Sustainable meetings – communicating to enhance the industry’s resilience

Abstract

There are many definitions of resilience, but in general it refers to the ability of a system, which may be a community, society, or economic system that are exposed to extreme disturbances, persistent stress, or hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from effects of the situation in a timely and efficient manner (PreventionWeb n.d.;). Sustainability is focused on improving people’s quality of life regarding environmental, social and economic considerations, for present and future generations (Marchese et al., 2018; Folke et al., 2002). From the above definitions, it is clear that the concepts are closely interlinked. This is evident following the recent Covid-19 pandemic that impacted the tourism sector, and specifically the meetings industry very negatively. Marchese et al. (2018) assert that increasing the sustainability of a system, in the context of this study the meetings industry, makes that system more resilient. This implies that if the meetings industry operates in a more sustainable way, it should be able to withstand any future upheavals, even those on the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mykletun et al. (2014) notes that the meetings industry is “a rapidly developing part of the international tourism business” but that it is unfortunately also, amongst others, producing waste, for example unused food and single use water bottles, and contributing to air pollution because of meeting participants’ travelling by means of international and domestic flights. Despite these disadvantages, Ioannides and Gyimothy (2020) emphasise the importance of the industry in that the Covid-19 pandemic led to devastating economical losses as localities and businesses, which depend on tourism or indirect tourism via meeting attendees, had to suspend operations permanently. This led to an enormous loss of employment opportunities, which impacted society on a worldwide scale. The meetings industry adapted to an extent by providing, at huge cost, online as well as hybrid meetings. Although hybrid meetings are now part of everyday life, people seem to still prefer face-to-face meetings, making the incurred expenditure even larger. One can therefore argue that the meetings industry, which is an important role-player in the tourism industry, did not function sustainably pre-Covid-19, which led to it being vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. The pandemic is viewed as a disaster occurring simultaneously at multiple levels, with vulnerability as the causative factor (Kelman, 2020). To counter the industry’s vulnerability, it should not just focus on recovering, but on “building back better” (UNDRR, n.d.) to help make the vulnerable, but economically significant, tourism sector resilient (UNDRR, 2020).
Despite the alarming picture of the meetings industry presented above, there already is a move towards a more sustainable, “green” meetings industry, as outlined by Mykletun et al. (2014). Some actions taken by the meetings industry to improve sustainability, include the Net Zero Carbon Events Pledge (to achieve the 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030); independent sustainability certification or eco-labelling; offering sustainable meal alternatives such as vegetarian food instead of meat dishes; selecting closer destinations; limiting plastic use; donating excess food and drinks; offering “vitality” or physical activities; and making use of public transport (Mykletun et al., 2014; JMIC, 2020; Net Zero Carbon Events, 2022). Mykletun et al. (2014) found that although the meetings industry takes active steps to become “greener”, and that meeting delegates are in general positive towards “green” meetings, there is a low level of knowledge about and experience of “green” meetings. This leads to this on-going study’s research question: in what way are sustainability meeting options and practices communicated to meeting bookers and participants to enhance the industry’s resilience?
This qualitative study’s theoretical point of departure is strategic communication, which is defined by Zerfass et al. (2018:493) as “… all communication that is substantial for the survival and sustained success of an entity. Specifically, strategic communication is the purposeful use of communication by an organization or other entity to engage in conversations of strategic significance to its goals”. Strategic communication’s link to sustainability and resilience is clear from its definition, and in the case of the study at hand, the “survival and sustained success” of the meetings industry’s communication practices is under scrutiny.
Data is gathered by means of qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 5 meeting providers, meeting bookers from 5 Swedish universities, as well as 5 focus group interviews with academic meeting participants. Qualitative, thematic content analysis by means of Nvivo software is applied to analyse the data.
Preliminary findings show that meeting providers do communicate sustainable meeting options to meeting bookers, but that the latter are not always prepared to pay for more expensive, more sustainable meeting options. On the other hand, there is a growing need for meetings in nature settings accompanied by outdoor, physical activities. Most Swedish universities choose sustainable vegetarian catering for meetings, but meeting participants are not always aware of the rationale behind these decisions. Furthermore, hybrid meetings is now “normal” but meeting participants prefer face-to-face meetings for networking purposes. These preliminary findings indicate that communication regarding sustainability and how it can enhance the industry’s as well as society’s resilience against a recurring disaster or change, should be planned better to raise awareness about the need and options for a sustainable meetings industry; to enhance positive perceptions and attitudes towards sustainable meetings; and motivate all stakeholders ranging from meeting providers, meeting bookers as well as participants to engage in sustainable meetings.
Last, the study’s theoretical contribution to the field of strategic communication will be argued, while practical recommendations will be proffered.

Reference List
Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., Holling. C.S. & Walker, B. (2002). Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. Ambio, 31, No. 5, Aug., pp. 437-440.
Ioannides, D. & Gyimothy, S. (2020). The COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for escaping the unsustainable global tourism path. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), p. 624–632.
JMIC (Joint Meetings Industry Council). (2020). JMIC and SDG’s Meeting the world’s sustainable development goals. Web: https://themeetingsind.wpengine.com/industry-resources/un-sdg-reporting/
Kelman, I. (2020). COVID‐19: what is the disaster? Social Anthropology, 28(2), pp. 296–297.
Marchese, D., Reynolds, E., Bates, M.E., Morgan, H., Clark, S.S. & Linkov, I. (2018). Resilience and sustainability: Similarities and differences in environmental management applications. Science of the Total Environment, 613–614, p. 1275–1283.
Net Zero Carbon Events. (2022). A Net Zero Roadmap for the Events Industry. Web: https://www.netzerocarbonevents.org/wp-content/uploads/NZCE_Roadmap2022_Full-Report-updated-26Jan2023.pdf
PreventionWeb. (n.d.). Resilience. Web: https://www.preventionweb.net/understanding-disaster-risk/key-concepts/resilience
UNDRR (United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction). (2020). ARISE Japan’s activity plan is the first voluntary commitment published by an ARISE national network. Web: https://www.undrr.org/news/arise-japans-activity-plan-first-voluntary-commitment-published-arise-national-network
UNDRR (United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction). (n.d.). Build back better. Web: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/build-back-better
Zerfass, A., Verčič, D., Nothhaft, H. & Werder, K.P. (2018). Strategic communication: defining the field and its contribution to research and practice. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(4), pp. 487–505.

• author: Wiggill, MN
• organization: Department of Strategic Communication
• publishing date: 2023
• type: Contribution to conference
• publication status: published
• subject: Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
• keywords: meeting industry, Strategic Communication, Sustainability
• pages: 3 pages
• conference name: 31st Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research
• conference location: Östersund, Sweden
• conference dates: 2023-09-19 - 2023-09-21
• language: English
• LU publication?: yes
• id: 1476a184-03f9-4335-8d73-1cbb04825d60
• alternative location: https://www.miun.se/globalassets/forskning/center-och-institut/etour/konferens/nordic-symposium-2023/nordic-symposium---book-of-abstracts--final-web.pdf
• date added to LUP: 2024-01-29 11:14:13
• date last changed: 2024-01-31 08:11:34