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Steering sustainable events performance: Towards a more balanced assessment of sustainable associations events

  • Research scope Perpetual economic growth tests the limits of what earth can provide, but it also spurs new awareness for sustainable thinking and action. Duties such as corporate social responsibility reporting as well as shifting customer demands are placing increased pressure on the association events industry to acknowledge the importance of sustainability and implement sustainable event management strategies. Association events tend to have an economic, social and environmental impact on the places in which they occur. These impacts can be both positive and negative. They can also have substantial leveraging and multiplier effects, can be used to elevate awareness of sustainability even further and, most importantly, help transform this awareness into action, for example by influencing stakeholders’ behaviour and minimising behavioural gaps. The events and meetings industry has traditionally relied on economic performance measures, eschewing social and environmental costs and benefits. However, recent studies have underlined the necessity for a more holistic approach. This approach is fleshed out in the present research. It aims to offer stakeholders, decision-makers, event managers, associations and congress organisers a strategical instrument with which to identify the economic, social and environmental impacts of a planned event in order to utilise them in a targeted, sustainable fashion within the respective field of operation. The strategic measures for optimising event impacts were derived from the results of the empirical study. Moreover, these measures will serve to anchor the sustainable association event strategy within business operations as well as internal and external communications. Gifford’s Dragons of Inaction can be applied to determine possible barriers and, finally, to strive to minimise the gap between sustainability consciousness and sustainable behaviour. To this end, the effectiveness of cooperating attitudes, behaviour-oriented forms of intervention such as intentions or incentives for actions, and perceived consequences can be assessed and evaluated in terms of their essential dimensions. Methodology A number of research steps have been undertaken within this model, beginning with a literature review. This laid the foundation for subsequent empirical studies conducted as semi-structured expert interviews, followed by an online Delphi forecast as well as a survey among participants of an association event of the German Scouts (DPSG). Findings As shown in the primary research in both studies, social and economic measures are regarded as most important, environmental measures are most often adopted instead. Not all dimensions are considered to be part of sustainability. Social and economic aspects are considered necessary for an association’s success and are considered important strategic instruments connected mainly to positive implications on a psychological level such as image, trust and satisfaction. As it is seen as a competitive advantage and the terminology is unclear to many in the event industry, communication efforts must be targeted in order to facilitate implementation and, later, allow for the possibility of measuring sustainable event management. Holistic aspects should be made clear in order to support initiatives and ideally reduce the behavioural gap between sustainability awareness and actual behaviour. Associations like the German scouts are risk-averse by nature. They function as custodians of a sector or profession and their standards demand continuity as well as consistency. Innovation, however, is associated with risk, experimentation and (superfluous) change. Both primary and secondary research efforts have shown that barriers to innovation include a lack of time, resources (money or staff in particular), or simply innovation know-how. Therefore, implementing change or, in this case, more sustainable measures in event planning, requires an individual, tailor-made approach which is pro-active and problem-solving in order to promote broader implementation of the already developed Green Events Guidelines throughout the whole association. The findings of this mixed-method approach were used to develop a model to integrate, assess and steer event management sustainability from the perspective of event planners and associations, and propose a new concept for converting theory into applied practice for the industry. Bibliography Getz, D. (2019), Event Impact Assessment. Theory and methods for event management and tourism, Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Gifford, R. (2011a): The Dragons of Inaction. Psychological Barriers That Limit Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, American Pschologist, Vol. 66, No 4, S. 290-302 Große Ophoff, M. (2012): Green Meetings und Events: Nachhaltiges Tagen in Deutschland, in: Schreiber, M.-T. (eds.): Kongresse, Tagungen und Events. Potenziale, Strategie und Trends der Veranstaltungswirtschaft, München: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. Oblasser, C. and Riediger M. (2015) Nachhaltiges Veranstaltungsmanagement mit Strategie, Berlin: Verlag Wissenschaft and Praxis. Raj, R. and Musgrave, J. (2009): Event Management and Sustainability, Oxford: Cabi International.

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Metadaten
Author:Vanessa Meinen
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:1383-opus4-17658
Series (Serial Number):Beiträge des Forschungs- und Transfertags der Hochschule-Rhein Waal (01)
Document Type:Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2023/06/26
Year of first Publication:2022
Publishing Institution:Hochschule Rhein-Waal
Release Date:2023/06/26
Tag:Nachhaltigkeit
Faculties and Institutes:Fakultät Gesellschaft und Ökonomie
Licence (German):License LogoCC0 1.0 Universell - Gemeinfreiheit (Public Domain)