CIC is committed to improving the sustainability of Conclave. Here are a few of the thing's we're doing and ways YOU can participate: 

• Reducing paper: Distributing electronic handouts instead of paper copies, going electronic where possible and reducing the size of the conference planner binder.
• Recycling: The lanyards, badge holders/inserts you will receive at Conclave are made from recycled and/or compostable materials and will be reused/recycled once Conclave is over. We also will only be using reusable signage systems for the duration of Conclave.
• Community Service: Making community service a part of the leadership agenda, and requesting that the local CVB support "Transitions," the site of this year’s CSR activity, in lieu of conference attendee gifts.  
• Food: Focusing on local, sustainable food; eliminating all food from the Pre-Con meeting; limiting food service in the conference management office; and donating food to a local food bank where possible.
• Using Energy Efficiently: Ensuring that all lights, computers, printers and other pieces of office equipment are fully powered off at the end of each day. 

What YOU can do: 

In Spokane:

• Walking: The convention center is located in the heart of downtown and is easily accessible by mass transit, bike trails and pedestrian walkways. Its close proximity to the hotels, dining, shopping and entertainment, make walking one easy way you can go green each day! We are encouraging all attendees to walk to and from the convention center, as well as to the optional activities in close proximity to the hotel. 
• Drink local water instead of using plastic bottles of water. 

At the Hotel:

• Recycling: Recycling containers are located throughout the convention center and in hotel guest rooms. Put your discarded resources in the correct collection bins during your stay.
• Conservation: Participate in the hotel's towels and linens reuse program. Opt out of daily housekeeping by using your "do not disturb" sign.
• Turn off all lights and electronics when you leave your room.

• Remember your badge when you leave your hotel room; reprints use additional resources.
• Return your badge holder and lanyard to the registration desk for reuse and recycling.
• Attend the session on "Ditching the Notebook" on Sunday, June 9. Share your tips and help your fellow meeting professionals take the plunge and go paperless.

In the Community:

• Sign up to participate in our hands-on volunteer activity on Monday, June 10.
• Bring travel size toiletries and hygiene products for donation.
• Bring and donate a bath towel and washcloth. Towels will be used for shower programs and for swimming activities for the children. (Please bring towels from home or purchase them while in Spokane, not from your hotel room.)

For more CIC's efforts to make Conclave more sustainable, visit our web page.

Like any new prototype, I was designed in a "laboratory" setting with defined parameters and continually tweaked along the way. All types of people examined me: planners, suppliers, people from the Environmental Protection Agency and even people from other industries, such as plastics, wood and chemicals. You should have seen the debates about whether I was being designed to be too complex or not rigorous enough. Then they voted on my attributes and after more debate, I was deemed ready for market. Eight of my sections were launched in April 2012, and the ninth and final section was published in April 2013. I’m now a complete package and ready for use.

How do I operate?
I was designed for multiple use. Ideally, I would be used by both planners and suppliers who want to ensure their process and services come together to produce an environmentally sustainable meeting. You see the planner and supplier need each other to perform at the same level in order to meet my minimum expectations like an orchestra and a conductor. It’s okay if a supplier or planner says they comply with my attributes and their counterpart doesn't, but they can’t claim they've mastered me unless both have done their fair share of the process. For example, one of the fundamental functions of me is for both the supplier and planner to have a sustainability policy (here’s a link to help you create one if you don’t have one).   If the planner has one, but the supplier doesn't, the planner can’t claim that they have completed that piece of me. You see, I’m a bit like puzzle where all the parts need to fit together to get the whole picture.

It’s tough to be me, since people seem overwhelmed by me, and I sound so complicated and unattainable, but really I’m not. Regretfully, when you purchase me, I’m wrapped in some very tediously written text, pages long when my essence can be boiled down into a Excel spreadsheet. Then I resemble more of checklist and am a bit easier to digest. This isn't to say I’m easy. What would be the fun it that? And anyway, if it was easy, the industry would already have been achieving the goals I represent, and you wouldn't need me. And you do need me, so everyone can have the same frame of reference, event to event, meeting to meeting.

Who’s using me?
I provide a deep satisfaction for meeting professionals who, quietly or publicly, are able to conquer me. Most of them want to share it publicly if they do manage to reach one of my four levels of mastery. One organization that has publicly shared their experience with using me is IMEX America. They told me they were interested in using me because they want to meet my standard of performance. They used a spreadsheet format to lay out all of my parts, gave their internal planning team the planner bits and their vendor partners their supplier bits. I was so excited when I heard they were going to use me!  

We had a great time learning about each other. I did have a few parts, mostly how my creators had labeled me, IMEX found a bit confusing, but we sorted it out and they were able to try me for a spin. I know there are others out there who are getting know me and are working with me.

There are also a handful of suppliers out there getting some type of certification that comply with my expectations at Level 1. However, they are unable to make claims that they have mastered me because they need the planner using their product/service to also being in compliance. But soon, there will be those that master my Level 1 compliance. Then the industry will be well on its way to accomplishing what my creators intended all along – that our industry will have integrated environmentally sustainable meeting practices as the standard way of doing business.

Where can you buy me?
Okay, so there are no long lines or frenzied anticipation on how to get one of me. An iPad I’m not! However, you can purchase me a couple of different ways, you could be an ASTM member and get me at a discount as part of your membership www.astm.org, or you can visit the GMIC website  or the CIC website. 

I’d love for you to buy me, use me, share me, embrace me, be inspired by me, feel accomplished when you master me. Because without you, I’m just a bunch of meaningless text wrapped in an unattractive package called APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Event Standards.

Amy Spatrisano, CMP, Principal, MeetGreen®, Co-Founder of the Green Meeting Industry Council, Chair of the APEX Green Meeting Practice Panel.