Sustainable Events: How Associations and DMOs Are Leading the Charge

In this episode of Associations NOW Presents, guest host Teri Carden chats with Virginie De Visscher, executive director of business events for Destination Canada, and Amy Hissrich, MA, CAE, vice president of international affairs at ASAE, to explore the role of DMOs in driving sustainability efforts. They discuss the economic and reputational benefits of sustainable event planning, innovative strategies in transportation and local sourcing, and the power of collaboration in designing impactful, eco-friendly gatherings. Tune in to learn how associations and DMOs can work together to make a lasting difference for both the environment and local communities.

Check out the video podcast here:

https://youtu.be/qVljyQJkqsc  

This episode is sponsored by Visit Omaha and New Orleans & Company.

Associations NOW Presents is produced by Association Briefings.

 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Teri Carden: Welcome to episode eight of Associations NOW Presents, an original podcast series from the American Society of Association Executives. I'm Teri Cardin. You may have seen me around the association world as founder of non-A Palooza, AMS Fest and Review My AMS , but these days I'm sidekick it with co-founder of Higher Logic, Andy Steggles with his newest product called Insight Guide.

Some days I feel like a chicken with my head cut off as we manage our 20 plus clients. Yes, I'm throwing ASAE in the mix as one of our newest clients and all the implementations we have going on, but my real. Title is VP of Marketing and Client Success. Folks, I can tell you right now, it's a lot of fun to be me these days helping associations invent and deliver new tools to help their members make smart buying decisions.

How about enough about me? Let's jump into today's conversation about [00:01:00] events and sustainability. First of all, I do want to thank. Our episode sponsors Visit Omaha and New Orleans and Company. Today I am thrilled to welcome Virginie De Visscher, executive Director of Business Events for Destination Canada and Amy Hissrich, Vice President of International Affairs at ASAE. Hello, ladies. So let's jump into today's conversation. I'm absolutely excited to talk about this topic. It's actually a topic that's personal and close to my heart. I'm actually a full-time van Lifer. I collect memories, not things. So I naturally am over conscious about Mother Earth as it's truly an extension of my home.

I feel like it's pretty easy for me to adjust my lifestyle so that I'm thinking about the future of our environment and our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to come. But when I think of [00:02:00] nationwide organizations like Destination Canada, it seems daunting. Like how in the world I. See what I did there. Do you support more localized DMO with sustainability efforts? It does truly feel like a monumental task for conferences and events when there are literally millions of people involved. So Virginia, let's get started with you. 

[00:02:28] Virginie De Visscher: That's a great question, Teri, because Canada's the second largest landmass in the world, right?

And Destination Canada really plays a unique role as a, I call it a national conveyor or convener, and a and a catalyst. So we're not A DMO ourselves. We work to build capacity, we create alignment, and we try to support our local partners in advancing sustainable business events. Some of the ways that we do that are, for example, training and education.

We've launched a national initiative [00:03:00] where right now actually we have about 50 individuals across the country that are taking the Sustainable Event Professional certification in partnership with the events industry council, and that gives Canadian d os that foundational knowledge to integrate sustainability into their event strategies.

We support Canadian cities in joining the Global Destination Sustainability Index. The GDSI that helps them assess and benchmark themselves and improve their sustainability performance over time. We also see ourselves as bringing collaboration and and tools together, so d os and venues and partners can share best practices and co-create tools around sustainability calculators, storytelling assets.

Finally, I believe in a national alignment. So we make sure that strategies reflect Canada's broader commitments. So Destination Canada has a 2030 tourism strategy so that all those collective efforts can be future facing, that can be consistent and and scalable. [00:04:00] So it's more about continuous improvement and sustainability is embedded in destination marketing in how we do business events across the country.

[00:04:11] Teri Carden: So there's a saying, how do you e