Kai Hattendorf, managing director and CEO of UFI, highlights the unity shown at the 88th UFI Congress, 3-6 November in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Dear colleagues,
Rarely in recent years has an UFI Congress theme matched the sense and spirit of an event as well as ‘Together Again’ did this year. We, indeed, came together again, we discussed together again – laughed together again. We shared experiences and observations, learnings and strategies. We mourned the colleagues we have lost to the pandemic, and we celebrated those who showed leadership and innovation, winning the UFI Awards this year.
I said repeatedly during the Congress that my favourite slide to share during our General Assembly was the one listing UFI’s upcoming face-to-face events. We will head into 2022 with a calendar that lists quite a few already, with others in planning – taking us to Hamburg, Macao, Poznan, as well as to Singapore and – for the 89th Global Congress, to Muscat, Oman. All of that is subject to pandemic development still, of course. And, for 2023, UFI has selected Las Vegas, USA, as host for the 90th Global Congress. We could not be more excited with this growing line up of face-to-face events.
Just as our industry events bring us back together, and drive new ideas, so do other types of events around the world. Arguably, the most important conference/summit of the year took place earlier this month in Glasgow: The Global Climate Summit, COP26. And this time, we showed up as an industry, with the Net Zero Carbon Events Pledge initiative.
Because, when it comes to battling climate change, we have two roles to play. One is the role we always have: We build and we operate the platforms where everyone comes together. But we also have to make sure that we commit ourselves to the target of carbon zero – to make sure that the greenhouse gas footprints that events create become smaller and smaller and eventually disappear. In Glasgow, we took the stage in front of the world – to share our own obligations as an industry.
The events sector is a very wide sector – covering everything from trade shows to wedding planners, from global congress organisers to local suppliers. But we are used to collaborating, and to collaborating well, to make things happen.
In the past months, we have brought together a global, inclusive group of actors from across the events sector. With the support and guidance from the UNFCCC we have worked on our sector’s journey towards carbon neutrality and zero carbon.
On 10 November, when we launched the initiative officially, we were already able to announce an impressive list of more than 100 initial signatories – companies that signed the pledge and committed to its targets. And their number has grown steadily since then; and I want to encourage each and every one of you to sign your business up as well.
This journey won’t be easy, but we aren’t starting from zero. It looks complicated, but we have experts and guides at hand.
Across our industry, we have excellent good practices and sustainability champions. We can build on their work with them all – as an industry collaborating, not competing.
At UFI, we have been active with work on sustainability for more than 15 years, and we can and will share all we have learnt through the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative. As our new president, Monice Lee-Müller, said to us, accepting her presidency
in Rotterdam: “I can’t emphasise enough – if we don’t take meaningful steps now, the future is bleak. Not just for our industry, but for our future generations and our planet. Let’s all get on the road to net zero, together.”
