UK MPI meeting wins prestigious CSR Awards
12 December 08
The UK Organising Committee of The Meetings Professionals International (MPI) conference and ExCeL London have been awarded a prestigious CSR award at this year’s Eventia Awards 2008. The award was given to the CSR driven conference which took place at ExCeL London in April 2008, and was the first BS 8901 compliant event to be held in the UK.
Beating off stiff competition from other CSR-related events the award was presented at a ceremony held on 21 November 2008 at The Troxy in London.
Launched in 2006 the Eventia Awards were created to honour outstanding business-to-business and business-to-consumer events that have taken place in the UK.
The CSR award – sponsored by green events venue Kew Garden – was awarded to the UK Organising Committee for the event, which was attended by over 750 MPI global members.
As well as its strong CSR base the three-day event was the first event to go through the third-party certification process to obtain the CSR accreditation BS8901. The accreditation and overall CSR direction was lead by regional MPI UK member Fiona Pelham who is also Director of Organise This, an event management company specialising in events which have a positive impact on the local community and global environment. Pelham worked in conjunction with ExCeL London and the MPI UK Organising Committee which consists of prominent industry leaders.
Eventia judges praised the award entry and highlighted the strong implementation of the CSR strategy, which was divided into three phases. The first phase included identifying issues and creating a full CSR development policy. The second phase included supply chain management, roles and resources as well as operational controls and collection of measurement on-site by a team of volunteers and the final phase was a full review of all compliances and performances in relation to the original objectives.
Co-Chair of the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Professional Education Conference Europe in 2008 and Commercial Director of Visit London David Hornby commented: “This award is an amazing success for both ExCeL London and the UK Organising Committee of MPI. This was an incredibly important step for the UK meetings industry to show just how important and simple it is to create a CSR policy for any event which sets clear and achievable CSR objectives. The MPI event not only met all its objectives but also showcased London as the most inspiring destination for delegates too.”
James Rees, Head of Conference and Events Sales at ExCeL London commented: “ExCeL London takes its impact on the environment very seriously and it’s a great honour to be awarded in recognition of the measures put into place, not just for this conference, but for all events that have benefited since then. We look forward to hosting many more BS 8901 compliant events in the future.”
MPI UK President Mandy Torrens concluded by saying: “MPI are delighted that the UK Organising Committee of MPI and ExCeL London were awarded with this prestigious accolade. MPI is an industry association which is constantly striving to push the boundaries of the meetings industry through education, technology and interaction and this award recognises just that. The UK chapter of MPI is committed to providing events which are environmentally friendly, sustainable and above all are events which significantly challenge the meetings industry to be the best they can be.”
Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is the industry’s most dynamic global community, which has been created to support and educate their members at the grassroots level. MPI has over 66 local chapters which means as an organisation it is able to offer a ‘local perspective’ but with a global level of support, networking and industry authority.
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