isla, the sustainability body for the events industry, is hosting its first Venue Forum to engage UK venues in the challenge of accelerating the UK’s transition to Net Zero and creating a sustainable destination for events.

Taking place on Tuesday 28th June at ExCeL London, prior to The Meetings Show, the forum will include senior representatives and sustainability leads from a select group of prominent UK events venues all working towards the common goal of a sustainable industry.

Venues participating in the isla Venue Forum include ExCel London, ICC Wales, De Vere, Edinburgh International Conference Centre and Manchester Central. The Association of Event Venues, VisitBritain and membership organisation Unique Venues of London will also take part in the forum.

With a focus on collaborative action, the round-table style forum will explore how to align activity to deliver sustainability consistently and help move the UK events industry towards Net Zero faster.

It will cover what is a sustainable venue, how to anticipate client needs, what we need to measure and why, what are the barriers to change and what support would shift these.

Anna Abdelnoor, co-founder, isla, said: “We believe that events can change the world and that the UK, as a world-leading industry, should (and can) take the lead on creating a sustainable destination for events. We see a huge opportunity to work collaboratively to champion the UK as a destination, to retain domestic work and attract international events.”

isla will also be running a sustainability workshop and supporting sustainability-focused education at The Meetings Show next week (29-30 June at ExCeL London).

In addition, The Meetings Show has just announced that The Complete Sustainable Events Course, its online course for event professionals created in partnership with isla, is back for its second year this September following overwhelmingly positive feedback from the class of 2021.

The CPD accredited six-week online course is designed for meeting and event professionals who want to drive their organisation’s sustainability agenda and covers key areas from purpose-driven events, supply chains and stakeholders, carbon footprint and food to waste management and storytelling.