“Going green” has been promoted as responsible corporate behavior, and it is. The new model for going green, however, focuses on its ability to save money as well as resources, and you get the added benefit of the good press this can bring your firm. For convention planners, exhibitors, host facilities and all kinds of vendors, highlighted are five green, moneysaving ideas:

1. Deploy lightweight booths
2. Minimize paper, maximize wireless
3. Coordinate transportation
4. Review food service
5. Cultivate a green mindset

1. Deploy lightweight booths

You certainly don’t need to gut your marketing budget because of a recessionary economy, and it’s not wise, anyway. A new generation of lightweight booth designs can save you a bundle in shipping (and associated fuel costs and carbon footprints). New wrinkle-resistant fabrics, or plastics made from over 80% recycled material, are stretched over recyclable aluminum frames, allowing different panels to be swapped in and out to create unique looks at various events. New retractable banner stands take the same approach, and are easy to set up, recyclable and all of 10-15 pounds in weight.

2. Minimize paper, maximize wireless

Literally tons of paper are used for meetings and conferences so much that even state agencies (like the State of Virginia) are getting involved by certifying convention centers as “green.”  The overriding goal is to minimize paper use as much as possible, by making online registration the preferred method for signing up, and delivering program materials via PDF downloads and other eco-friendly means. Convention centers are rapidly deploying wireless networks to capture more business, and exhibitors of all sizes are prepared to distribute even post-conference materials by download rather than in printed form.

3. Coordinate transportation

Even when a conference is held in a single location, attendees should be encouraged to carpool, walk and use alternatives to single-passenger cars. Exhibitors who use CRE for convention rentals do not have to transport any equipment to the site, as CRE can take care of delivery, setup and breakdown in most cities. Conference managers may be able to strike a deal with local public transportation agencies for discounted passes, and simply providing rate and fare information has been shown to increase the use of public transportation and cooperative carpools by conference participants.

4. Review food services

If food preparation is part of the plan, reusable dishes, flatware and glassware should be considered in place of disposables, as the American Chemical Society included in the municipal plan it did for Boston. Unserved food portions are often overlooked in planning, and last-minute notions of distributing them to food banks or missions will not pass muster with most municipal, county and state food handling laws. Check on food-handling regulations, federal and state, and remember that unserved portions must be kept separate from food waste.

5. Cultivate a green mindset

Conference participants, from presenters to exhibitors, should all be encouraged to cultivate an attitude supporting reduced waste and increased recycling. Green events do not happen automatically, but through careful planning and the cultivation of a take-charge, can-do mindset. You are doing the right thing ecologically and, even better, you are saving some green while you’re acting green. CRE can help, since we are convention experts as well as the premier source for the computer rentals, large monitors, audio-visual equipment and plasma rentals that will make your exhibit a success. Call, send an e-mail or fill out a Quick Rental Quote form and an experienced Account Executive will be on the job for you right away.

The 2010 Event Solutions Conference & Tradeshow, attended by event planners, show operators and industry leaders, is one of the top annual shows in the conference industry.  This year, the state of the industry discussion, “Where We Are Now & Where We’re Headed,” was presented by a panel of top industry professionals addressing concerns about design trends, green events, pricing and shortened production times.  In addition, educational sessions featured topics such as customer loyalty, green events, social media and more.

Trade show riches, green niches

The trade show portion of the Event Solutions Conference was, as always, overflowing with new ideas, technologies and trends. Exhibitors showcased such creative event ideas as entertainment-centric presentations, portable ice arenas, the latest display and gaming technologies, and future directions in décor and design. During an exhibitor debriefing session, many noted that new event professionals are continuing to enter the industry, pointing up the power of networking and relationship building.

The “greening of the events industry” continues to be a ‘hot topic’ and has already produced numerous money- and environment-saving practices. In addition to affecting conference planning, environmental concerns have spurred a great deal of new research into electronic devices that both use and waste less power, are easily recycled, have eco-friendly components and are not designed for obsolescence. “Going green” is one of the strongest trends in business today, and shows now sign of abating.

Real-world solutions for greening events

From holding events outdoors, maximizing natural light and leveraging wireless technology to replace printed materials, to reducing food waste and recycling every possible item, green goals were widely discussed at the conference – and used by exhibitors and attendees alike. Many made use of Wi-Fi to reduce the distribution of paper programs, just like CRE can equip conference teams (again, both exhibitors and attendees) with laptop rentals or other devices to save on paper, printing costs and cleanup. CRE is serious about enviro-friendliness, too, as its corporate green statement makes clear. The balance is a tough one to strike – business growth along with environmental stewardship – but it is worth our best efforts.

CRE always gives you its best efforts, too, recommending appropriate solutions to your workflow bottlenecks and advising you on everything from technology to outfitting your trade show exhibit booth. Call or e-mail one our Account Executives today, or fill out the online Quick Rental Quote form, and let us help you make your next move towards ‘greening’ your event.

Because of our own commitment to sustainability, we’ve covered a number of green topics in our blog this past year (yes, it’s been a year now), but have discovered one glaring oversight. We never gave you, in one place at one time, a simple action plan or quick overview for having the greenest possible conference. Today, we will address conference exhibitors, but the ideas will be applicable to in-house meetings and events, too.

Green is the goal

Along with everything else that goes into your conference preparation – writing and design, layouts and animations, schedules and assignments – you need a strategy for equipment. The challenge is to balance your corporate conference goal with the green goal of minimizing waste of all kinds. This means not only saving paper by creating virtual sell sheets and brochures that can be downloaded, but saving on conference incidental costs by using one of CRE’s interactive kiosk rentals as both a “presentation station” and a data collector.

If you are scheduling a live presentation, the same thing goes for any ”handouts” – make PDFs available for download. (Most conferences these days have onsite wireless set up for attendees’ use.) For feedback on the presentation, forget the paper and pencils again, because Audience Response System rentals will get you much more feedback, and in a form you can immediately put to use on your computer. The presentation itself can be done in several ways, either with projector rentals or large-screen monitors (like CRE’s plasma rentals). You can attach a digital media player or your laptop to either a projector or a LCD monitor, and remotely control the whole thing.

More green tips for your conference

If you really want to limit your conference team’s paper use, you may want to outfit everyone with tablet PC rentals. This way, the team’s note-taking can be handled with the various “pen computing” tools. Using the stylus and a “notepad” program, you can take digital notes, saving them as-is or converting them in real-time (or later) with character recognition software. A tablet PC, of course, is multipurpose wireless device and can be used to keep team members connected and coordinated, no matter how busy and demanding the conference gets. (Tip: Don’t forget the AC adapter, and plug in the unit at all possible times to keep it charged for those times you need to be “untethered.”)

If you need to record a conversation with a potential customer, a keynote speech or a breakout session, digital recorder rentals can provide massive amounts of speech-quality recording time. Again, you will have no consumables, no waste, a low cost and high quality results. Instead of pages of random, unsorted notes (plus the occasional napkin or envelope with someone’s name and phone number), you will leave the conference with a useful collection of digital assets – audio notes, imported/downloaded video, drawings, doodles and handwriting converted to editable text.

Always back up your digital assets!

In addition to carrying your digital assets out of the convention center on your laptop, you can upload them to your company’s server (or elsewhere) as you go along from session to session, day to day, in a sort of ongoing online backup routine. This is the way to safeguard against loss of your laptop, file or disk corruption or other catastrophes. After planning a Earth-friendly, green conference appearance, the last thing you need is a technological breakdown. Don’t forget to make backup an important part of your strategic planning.

CRE’s experienced Account Executives can help you “green” your next conference or event, or set you up with everything from computers to office equipment. Our expertise is yours with a simple phone call or e-mail, or if you know what you need, use our Quick Rental Quote form. We are here to help. Let us know how we can help with your next green event!

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is serious about environmental leadership. He is also serious about being seen to be serious, as this makes for good public relations. However, having a business motive for making “green” upgrades does not negate all the good that they will do. Even before his latest announcement, Apple had already eliminated, by the end of 2008, such toxic chemicals as lead and arsenic (in displays), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants.

With the introduction of LED technology in its displays, like the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display rentals from CRE, the Cupertino firm also took the lead in eliminating mercury from its products. The latest iMac rentals also have mercury-free components, and arsenic-free glass, and represent the future of “non-toxic tech.” CRE also checks the manufacturing processes of the other companies whose products it rents, as CRE is committed to its own sustainability strategy, as outlined in its corporate “green statement.”

A little history

Apple began a serious recycling program in 1994 and by 2007 it operated recycling centers in the countries where upwards of 80% of all iPods and Macintosh computers were sold. By the end of 2009, that figure had increased to over 90%. Hewlett-Packard, whose powerful HP8600 is one of CRE’s top computer rentals, is similarly committed to recycling and non-toxic manufacturing, and a critical mass of industry leaders has coalesced around a number of excellent standards and practices that are having great success.

Presently, there is no industry-standard way to assess the effectiveness of these recycling programs. Dell Computer has proposed a simple measure that projects a seven-year product lifetime, and measures the percentage of total weight recycled each year against the total weight of what was sold seven years earlier. This is a sensible proposal, with the added benefits of simplicity and transparency.

The way forward

For its part, Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, almost 10% of the weight of all products the company sold seven years prior. Apple executives expect this percentage to grow and, by 2010, project that the company will recycle 19 million pounds of e-waste, or nearly 30% of product weight sold in 2003 (seven years earlier). Apple’s high-end models, like CRE’s MacPro rentals and the iMac line, are not part of the Apple trade-in program yet, but the company offers 10% off a new iPod when a customer brings in an old one to recycle.

Whatever you need in the way of Apple products, potent PCs, plasma rentals or conference capabilities, it takes just a quick phone call or e-mail to get a CRE Account Executive working on a solution for you. If you know what you need, our Quick Rental Quote form is the way to go. CRE is proud to partner with Apple and other industry leaders in the “greening of technology,” and we will keep you updated on the progress!

In 2003, the Green Meetings Task Force of the Convention Industry Council (CIC) was asked to create minimum best sustainability practices for event organizers, vendors and participants. The task force included representatives of industry, government and think thanks, from the EPA, the Ocean’s Blue Foundation and the World Travel Organization to convention and visitor’s bureaus, hotel firms, convention centers, meeting planners and other organizations. The Task Force’s work resulted in a set of guidelines for event organizers and suppliers for producing “eco-friendly” events.

What is a green event?

The CIC Task Force defines a green meeting or event as one that “incorporates environmental considerations to minimize its negative impact on the environment.” Once the principles were established, it was thought, the continuing march of technology would provide ever faster, cleaner and more sustainable methods for reducing the negative impact. This has, in fact, occurred. Since 2003, wireless networking has found its way into every laptop line, like MacBook Pro rentals, and with inexpensive wireless access readily available, event organizers can reduce their use of paper for programs, maps and schedules by emailing or using Twitter to keep attendees informed.

Digital recording has progressed leaps and bounds. A Digital Recorder rental, like the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96, offers a professional, 2-channel, mobile digital recorder that records WAV and MP3 files to Compact Flash (CF) cards and fits in the palm of your hand. Event organizers can record sessions and upload them, making it easy for attendees to listen to sessions missed;  add PDF files of session handouts and notes, and you’ve created a greener event.

High-Tech Convention Centers

Advances in green meetings are being paralleled by advances in convention technology, which we will cover in an upcoming blog. There is another trend, however, that is most exciting, and that is the new generation of high-tech convention centers.

When the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) built its new Boston convention facility, the goal was to create a high-tech convention center that would serve as the centerpiece of the city’s waterfront revitalization program. Designed as a totally wired facility, it provides visitors with site-wide Internet access and exhibitors with under-the-floor boxes for easy access to all utilities and communication. Setting up a networked PC to run presentations on an LCD monitor rental is a snap with this kind of pre-planning.

Convention center management used the facility’s Ethernet backbone network to design the Building Automation System (BAS). The BAS allows third-party systems to inter-operate with its single front-end system,which has over 5,000 control points. Convention center staff can manage and monitor the entire center’s operations and systems both centrally and remotely — everything from HVAC equipment, fire alarm interfaces, A/V systems and more. When a problem occurs with any of the systems, the BAS alerts convention center staff via cell phone or e-mail.

Looking for a partner that is committed to “green” and is a leader in convention planning and rentals? CRE Rentals is ready to help you plan, implement and equip your next event. Give our expert Account Executives a call, send an e-mail or fill out the Quick Rental Quote right now to start “greening” your next event.

Conference Planning

• Select venues that are centrally located with multiple hotels and restaurants within a reasonable walking distance (walking is healthy, too).
• Encourage the use of public transportation through selection of well-situated venues.
• Consider devising a Carbon Offset program to offset attendees’ travel.
• Find local vendors for convention rental needs, and request that they also use local subcontractors and inventories.

Transportation and Logistics

• If you must coordinate transportation for attendees, develop schedules with shuttle companies or contract with an event transportation specialist.
• Give attendees directions to event via various routes using public transportation, pedestrian routes and bicycle paths.

Registration, Communication & Logistics

• Codify your firm’s commitment to sustainability by posting your policies and procedures on the conference website. (Read CRE’s own “green statement”)
• Use e-mail and web forms to register attendees, confirm attendance and communicate with vendors and support personnel.
• Get reusable badge holders with lanyards to reduce ID to a single, small printed area, and ask attendees to return holders after the event. Provide multiple, convenient and accessible drop-off locations.
• If you do not eliminate conference bags entirely, then ensure that they are made of post-consumer and/or sustainable materials.
• Reduce or eliminate paper, ink and print processes for conference agendas and programs, offering them online, via conference WiFi, or on a disk or thumb drive.
• If you must print materials, use double-sided design with post-consumer-content paper and vegetable or soy ink.

Presentations, Meetings & Meals

• Print any required signs and banners on recycled paper and allow for reuse by leaving off dates. Consider using a small projector to project banner or signage.
• Only use energy- and environmentally-efficient office equipment at the event, if any.
• Develop and implement a recycling program inside the meeting venue starting the first day, and promote it unceasingly.
• At meals, use no disposable items, not even paper napkins, and instruct servers to give water only on request, to speakers on the dais as well as attendees at the tables.
• Encourage presenters, speakers and exhibitors to offer materials online, on a disk, on flash memory (custom thumb drives), or via conference WiFi.
• Provide reusable mugs or water bottles for attendees’ use during the entire event, and set up “water stations” for refills.
• Consider enlisting the help of a professional, reputable event production firm, such as CRE, to ensure the best possible results.

At the annual Display Week 2009, a significant number of exhibitors, speakers and participants discussed myriad efforts to encourage greener manufacturing of more energy-efficient display technologies. “Sustainability,” “energy-efficient” and “Earth-friendly” are not new terms, but they are getting a great deal more attention now.

As far as leading market research company DisplaySearch is concerned, this new interest is already driving the advancement of new technologies that will decrease environmental impact, increase sustainability and help firms go from “lean and mean” to “lean and green.” In 2008, some 20% of flat-panel display (FPD) units had “green” features, and this is expected to rise to as high as 70% by the end of 2012. It is also suggested that “green technology” will be standard issue for most LCD displays and monitors in 2014. CRE rents lower-power LCDs today, and when the new technologies start appearing in new models, we’ll have those available to rent, too.

From buzzwords to real specs

Among the R&D efforts currently underway are various approaches to developing new and better materials, light sources and system designs, as well as optimizing manufacturing. The broad aim is to reduce production waste, eliminate toxic processes and materials, lower energy consumption, conserve natural resources—and get the message out.

Here’s a quick wrap-up of “The Greening of LCD Displays”:

3M’s Vikuiti “reflective polarizers” have been shown to increase LCD panels’ energy efficiency an average of 30% by recycling light through the backlight.

The industry’s first glass substrates for LCD panels without added heavy metals or halides, Corning’s Eagle XG units provide additional opportunities for an LCD display to be green its entire life—before, during and after use. Removing potentially harmful heavy metals makes a device recyclable at the end of its useful life.

LG Display showcased an eco-friendly line of products designed with fewer components to consume less power, from trendsetting plasma displays (CRE has plasmas for rent, too)  to its leading line of LCD panels. The company demonstrated a 32-inch LCD TV with the world’s lowest power consumption. By adding a white pixel to the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) array, and recalibrating the Optimal Power Control (OPC) system, the model cut its power requirement by 56 percent. In addition to this “White Plus” technology in several products, the company also showed “the greenest 47-inch LCD TV” ever—no arsenic or halogen in mechanical parts, no PCBs anywhere.

Microsemi has pioneered several energy-saving technologies for its line of backlighting, color management and sensor products. The products enable all kinds of LED backlight systems to offer top performance in eco-friendly, economical ways. Applications include LCD TVs, netbook and notebook computers, vehicle dashboard instruments and many other display applications. The backlit touchscreens, such as on the Motion Computing tablet PC that CRE rents, are reckoned to be a huge emerging market for Microsemi’s cost-cutting approach.

Qualcomm MEMS Technologies’ “mirasol” display technology is a nature-inspired, eco-positive design based on its IMOD (Interferometric MODulation) technology. It consumes dramatically less power than competing technologies, meaning devices will run longer on fewer, smaller, lighter, cheaper batteries—just as the laptop rentals from CRE run two to three times longer between charges than the average laptop of 2004. The energy-efficiency of the mirasol display derives from its use of reflective light, rather than backlighting, mimicking the way the human eye actually prefers to see. In a classic, well, display of “tech evangelism” numerous pundits are predicting that very soon, mobile devices will

• have clearer displays,
• last longer between charges,
• double their batteries’ lifespans,
• require fewer replacements,
• not contribute toxic Li-ion batteries to landfills and, overall,
• save a boatload of money and energy for everybody.