15 Years of Meeting Revolution - A Look into the Past, Present, and Future

What began in 2008 as a moral epiphany to stop the seemingly endless waste associated with events and conferences has led to 15 years of innovation and an increased understanding of sustainability throughout the event planning industry. When Meeting Revolution founder Amanda Gourgue began her quest to make business events more sustainable and earth-friendly, she was driven by a desire to make events that weren’t just better for the planet but were more profitable for the planners working so hard to pull them together. 

In 2008, the hospitality industry was the second most wasteful industry in the country - this realization was what spurred Meeting Revolution’s inception. 

Consider the findings from the Finding the future, together report:

• 74,500 metric tons of waste was produced by B2B (business-to-business) events in the US and Canada in 2019.

  • 51% of the total waste went to a landfill. 

  • 19% of the total waste came from catering.

• The amount of carbon dioxide emitted in 2019 by event venues was equivalent to 358,000 households’ annual energy usage. 

While many things have changed since Meeting Revolution’s inception - including a global pandemic that quite literally evoked changes in the ways we gather - there remains much to do to assure that businesses and nonprofits are supported in their quest to conduct socially responsible meetings and conferences that are both profitable yet planned with a constant eye toward sustainability. So, as Meeting Revolution celebrates 15 years of existence, it is a great time to reflect on what we have accomplished since that original moral epiphany that we can and must do better as an industry. While the hospitality industry remains one of the most wasteful industries - the gains we have made in 15 years come from educating event planners about the waste associated with events - and how green event planning can pay off in financial profitability. 

The need to help our event planners understand the link between sustainable events and profitability remains as crucial as ever, and Meeting Revolution will continue to work to move from education to action to evoke systemic change within the industry. What does that action look like? We need metrics and measurements. In this era of smaller budgets and fewer staff to run events, that can be a tall order. We will always use the education component as our guidepost so that businesses can use the sustainable event planning practices that we employ as a company ethos for all events moving forward. Our goal is to help companies go greener - and see more “green” in their event profit. If we have to do it one event or one client at a time, we remain committed to that goal - and hope that by our next 15 years, the hospitality industry is known for its sustainable efforts, not its wasteful ones. We are up for the challenge!