Sustainable Event Management Operations

This course will prepare students to manage successful, sustainable events. Students will gain a practical and critical perspective on how to identify and meet participant, organizational and community needs, plan and improve logistics, solve problems and enable sound and ethical stewardship of economic, social and environmental resources. 

Upon successful completion, the student will be able to: 

• Define the role of an event manager in executing successful, sustainable events
• Analyze an event to identify operational needs in terms of site, housing, food and beverage, transportation, production materials, staffing and communications
• Articulate the duty of care event managers have to event stakeholders, including identifying and meeting the needs of participants, sponsors, staff, volunteers, suppliers, and the community at large
• Present practical recommendations to improve event operations to address material sustainability issues, including health and safety, risk management, environmental impacts, diversity, equity, inclusion, and reconciliation
• Anticipate and discuss ethical dimensions of event operations
• Estimate the carbon footprint of an event
• Propose sustainable food choices for menu planning
• Identify and use tools that can assist with sustainable site selection
• Identify and describe event sustainability standards

All organizations, whether they realize it or not, run events – from board meetings to informal gatherings, to potentially larger-scale conferences and corporate events. Understanding how the principles of sustainability have an impact on event management helps prepare you to be able to organize events; hire others to do so sustainably; or helps you make better choices in terms of event attendance as a sustainably-minded citizen.

• Introduction to Sustainable Marketing