We spend a lot of our time telling event organisers that food is one of the biggest sustainability levers they have. In most of the footprints we measure, catering sits behind only travel and accommodation – and unlike a delegate’s flight, it’s a line item that the organiser controls almost completely. But it’s the surplus […]
Break an event into carbon and social value by lifecycle phase, you ask? Here you go. Plus advice that falls out, split cleanly into what to decide once – and what to fix every time. We recently re-cut three real events – a multi-day conference, a long-haul incentive trip, and a festival brand activation – […]
Measuring event carbon footprints has inherent value. It gives your client something to keep. As an agency or supplier, it demonstrates your expertise. Here is something that rarely gets said out loud in an agency, because it sounds ungrateful. You measure the carbon footprint of an event. You chase the flight manifests, the hotel nights, […]
By Matt Grey, event:decision On 20 July, Andy Burnham was sworn in as prime minister. Days earlier, setting out his priorities at a policy speech in Manchester, he had pledged to overhaul public procurement in favour of social value and hinted at a national rollout of the Preston-style community wealth building model he has championed […]
Every Impact: review ends the same way. A Scorecard is generated, a client opens it, a box on an RFP gets ticked or a board paper gets its evidence slide. That part is real, and it’s the part everyone remembers, because it’s the part with someone else’s name on it. It’s also the smaller […]
| event:decision | July 2026 Every event you deliver has an iceberg problem. What the client sees – the room, the stage, the delegate badges, the feedback score, the headline attendance number – is the tip. It’s real, and it’s the part everyone photographs. But it’s a fraction of the mass. The rest – the […]
EVENT:DECISION · SECTOR INSIGHT Made for this moment: the event sector already delivers what the new PM wants On 29 June, at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, Andy Burnham set out his vision for how Britain should be run: power pushed out of Westminster, growth nurtured from the bottom up, and a relentless […]
A few who attended this session have asked for a copy of the presentation. Here you are. And a very short summary: Every ESG conversation in events collapses into carbon. It’s measured, regulated, table stakes almost – and it misses what events already do brilliantly: generate social value nobody bothers to record. That’s the argument […]
The evidence gap behind events’ sustainability claims The Business of Events’ Global Destination Report 2026 paints a sector that has moved past pandemic recovery and into something harder: proving its value on terms beyond delegate counts and room nights (Davies Tanner / SFA Connect, 2026). Buried in the interview findings is a pattern that will […]
The UK events sector is £68 billion big – but it is, first and last, a people business. Now we can prove both. Matt Grey, event:decision · written at The Business of Events At The Business of Events Policy Forum today, MP Martin Rhodes gave the sector a clear, and I think correct, challenge. Keep […]