Hi Danni, welcome to the Green Room! It’s great to have someone here who knows about making weddings more sustainable! Feel free to start a new conversation in the Parties and Weddings area. Now that summer is nearly here, I’m sure there are lots of topics that we could discuss!
Hello everyone! My name is Oxana 
What you do: I am finishing my Masters in Events Design and Management at Westminster University, and I work full-time for an American accommodation company - Sonder, as a Team Leader.
Where you come from: Originally I come from Kazakhstan (Hello from Borat!), but I have lived in the UK for 10 years now. Currently, I live and work in London, but plan to move to America at the end of this year.
What you’re working on: I am working on my dissertation that aims to understand factors that sustain event managers’ motivation to the greening of events. I want to know how event managers in corporations sustain themselves and their teams to continue developing their sustainability practices through time.
What challenges you have related to sustainable events: Mostly it is challenging to tap into a deeper understanding of event impacts. Where do you draw a line between what event impacts and what it does not?
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Hi Andrea,
I am in need of 3 more people to interview for my dissertation. I would like to invite you to take a part as you have so much experience in organising corporate events :).
I would like to share my brief with you and answer any questions you might have, if you are interested 
.
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Hi Oxana,
thanks for your message. No worries, happy to help. Just let me know what you need?
My email is andrea_fr211@hotmail.com
Thanks
Andrea
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Hello,
My name is Praise. I founded Wthical Weddings, a platform to equip couples getting married and wedding vendors with resources to do social & environmental good.
I am based in San Francisco, California.
Currently putting the finishing touches for our free virtual global summit, The Good Green to equip vendors with community & encouragement in our current COVID-19 world.
Current challenges right now are helping in-person vendors pivot to digital offerings as we await lifting a of shelter in place orders. Additionally, still facing systemic challenges with different cities/local governments that make composting, recycling difficult as well as lack in the supply chain of making eco-friendly options for couples an easy choice.
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Welcome Praise! You have just missed our Ask Me Anything event on sustainable weddings, but please do feel free to start a new conversation in the Weddings section.
I think all of us are facing the same uncertainties. Hopefully we’ll be able to share our progress on this forum.
Hi, I work for the ‘Green Energy Fund’ based in Denver and head up their ‘Events Greening Program’. I am based in the UK. Started the company Hybrid Events as a reaction to COVID firstly pivoting events online and now working on bringing our industry out of lock down. Great to be part of this group.
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Hi Chris,
Welcome to the forum! What are the challenges do you think, in bringing the events industry out of lockdown without losing the momentum on sustainability? There’s an interesting conversation on here about COVID-19 and sustainability that you might like to join.
What you do (please don’t pitch or sell!) Sustainability and behaviour change consultancy for events and businesses- how to reduce impacts and engage audiences
Where you come from Ive worked in the events and festival industry in the UK and Australia
What you’re working on: Currently workshops and training while everyone is on lockdown to get event managers ready for when the industry opens to build back better
What challenges you have related to sustainable events (we can probably help!)Events coming to me early enough.
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Hi @charlottem, welcome to the forum! We have a few other members based in France, like @DanniWingEvents.
We have an Ask me Anything session going on right now on sustainable catering. Do ask a question and join the discussion if you are free!
The link is I run a sustainable event catering and pop ups company. AMA
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Hello everyone! I am Nyomi Rose an events management student at Manchester Metropolitan University currently going into my final year eek! I am a Marketing Manager and Events Coordinator for AI Tech North and Blogger on Instagram/TikTok and LinkedIn sharing my events industry insight, knowledge and journey. I love the world of tech and AI but i am more concerned with the ethics, bias and disparity and how we can continually identify and improve our intelligence on making AI for good for the people and the planet. I also have way too many side hustles at the moment but i am always looking to explore opportunities. With the recent #BLM movement it has sparked me to become even more actively conscious as an #eventprof making sure i choose to work with clients/companies that are approaching sustainability in a positive way. As well as being aware of the lack of diversity and inclusion within events. Great to be part of this forum and i look forward to expanding my connections with other like-minded professionals! Nyomi Rose 
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Hi everyone, My name is Sara Franzini Gabrielli. I have been an university researcher and an international event professional for the last five years with expertise in sustainable project management for some Sports Events as Summer Universiade Games, Motor sport events, Word Championships and European Championships.
My track record clearly shows success in the following areas: improving efficiency and sustainability, plan social media schedule, project management and and HR organisation, as well as, be diplomat when needed to carefully solve general or politics complaints.
Operational delivery has ranged from organising and supervising Arrivals and Departures, Media, Operation and others, delivered working with multiple agencies and stakeholders environment.
This is exactly what I do best and enjoy most. When it comes to performing a big project, a company usually expects an error-free result. I mention this because my multi-events experience will help me to always see the “big picture” and adjust the approach accordingly.
I’m working now on some projects with Public Authorities, sports organizations, to implement sustainability in their strategies and actions.
My biggest challenge is that people still don’t really know what sustainability is so I have always to educate first and convince then that it’s not a cost but a long term investment.
Let’s keep in touch and share our ideas!
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My name is Françoise and I live in Adelaide, South Australia.
I am a theatre and arts events production and stage manager. I try to influence my arts community to become more environmentally sustainable via my Facebook Page The French Brace: via that page I assist companies to save resources by assisting them to give away (and sometimes sell) stuff they no longer want. Many people on the page are arts people and teachers so that resources go to people who are often keen recyclers and trying to save money. I also share information on sustainable behaviour, recycling possibilities and other interesting posts about greening theatre and events.
I am currently mostly unemployed due to COVID-19 but working with a few arts organisations to clean up their stores or offices now that we can go back to those places. Also working on a website for The French Brace.
My main challenge is getting arts companies to understand why it is important to address sustainability as part of core business. In my dream world all companies would have a link on their website listing all the small and bigger actions they are taking in this realm. In Australia we are lagging behind the UK in this realm.
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Hi @nyomirose, welcome to the forum! You’ve raised some really interesting ideas about AI and ethics, and also about lack of diversity in the events industry. Could you start a conversation on these on this forum? I’m sure other eventprofs would like to discuss.
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Hi @Sara_Franzini, welcome! So pleased to have an eventprof with sporting event expertise on the forum!
We agree with your challenges and actually find “sustainability” to be quite a clunky term. Perhaps you could start a topic on here for eventprofs to come up with an alternative word to sustainability that is easier for people to understand? 
Hi @FrancoisePiron, thanks for joining us! Sorry to hear that you are currently unemployed, it’s such a difficult time for those working in events. We have a jobs board where we post opportunities that we come across related to sustainable events so please do keep an eye on that. We hope work picks up for you soon.
Please do share the French Brace website when is ready! Did you see our Ask Me Anything session last week, all about how to design a sustainable website?
Hi folks, thanks very much for inviting me, really appreciate the forum & opportunity
I’m a sustainable event manager and had my business Climate Wave Enterprises since 2008. I’m also a volunteer director with Sustainable Event Alliance and Surfrider Foundation.
I live on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
The only work I have going currently is zero waste management for a local farmers market.
From what I can tell I’m not the only one with the problem of getting people/organisers to value SEM above the dollar.
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Hello everyone, thank you for the invitation to this community!
I am from Portugal, the beautiful Lisbon is my home.
I have been working as an event producer for 15 years, specially as a stage manager or doing artistic direction in galas or cultural events. Some years ago I felt the need to make a change in my lifestyle, I became more aware of the sustainable issues and this made me rethink everything about my work. So I gather a group of sustainable warriors and started to dig some solutions into a new project: Green Mind Events (www.greenmindevents.pt).
Besides the cultural events, creating story-telling with performers for corporate companies, Sport Institutions / Federations and so on, directing Galas, we jumped into social events also. Right now I am in a transition period of my life, I took a sabbatical leave and came to the USA, to have the opportunity to work in some community theaters and also to learn as much as possible on the topic of sustainability. With all the pandemic situation I had to reset the goals so I decided also to learn more about online events.
There are several sustainable issues in producing an event in Portugal, mostly regarding the lack of options to recycling materials or finding sustainable venues. We have been developing strategies to achieve zero waste events, even on cultural events, when we have to produce scenery, for example. It is a challenge to spread new sustainable habits, sustainable caterings for example, but these topics are becoming more acceptable by the community.
Hope to learn a lot more from you all.
Thank you!
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Hi @LegacyTheTeam yes of course that would be great! By all means i am not an AI expert but definitely an AI enthusiast
When would you like me to start the forum?
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Shall we create it as an event and try and get people to chat live at a specific time? Just create a new topic - this probably belongs in the “News and Views” area. You can create an event within the new topic just by clicking the cog symbol on the toolbar above and choosing “Create Event”