Frankfurt, 27 May 2010 – For two weeks in December 2009, 33,526 visitors descended on Copenhagen, including 122 heads of state, 4,000 media representatives and more than 6,000 NGOs from 192 different countries for the UN Climate Change Summit COP15. It was for this event, the largest gathering of political leaders ever organised, that COP15 Logistics and CSMP Team working within The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs picked up the coveted IMEX Green Meetings ‘Gold’ Award at the annual IMEX Gala Dinner last night.
Svend Olling, Head of Department at Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was at the Gala Dinner to collect the award. He said: “It’s a real honour and I am very proud to receive the IMEX GMIC green meetings award on behalf of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From the start we wanted to make the climate change conference as sustainable as possible given the challenging conditions of hosting one of the largest international political summits ever held. We achieved our goals and this is testament to the hard work of a committed team of individuals in the Ministry and in the event partner organisations. Special recognition should be given to Jan-Christoph Napierski and to the members of the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings coalition who formed a unique private-public partnership to not only help improve the sustainability of COP15 but to share the results and learnings with the global meetings industry. This award is fantastic recognition for the hard work of all team, who leave a legacy for others to follow.”
Working with key partners including Visit Denmark, Wonderful Copenhagen (the City Convention Bureau), the City of Copenhagen, Bella Centre, MCI and a team of 12 event organisers with experience of running large events in Copenhagen, The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had two years to pull together this historic event. With sustainability as its raison d’être, the organisation strategy for this event encompassed everything from accountability, social responsibility and stakeholder engagement to producing a lasting legacy and commitment to change.
The judges were particularly impressed with the event’s demonstration of commitment to community initiatives, including partnerships, minimisation of social impact and community actions, as well as its pre and post event management, for which it received maximum marks.
On the significance of this event as a marker of best practice for green meetings, Ray Bloom, IMEX Group Chairman, commented: “With the spotlight of the world’s media focused firmly on this historic summit for its two-week duration, never before has there been more impetus to create an event that could exemplify how the international meetings industry can incorporate CSR and sustainability into the core of its strategy – a feat that was achieved with great merit. Full praise to COP15 Logistics and CSMP Team for the tremendous work that went into staging this event as well as a special mention to their key partners that helped to make it happen.”
Also credited on the night, the IMEX Green Meetings ‘Silver’ Award went to Intel Corporation, Corporate Event Marketing for its Intel Development Forum (IDF) America event.
IDF America took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in September 2009 and hosted around 4,000 developers, technical managers, academia, government, press, sponsors, exhibitors and Intel staff as IDF sought to reinforce its industry leadership and branding. The aim of the event was to influence developers to build their technologies on Intel architecture but, chiefly, to forward key sustainability objectives.
Showcasing its visions for reducing the environmental impact of its operations, adding value and educating attendees about sustainability, the success of IDF America is now being transferred to its global meetings strategy.
The award was collected on the night by Lou Cozzo, Corporate Event Marketing Manager, Executive Speech and Event Strategy Group, Intel Corporation, who commented: “It is a real honour to receive this prestigious award. We will use this award as inspiration to innovate earth-friendly practices that lessen environmental impact for IDF and other events that Intel supports – always with the ultimate payoff in mind, a better planet for all.”
