The Sustainable Event Awards – Meet the Judges

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The Sustainable Event Awards Celebrate Excellence in Event Sustainability.

The judging panel for the inaugural awards is a stellar line-up of experts and we’d like to introduce them to you in our Meet the Judges series, kicking things off is Rick Stainton, Founder & Group Executive Director at Smyle Group.

  • What experience can you draw upon to successfully judge the SEAs?

Led Sustainability at Smyle for 10 years and set up the industry wide initiative Sustainable Events Summit in 2014.

  • How long have you worked in the events industry and what keeps you interested in it?

Over 20 years and it’s the most dynamic and all-encompassing industry anyone could wish to work in – dealing with the leading brands in world, the best people to work with and helping them make the world a better place.

  • Best (and worst?) moments working in the events industry?

Winning Event Agency of the Year award for the 6th time in 11 years in 2019 and celebrating with our 100 strong team is up there with delivering the Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony for the first time in 2010, as an agency then of only 30 people – worst… how sick and nervous I felt 5 mins before we went live to 500 million TV audience for our first Opening Ceremony of the Ryder Cup…

  • What does sustainability mean to you?

Its common sense – it’s an urgent requirement for all businesses and individuals to improve their approach, deliver a significant reduction in emissions and develop best practice, for our community, businesses and society’s future well-being.

  • When did you first become interested in sustainability?

When we set up Smyle it was always something we wanted to do but never did well, then had a light bulb moment after the 2012 Olympics that there should be a personalised path to follow that made positive change happen.

  • What do initiatives, such as the SEAs, mean to you? / Why is it important to recognise the achievements of Sustainable companies?

It’s as important as recognising commercial achievements and the two should and will increasingly be symbiotic.

  • What are your hopes for event sustainability in the future?

Everyone starts improving as a collective effort, if they haven’t already, and that it becomes the norm both in briefs, project delivery, business plan strategy and every day working life.

  • What is one thing we can all do on a daily basis to help make us more sustainable?

If you haven’t already, start. If you are already on a path, elevate it to be as important as anything else.

If you are leading the way in event sustainability then get the recognition you deserve, enter today www.sustainableeventawards.com

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.

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