Event management is changing for the betterment of organisations, disciplines, professions, cities, countries and the wider population.
When I started at ICMS Australasia over 20 years ago, our focus was primarily on event delivery. We had very clear goals of achieving sound outcomes for our clients and building a high-quality conference with exceptional content from the ground up, that existed for a finite amount of time.
Our conferences were a national and global platform to share knowledge. Of course, these elements are still vital to achieving success for an event, but the parameters have since broadened to include longer-term goals for the conference, the host body and key stakeholders.
I was buoyed recently when I learnt that a number of longer-term legacy goals of two events we managed over 10 years apart continue to provide benefits for their respective communities and, in the case of one in particular, for tackling climate change.
These events are the 6th IUCN World Parks Congress held in Sydney in November 2014 and the 26th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography in Melbourne in 2023.
At the 6,000-person 6th IUCN World Parks Congress at Sydney Showground in 2014, conservationists, environmental donors, policymakers, Indigenous leaders, businesses and key global stakeholders gathered to enhance the status and impact of protected and conserved areas worldwide. The outcomes were captured in the Promise of Sydney, a set of commitments aimed at achieving biodiversity conservation for both people and nature.
Confirmed actions include:
- Enhancing protection of the Great Barrier Reef by integrating traditional ecological knowledge from Indigenous communities
- Establishing Namibian Community Conservancies that empower local communities to manage and benefit from wildlife conservation
- Costa Rica’s Payment for Ecosystems Services initiative, which compensates landowners for conserving forests and natural ecosystems
More recently, the local host of the 26th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography in Melbourne began sending out 750 diamond crystal structure kits that were used at the Congress to regional and remote primary schools.
The Society created a booklet to accompany the kits, detailing how students can make four crystal structures. Their purpose is to encourage students to take an active interest in crystallography and science.
At the Congress, the materials were used to create a Guinness World Record diamond structure that more than 500 Victorian students helped build as part of a STEM-inspired exhibition at the Melbourne event. Interest in the kits has come from schools as far afield as Alice Springs and the Chatham Islands in New Zealand.
Events with purpose
I have read studies on the growing importance placed on longer-term event legacies and have heard individuals from all walks of life, in early conference planning meetings, explain the mark they want their event to leave on their community and, in some cases, globally.
Younger committee members are certainly the most active in wanting to be involved in an event with purpose; one that continues to generate outcomes after the conference’s closing remarks have been delivered.
It is wise to remember that, like the bidding for and winning of a conference—many years in the making—conference legacies are a slow burn. They do not align with government tenures, so the need to drive from within is crucial.
It is a testament to our organisation that we can celebrate creating event legacies more than a decade ago. We now play a leading role in Australasia and have a track record to testify to this. Legacy is an education piece, and I am happy to support industry growth by sharing our stories.