β€˜It’s doubled in size!’ – A Greener Festival closes doors on SOLD OUT annual conference

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Claire O’Neill (AGF), Eric van Erdenburg (Lowlands), Victoria Chapman (Live Nation), Paul Reed (Association of Independent Festivals), Danny Newby (Big Green Coach Ltd) and Chris Johnson (Powerful Thinking) are speaking during the Focus on Festivals – Living Lab of Live, at the 12th edition of the Green Events & Innovation Conference 2020, the UK’s essential conference for sustainability at live events, at the Royal Garden Hotel in London, on 3rd of March 2020. Photo: AMMP/Bogdan Maran for Event Industry News

The 12th edition of A Greener Festival’s (AGF) Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI) took place yesterday (3rd March) at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, to huge approval, having sold out over a week in advance.

From 9:45 to 18:00, the schedule was jam-packed with sessions, presentations and panel discussion, as well as ample networking breaks for the 200+ delegates.

Director of AGF and co-founder of GEI, Teresa Moore, said of the conference: β€œIt started off very small – about 20 people from festivals and it only lasted half a day. In the last two years, the conference has doubled in size and I think that is reflective of the state of the planet and the climate.

β€œWe’re getting people from sectors we’ve never had here before. That communication is important as different industries can learn from each other.”

Just a selection of the highly-regarded speakers included Jane Healy, the sanitation manager at Glastonbury Festival; Coralie Bereal, the venue manager at the Forest National Arena; Tanner Watt, the director of partnerships from Reverb; Laima Leyton from Women In Music; and Kerry O’Brien, the founder of Young Urban Arts Foundation.

Teresa stated that a key philosophy of the conference is for delegates to leave having learnt something new and not just to re-peddle the same advice and solutions from previous years.

The sanitation manager for Glastonbury Festival, Jane Healy, spoke at a session on the butterfly effect of sustainability policies. On the swelling number of delegates, she said: β€œPeople are interested, they want ideas, they want to make the changes. That’s the good thing about this conference – it’s a feeding ground for new ideas.”

The International AGF Awards followed the conference.  Winners included Cambridge Folk Festival for the Greener Transport Award, Øya Festival for the International Greener Festival Award and We Love Green for the Pied Piper Award.

See a full list of the winners here.

Photo courtesy of AMMP Media

A Greener Festival is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting events, festivals and venues anywhere in the world to reduce their environmental impacts. This support includes certifications, training and expertise.

It founded the International AGF Awards to celebrate those who are leading the way with their sustainability practices.

Catch the highlights here:

Molly Hookings
Author: Molly Hookings

Molly joined the editorial team in March 2019. She has several years’ experience working in broadcast and journalism, as well as marketing and PR. Past experience includes working for the BBC and independent publishing houses. If you have a story you think Molly might be interested in, please email: molly@eventindustrynews.com