Get Green at Your Next Event!

We have entered the 4th and final week of relationship building month here at Crafty.  We have talked about that initial contact and making new contacts, how to follow up and getting personal with your business relationships.  This week we are going to talk about entertaining.  I have found in my career that there is nothing more powerful than a meeting of the minds, face to face.  Events and entertaining can be a great way to get people together to have fun and more importantly get inspired to do business. More and more meeting and event planners are working to build some form of sustainability into the events they are organizing.  Below are some quick tips to implement at your next event to contribute to the efforts.

1. Use electronic invitations.

While I love to get a personalized event invitation in the mail and often hang them up for a reminder of when the event is happening, if you are trying to be green there are a lot of online sources to get people the information.  Evite or Paperless Post for more personal or smaller events.  Eventbrite is a great one if you are selling tickets or wanting to broadcast it via social media!

2.  Eliminate Paper Products at the event.

If you are catering the event use china and flatware with linen napkins vs paper products.  If it is a meeting, make the presentations and any handouts available on line, that way only people interested in it will seek them out and print them if need be.

3.  Recycle

Make it really easy for people to recycle at your event.  Place separate bins throughout the event - preferably one next to each trash can for people to sort.

4.  Encourage Guests to Use Public Transportation

This is something to think about first when choosing the location to make sure it is easily accessible.  Then make sure to include routes, bus or train numbers and exits for people to navigate their way there.

5.  Reduce Your Food Carbon Footprint

Go organic and locally sourced.  We are really lucky here in Portland in that there are a number of caterers who specialize in this.  First one that comes to mind is Crave Catering!  You can also offer water and other beverages in pitchers or dispensers and use real glasses.