #2 agenda. The Explore #5 agenda structure will be similar to this.

Why am I paying £150? 

Positive Impact is a not for profit, this means every penny spent with us is used to make a difference. Following each Explore, a report is created and shared with the wider industry. To understand the exact breakdown of how your registration fee will be spent, watch Bec’s experiment in transparency from Explore #1. 

Will this help me progress my career? 

Yes. Both the content created and how this content is delivered is done with the intention of empowering and enabling you to have a strategic conversation with your CEO so you can demonstrate the value of your role in terms they will understand.

Collaborating with #Act4SDGs

The Global Week To #Act4SDGs has taken place annually since 2016 With the intention of inspiring action to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are 17 goals which will create a world that works for everyone.

You can learn more about what the SDGs mean for events from a campaign Positive Impact delivered in 2020 to engage 100,000 event professionals in building the future of human connection in line with the SDGs.

You can read more about how the event sector is accelerating progress towards the SDGs with the latest acceleration action report submitted to SDG Action for the event sector.

This year the Global Week to #Act4SDGs has a goal to inspire 100 million people to take individual and collective action with the overall target of mobilizing 1 billion actions by 2030. held during the high level week of the United Nations General Assembly this year’s mobilisation will also drive action in the lead up to COP26 in Glasgow. Positive Impact has submitted actions which will be led by the community of over 1600 global ambassadors and which are accessible to event professionals around the world.

Engaging the Global Event Sector in the UN SDGs with Acceleration Action 2021

Engage the global event sector so that by 2030 events are enabling inclusion and participation in decision making and accelerating progress towards the UN SDGs.

In 2019 the United Nations asked for commitments to action to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

This was an opportunity to demonstrate the role of events in achieving the SDGs.

In September 2021, Positive Impact uploaded an Acceleration Action report to the UN Sustainable Development Goals platform. This provides an overview of actions taken in 2020-2021 and our commitment to action for 2021-2022. You can also download the report as a PDF below.

Positive Impact also joined the SDG Youth Summit and #Act4SDG campaign.

Gathering support for a climate action framework

This report is a review of the roundtables Positive Impact have run with UNFCCC on the climate action framework, gathering support for the sustainability initiative from across the value chain of the event sector as well as the UK government and COP26.

Celebrating Earth Day 2021: Report

SUMMARY REPORT

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This report provides a summary of Positive Impact’s Earth Day 2021 celebrations and the many opportunities to participate throughout the day in advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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Introduction

Earth Day is held annually on the 22nd of April in order to demonstrate global support for environmental protection. In recent years, Earth Day has become an opportunity to come together to tackle climate change, through sharing initiatives and ways to take action.

This Earth Day marked a historic moment for climate action, as President Joe Biden invited 40 world leaders to the Global Leaders’ Summit on Climate. During the summit, Biden unveiled an ambitious pledge to cut US carbon emissions in half by 2030.

WHAT WAS POSITIVE IMPACT'S APPROACH ?

As Biden stated, we are in a “decisive decade” to fix global warming. Time is running out to respond to the climate challenge. At current, there is a gap in the credibility of the event sector's communications because we do not have a science-based carbon target. Therefore, Positive Impact used Earth Day 2021 as an opportunity to close this gap and align the event sector with the many government and company announcements made that day.

Our focus was to raise £30,000 ($45,000/ €35,000) of funding to deliver stakeholder engagement so the event sector can create a Climate Action Framework, under the auspicies of UNFCCC Secretariat.

We created a number of opportunities for individuals, our ambassadors, companies and associations to participate in supporting the low-carbon future of the event sector and advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

• Joining our community of over 1,400 ambassadors.
• Hosting an hour of social media sharing examples of sustainability best practices.
• Joining a roundtable on Plastic & the Event Sector with UNEP
• ‘Pay as much as you can afford’ for a tweet celebrating your personal action to be sustainable.
• £800 ($1100/€930) for a company/ destination/ association tweet celebrating your personal action to be sustainable.
• £100 ($135/ €110) one-off payment for EDUCATE.

Each of the above is an opportunity for ACTION. Why? Because throughout Earth Day we communicated this message:

"The time for conversation and consideration is over. The time for target setting and budget allocating is now. How can you take action that will make a difference?"

20 Hosting Hours of Sharing Sustainability Best Practice

This Earth Day, the #eventprof community came together to tell the story of the power of events in achieving the UN SDGs. Over 20 hours, 14 hosts took to social media and reached an online community of 2 million using the hashtags #eventscreatchange and #earthday.

At the beginning and end of each hour, we encouraged hosts to share the importance of the event sector coming together to create a Climate Action Framework, under the auspices of UNFCCC Secretariat. Hosts shared a link to enable everyone to get involved.

> EXAMPLES

Download a booklet of the Earth Day best practice examples - this is a great resource if you are looking to take learnings from other event professionals on how to implement the SDGs at your events.

> THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR HOSTS:

• Fiona Pelham - @FionaPelham
• Positive Impact - @Pievents
• Cerespo - @Pieventsjapan
• IMEX - @IMEX_Group
• Italian Special Occasions - @ISODMC
• Martiz Global Events - @AmyKramer
• Martiz Global Events - @RachaelMRiggs
• Streamline Events - @Streamlinevents
• Michele Fox - @Michelefoxnyc
• Emili Subtil - @Emili942
• Thrive Meetings - @tstuckrath
• The EAIE - @TheEAIE
• Messukesus - @BlomsterPaula
• Soundings Connect - @SoundingsTalent

Supporting the creation of a Climate Action Framework for the Event Sector

Events bring people together and enable human interaction. In a post COVID-19 world, there is the opportunity for a new narrative on the important role of events - Governments and businesses could recognise the global event sector as a strategic enabler for participation and inclusion in decision-making (advancing SDG 16). *

To make this new narrative a reality for years to come, we need to take action to create a carbon target and reduction framework so future generations can still attend events.

Positive Impact and UNFCCC (the UN Body for Climate Change) are ready to support stakeholder engagement across the global event sector so everyone’s voice can be heard and all our initiatives can be counted.

There is a small funding gap of £30,000 ($45,000/ €35,000) to be closed and so our approach on Earth Day was a grassroots campaign to close this gap.

> Throughout Earth Day we raised £585 towards our target. This included £385 of 'pay as you feel' donations and £200 from our EDUCATE product.

> We also created a £800 ($1100/€930) opportunity for companies/ associations/ destinations to fund the framework, however we received no purchases.

Who did we reach out to?

1. We empowered our ambassador community with a toolkit to ask companies marketing their sustainability initiatives for funding
2. We reached out directly to 47 associations with this letter.
3. We engaged with over 30 corporate companies across Linkedin and Twitter throughout Earth Day asking them to support the framework

Plastic and the Event Sector with UNEP

During Earth Day, Positive Impact hosted a roundtable with UNEP exploring best practices surrounding plastic reduction which are important to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

UNEP explained their plastic initiative and Positive Impact provided attendees with resources on how to address the role of plastic at their event.

Click to download the full report.

A summary of Earth Day: An interview with our CEO, Fiona Pelham

Listen to an interview with Positive Impact's CEO Fiona Pelham in which she provides a summary of what Positive Impact achieved this Earth Day and why Earth Day is so important for the event sector to build its reputation.

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Earth Day 2021 is over, how can I still commit to taking action?

There are many opportunities available for you to contribute to the creation of a sustainable event industry all year round:

Exploring the connections between human interaction and restoring our Earth

Explore to Restore: Earth Day

Aligned with the theme of Earth Day 2021: Restore Our Earth, Positive Impact invited corporate event professionals to join their peers to explore the connections between human interaction and restoring our Earth.

On Thursday 22nd April (Earth Day) participants took part in facilitated networking, experiments, roundtables with UN bodies and engaged with on-demand recorded content.

Participants in Explore #4 will gain: 

The ability to talk to their CEOs in strategic and impactful terms.

New ideas of and experiences of practices which could be used at your face to face, virtual or hybrid events to champion gender equality and facilitate human interaction.

Understanding and experience of contributing to UN policies which will impact future strategy of global governments and business.

There is £250 (approx $340 or €290) overhead per person that we can not avoid. Therefore in addition to the requirement to be a corporate event planner to attend this event there is a minimal administration fee.

Save with an all access pass, just £400 for all Explore events in 2021 (normal price per event is £250).

View the agenda

Explore is an impactful event series

Don’t take our word for it, hear from previous attendees:

“At Explore, I learnt new and innovative ways of transforming myself and my organisation to connect, alongside providing input into these explorations too. I think being innovative and explorative is important to keep up with the digital pace of the event industry that is highly affected by the Covid 19 situation”

— Elena Staszak, Partner Communication & Event Lead, Microsoft

Your explorations can happen in 4 formats:

Networking - a chance to meet your fellow explorers and get to interact with them during facilitated networking.

Experiments - join a range of hosts who will be leading YOU through a series of 20-minute experiments exploring the power of female leadership and human interaction.

Roundtables - contribute your ideas to frameworks, policies, white papers and other documents which will be used by United Nations bodies and corporate sustainability leaders. These sessions will be facilitated by high level partners so YOUR voice will be heard.

On Demand - for the times in the 24 hours when you are not networking, exploring or contributing you have the chance to access learning materials which will translate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into practical guidance for event professionals.

Before 22nd April, you will be given access to a private LinkedIn group which will guide you through the day’s experiments.

FAQ

What is the agenda? 

The agenda will continue to be updated until the day before the event and will be found in the LinkedIn private group that will be launched before 22nd April. You can understand more about the content of the day above. To understand what the Explore #4 agenda will be like, view the Explore #2 agenda. The Explore #4 agenda structure will be similar to this.

Why am I paying £250? 

Positive Impact is a not for profit, this means every penny spent with us is used to make a difference. Following each Explore, a report is created and shared with the wider industry. To understand the exact breakdown of how your registration fee will be spent, watch Bec’s experiment in transparency from Explore #1. 

Will this help me progress my career? 

Yes. Both the content created and how this content is delivered is done with the intention of empowering and enabling you to have a strategic conversation with your CEO so you can demonstrate the value of your role in terms they will understand.

Asking who will be responsible for future generations being able to meet?

In the lead up to Earth Day on 22nd April 2021, Positive Impact asked the question:

This is the video from the home page for our Earth Day 2021 campaign:

Anybody who was ready to take immediate action then had the chance to support a fundraising initiative to create a Climate Action Framework:

Be responsible for future generations being able to meet

On June 7th will you give your input to a virtual stakeholder engagement facilitated by UNFCCC so the event sector can have a Climate Action Framework launched at COP26? 

Between Earth Day and Word Environment Day, Positive Impact is fundraising £30,000 ($45,000/ €35,000) so stakeholder engagement can happen. 

We need to take action now, or the event industry will be left behind in the transformation to a low-carbon future.

There were multiple opportunities to get involved:

You can make a difference by using your voice to champion a sustainable event industry along with our global community of over 1,400 ambassadors (join our ambassador community today).

The immediate support we need is fundraising so we have created a number of opportunities for you to market yourself and support the future event sector. 

In addition, any resources you purchase from us will fund the carbon target. We have a number of opportunities for you to educate yourself and support the future event sector. 

Ways to support the campaign and raise funds included:

Celebrate my personal action to be sustainable
From £5.00

Pay as much as you can afford

Between Earth Day and World Environment Day, we will post a tweet using your words, to celebrate your personal action to be sustainable.

Celebrate a company, association or destination's action to be sustainable
£800.00

Between Earth Day and World Environment Day, we will post a tweet using your words, to celebrate your company, association or destination’s action to be sustainable. On Earth Day 2020, our campaign reached an online community of over 1.5 million.

Please note: Your sustainable action will hopefully be shared in a press release (this is dependent on when you sign up, so the sooner the better!). We may also post your sustainable action on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Educate myself on the UN SDGs
£100.00

Educate is a product relevant for anyone who would like to be empowered to progress the Sustainable Development Goals. For a one-time payment of £100 (€110/ $135) you will get access to over 30 hours of content from global thought leaders which you can consume in your own time.

Corporate brands were invited to schedule a one to one conversation with us for further resources and initiatives to be a part of.

We also had a series of audio FAQ for anybody who wondered why they needed to be responsible for future generations to meet:

We contacted a number of associations with this letter

These associations have been contacted

The Earth Day Agenda

Join our global #eventprofs community for 24 hours on Thursday 22nd April as together we explore how events can be used to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Host an hour of social media sharing your sustainability best practice

Starting at 6am BST on April 22nd this Earth Day, a global conversation will take place on Twitter via the hashtags #EventsCreateChange and #EarthDay.

View our hosting schedule

See our hosting guidelines

Positive Impact and UNEP invite you to a roundtable to explore how to address the role of plastic in the event sector

Date: 22nd April 2021

Time: 9:45am (GMT), 10:45am (CET), 17:45pm (JST)

This roundtable will be an exploration into best practices surrounding plastic reduction which will be important to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. 

UNEP will explain their plastic initiative and Positive Impact will provide attendees with resources on how to address the role of plastic at their event.

Why is this an important topic on Earth Day?

“humans have produced around 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic since the 1950s and that figure is predicted to rise to around 34 billion tonnes by 2050… Humanity dumps its own combined weight in plastics annually into ecosystems. That’s 300 million tonnes every year choking waterways and seas, clogging streets, harming wildlife and, ultimately, doing serious damage to public health.’

- United Nations Environment Programme

If plastic consumption was address this would advance many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, these are:

SDG 3, Good Health

SDG 13, Climate Action

SDG 14, Life Below Water

SDG 15, Life on Land

How does the role of plastic in the event sector contribute to this global production of plastic?

How can the event sector address their consumption advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?

Exploring how events could enable participation and inclusion in decision making

Positive Impact ran a webinar exploring how SDG 16.7.2 could bring to life a new narrative for the event sector:

“We are the sector that makes participation and inclusion in decision making possible.”

Date: Tuesday 6th April 

Time: 3-4pm (GMT)

Cost: £15 (approx €17/$20) or £50 for a bundle deal of 5 webinars across 2021

100% of the registration fee was used to fund the creation of the Climate Action framework.  The funding was received and administered by Positive Impact. No funding was allocated to the UNFCCC.

Why was this an important topic to explore? 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are a roadmap for the world which would work for us all. The Sustainable Development Goals are also a language that business and governments understand because they have committed to these goals being delivered.

There is one sustainable development goal, target and indicator which is of particular interest to the event sector: SDG 16, Target 7, Indicator 2.

Imagine if in 2021 the event industry reimagined itself as the people who made human interaction happen and enabled inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making. 

Ensuring inclusive, participatory and representative decision making is something every business and government wants and the state of the world demonstrates that new ideas and actions for inclusion, participation and representative decision making are needed.

SDG 16

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Target 7

Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.

Indicator 2

Proportion of population who believe decision-making is inclusive and responsive, by sex, age, disability and population group.

Reimagining the future of participation and inclusion at SDG Global Festival of Action

On the 26th March, Positive Impact will host an interactive session on the power of traits stereotypically assigned as ‘feminine’ such as compassion and inclusivity and how that can help us create a compelling future of participation and inclusion.

Exploring the role of women in achieving carbon targets

Positive Impact and UNFCCC Secretariat celebrated International Women’s Day 2021 with a unique exploration into the role of women in achieving carbon targets.

International Women’s Day Roundtable

• Does our gender impact our carbon emissions?

• Is there a specific role for women in achieving carbon targets? 

These are huge and equally interesting questions and the International Women Day Roundtable with Positive Impact & UNFCCC started in March 2021 with an exploration into these questions and what they could mean for the future of the global event sector. 

Today humanity is facing crises of health, economy, inequality and climate. Events, which have a predominantly female workforce, have a vital role to play in addressing these challenges, advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and enabling human interaction. 

At this roundtable we discussed the above and how at the upcoming COP 26 conference, it could be announced that the UK event sector has developed a carbon target and reduction framework.

With COP26 on the horizon, a noticeable increase in corporate commitments to reduce carbon emissions, and an event sector ready to build back better after the devastating effects of Covid, now is the perfect time to get curious about the role of women in achieving carbon targets. 

The global event sector is a majority female workplace (A 2017 paper by R Thomas from Leeds Beckett University states women comprise 75% of the events workplace but there is a promotion + pay gap that favours men). So, if there is a correlation between gender and carbon emissions the event sector would be a sector of interest.

Another interesting question is whether it is being the action of a women or a man that causes differing emissions or the use of feminine and masculine traits. For example, are traits such as inclusion, collaboration, care going to cause less emissions than assertiveness, independence are leadership? In other words, will the traits we choose to use (no matter or gender) impact or carbon emissions?

These questions may seem “airy fairy” and of no relevance to the event sector until you consider that the traits we use can directly influence the type of event we have. Put simply, a meeting for independent business leaders is more likely to have meeting logistics including travel, venue, food than a meeting open to all with the purpose of enabling collaboration which is likely to use meeting logistics for an online meeting. 

There is a gap which exists for the event sector to be able to move from being curious about these questions to actually shaping the future of the sector. The gap is having a sector target for carbon emissions and a reduction plan which means the sector is measuring and learning from data. 

It could be that the future of the event sector is one where feminine traits are used with the results of providing jobs for a workforce most significantly impacted by Covid - delivering impactful events with legacy beyond memories of a ‘good meeting’. 

However, until we start measuring, learning from measurement and reducing our emissions this isn’t a conversation the event sector can advance.

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At the roundtable, participants gained:

• The ability to talk to their CEO in strategic and impactful terms.

• Understanding and experience of contributing to UN policies which will impact future strategy of global governments and business.

There was a £15 (approx €17/ $20) registration fee to join, used to fund the creation of the Climate Action framework.  The funding was received and administered by Positive Impact. No funding was allocated to the UNFCCC.

Exploring the power of female leadership and human interaction

A 24 hour exploration for International Women’s Day

Aligned with SDG 5: Gender Equality and #choosetochallenge - the UN Women’s theme for International Women’s Day 2021 , a select community of global corporate event planners joined an experiment to explore the power of female leadership and human interaction.

On Monday 8th March (International Women’s Day) over 24 hours, they took part in facilitated networking, experiments, roundtables with UN bodies and engage with on demand recorded content.

Participants in Explore #3 will gain: 

The ability to talk to their CEOs in strategic and impactful terms.

New ideas of and experiences of practices which could be used at your face to face, virtual or hybrid events to champion gender equality and facilitate human interaction.

Understanding and experience of contributing to UN policies which will impact future strategy of global governments and business.

There is a £250 (approx $320 or €275) overhead per person that we can not avoid. Therefore in addition to the requirement to be a corporate event planner to attend this event there is a minimal administration fee.

View the agenda

Your explorations can happen in 4 formats:

Networking - a chance to meet your fellow explorers and get to interact with them during facilitated networking.

Experiments - join a range of hosts who will be leading YOU through a series of 20-minute interactive experiments exploring what we could #choosetochallenge to enable equality in the event sector.

Roundtables - contribute your ideas to frameworks, policies, white papers and other documents which will be used by United Nations bodies and corporate sustainability leaders. These sessions will be facilitated by high level partners so YOUR voice will be heard.

On Demand - for the times in the 24 hours when you are not networking, exploring or contributing you have the chance to access learning materials which will translate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into practical guidance for event professionals.

Before 8th March, you will be given access to a private LinkedIn event which will guide you through the day’s experiments.

You can find examples of some of the sessions below.

#choosetochallenge sexual harassment at events with Courtney Stanley

Courtney Stanley is recognized globally as an award-winning changemaker, keynote speaker and event emcee, and acclaimed creator of the women-inspired podcast, Dare to Interrupt. Her mission to empower ambitious professionals through vulnerable, meaningful dialogue has resulted in changed behaviors and altered approaches to leadership on stages and in boardrooms throughout North America and internationally.

In this experiment, Courtney invites you to explore what could happen if we lead with empathy and empower ourselves to challenge sexual harassment and misconduct at events.

The Future of Events: The Role of Women in achieving Carbon Targets

Use YOUR voice in a 90-minute roundtable discussion with UNFCCC Secretariat as together we explore:

How at #COP26, it could be announced that the event sector has developed a Climate Action framework to establish quantitative carbon reduction targets.

What the role of women in achieving carbon targets could like.

#choosetochallenge imposter syndrome with Fiona Pelham

Fiona Pelham lives her life as an example of how it is possible to create a lifestyle that works for you and contributes to a world that works for everyone. From choosing her home city based on its action for gender equality to generating income from creating a company recognised as a global leader. 

In this experiment, Fiona invites you to explore getting comfortable with boasting about your achievements and challenging feelings of self-doubt.

Explore is an impactful event series

Don’t take our word for it, hear from previous attendees:

“At Explore, I learnt new and innovative ways of transforming myself and my organisation to connect, alongside providing input into these explorations too. I think being innovative and explorative is important to keep up with the digital pace of the event industry that is highly affected by the Covid 19 situation”

— Elena Staszak, Partner Communication & Event Lead, Microsoft

FAQ

What is the agenda? 

The agenda will continue to be updated until the day before the event and will be found in the LinkedIn event that will be launched before 8th March. You can understand more about the content of the day above. To understand what the Explore #3 agenda will be like, view the Explore #2 agenda. The Explore #3 agenda structure will be similar to this.

Why am I paying £250? 

Positive Impact is a not for profit, this means every penny spent with us is used to make a difference. Following each Explore, a report is created and shared with the wider industry. To understand the exact breakdown of how your registration fee will be spent, watch Bec’s experiment in transparency from Explore #1. 

Will this help me progress my career? 

Yes. Both the content created and how this content is delivered is done with the intention of empowering and enabling you to have a strategic conversation with your CEO so you can demonstrate the value of your role in terms they will understand.

Facilitating a roundtable on how the event sector could #buildbackbetter before COP26

Positive Impact facilitated a #buildbackbetter roundtable with COP26 leaders, UK Government and the UNFCCC on how a climate action framework with quantitative carbon reduction targets and a measurable reduction path could be created before COP26.

Exploring the Future of How Human Interaction Happens

We are living in a time of unprecedented change - we face crises of health, economics, climate and equality. Every company and government in the world are looking for solutions to address these crises.

This report explores how human interaction could be a solution to our global crises by asking the question: What is the Future of How Human Interaction Happens?

This report draws on the findings from a virtual experiment undertaken with 7 senior corporate event planners.

Growing our ambassador community in 2020

In 2020 our ambassadors grew to 1,162 ambassadors, due to the hugely successful 100,000 campaign! Our ambassadors launched this campaign and we provided them a toolkit to be able to tell their communities that they are leading in empowering 100,000 #eventprofs to be in action building the future of how human connection happens.

Exploring what COP26 could mean for the event sector with UNFCCC

Positive Impact joined UNFCCC for a session at IBTM Virtual exploring how the event sector could utilise the COP26 opportunity to #buildbackbetter. This session was shared widely for maximum impact including with the Japanese event sector.

Demonstrating leadership with 100,000 #EventProfs in Action

On the 14th April 2020, the team at Positive Impact found themselves taking unanticipated action due to Covid-19 and launched a campaign without funding.

The campaign provided #eventprofs with the tools required to demonstrate leadership within their communities and use their voice to make a difference. 

This report summarises the Positive Impact campaign to empower 100,000 #eventprofs to be in action building the future of how human connection happens. 

Exploring the Future of How Human Connection Happens

2020 has been a year of unprecedented change - we are facing crises of health, economics, climate and equality. Every company and government in the world is looking for solutions to address these crises.

This report explores how human connection could be a solution to our global crises by asking the question: What is the Future of How Human Connection Happens?

This report draws on the findings from an experiment undertaken with 12 senior corporate event planners.

Exploring the Future of How Human Connection Happens

Positive Impact Events invited 40 senior global corporate event planners to be part of an experiment to explore the future of how human connection happens. Following this event a white paper was produced.

This unique experiment allowed the attendees to explore the following: 

• How events can be used to advance progress towards the SDGs and what this means for the business case of events.

• How Heads of Events can strategically support their CEOs and Heads of Sustainability to advance progress towards the SDGs.

• What is the future of how human connection happens?

Why?

Today humanity is facing crises of health, economic, inequality and climate. Events have a vital role in addressing these challenges, advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and enabling human connection. 

Read Laura’s story

How?

On 22nd September 2020, a select group of 40 senior corporate planners joined an experiment to explore human connection.

They were given access to a private LinkedIn group to guide them through the day’s experiments (you can see a snapshot of the agenda below).

The explorations happened in 4 formats:

1. Networking - a chance to meet your fellow explorers and get to connect with them during facilitated networking.

2. Experiments - join world famous dancers, award winning freelancers, teenage activists and more who will be leading YOU through a series of 20-minute experiments so you can experience how human connection happens.

3. Roundtables - contribute your ideas to frameworks, policies, white papers and other documents which will be used by United Nations bodies and corporate sustainability leaders. These sessions will be facilitated by high level partners so YOUR voice will be heard.

4. On Demand - for the times in the 24 hours when you are not networking, exploring or contributing you have the chance to access learning materials which will translate the United Nations Sustainable Development goals into practical guidance for event professionals.

View the synopsis

View the full agenda

When?

22nd September during the UN General Assembly Week and this event was listed as an action during the Global Week to #Act4SDGs.

Who?

Attendees accessed a range of sessions including those delivered by a teenage climate activist, an award-winning freelancer and an internationally reknowned dancer, alongside contributions from the Positive Impac1 Events team. Here are the original session overviews:

An experiment to explore moving

Paul White is an internationally renowned performer and choreographer, and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his work in the arts. He is in demand as a moderator, project developer and producer, and is a core worker for a number of non-for-profit foundations in dance and dance film.

In this session, Paul will explore how the language of your body can make a difference, be used to communicate and how this is important in virtual events.

An experiment to explore prioritising

Katy Carlisle has her fingers in a lot of pies. She’s a freelance web designer and trainer, runs an award-winning community for freelancers, co-hosts a podcast, co-founded a software startup and has recently launched an online magazine. Oh, and she plans her days around tide times.

In this session, Katy invites you to explore how you make your day work for you based on what matters most.

Experiments to explore human connection

Fiona Pelham lives her life as an example of how it is possible to create a lifestyle that works for you and contributes to a world that works for everyone. From choosing her home city based on its action for gender equality to generating income from creating a company recognised as a global leader.

Fiona will be leading 2 sessions, in the first Fiona invites you to explore how to build trust quickly and remotely and in the second Fiona invites you to explore the global policies and frameworks which will shape the future of how human connection happens.

An experiment to explore vocalising

Tia is a young person in action, vocalising the future she would like to see in the world. In this session Tia will share her story and explore how using your voice is an action everyone can take.

An experiment to explore transparency

Bec Mitchell is the leader of the small team building the Explore Series from an experimental framework. Her passion, enthusiasm and innovative capabilities have helped bring the Explore Series to life.

In this session, Bec invites you to explore the breakdown of how your money has been spent to create the Explore Series and how this transparency makes you feel.

There was a minimal administration fee of £100 (approx $130 or €110) overhead per person to attend this event.

Supporting innovation and leadership with Messukeskus

Finland’s largest convention centre wins a European event award for their sustainability strategy created with leadership and materials from Positive Impact.

Updating the #shareapositiveimpact toolkit

After Covid-19 significantly impacted the event industry, we updated our free Share a Positive Impact toolkit to include virtual events and emphasise the power of human connection.