A Greener Future (AGF) has announced the latest speakers and panels for The 16th Green Events & Innovations Conference on 27 February 2024 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.
Speakers confirmed include; Blaine Harrison (Mystery Jets), Dale Vince (Ecotricity/Forest Green Rovers), Louis VI (artist/ filmmaker), Tori Tsui (climate activist/co-founder Bad Activist Collective), Sam Lee (Mercury Music Prize nominee), Farah Ahmed (Julie’s Bicycle), John Robb (Louder than War/The Membranes), Luke Howell (Hope Solutions), Sam Booth (AEG Europe), and Sangeeta Waldron (Author / Serendipity PR). View full list of announced speakers here.
GEI is a partnership between not-for-profit sustainability specialists A Greener Future (AGF) and the International Live Music Conference (ILMC), the world’s leading platform for the live music industry. GEI brings together inspirational speakers from the live sector from all across the globe, with compelling discussions and cutting-edge solutions for a greener live sector. A jam-packed programme will delve into the challenges of delivering green global events with discussion topics featuring transport, energy, food, equality, inclusivity & climate justice, and set design & materials usage for circularity, and more. Delegates are treated to a 5* vegan lunch, the International AGF Awards and networking drinks reception as well as a very special keynote experience to be revealed later this week.
The forthcoming edition of GEI will present the results of two exclusive research projects. The first, Accessibility and Sustainability at Festivals, will feature a unique partnership between AGF, Attitude is Everything, and Julie’s Bicycle. Farah Ahmed (Julie’s Bicycle) and Dr Teresa Moore (AGF) will introduce a toolkit that explores how disabled people’s access to music and live events can be environmentally sustainable. This will be followed by a discussion featuring Mystery Jets singer and Attitude is Everything patron Blaine Harrison, Feimatta Conteh (Arts Council England), Harry Jones (Accessible Events Ltd), and is chaired by Tori Tsui.
The second session, Influencing Audiences Beyond the Festival, focuses on the influence of green festivals and is based on AGF research undertaken with award-winning UK festival Green Gathering. AGF’s Dr Teresa Moore and Green Gathering’s Em Weirdigan will discuss the findings of the research and how green festivals can positively influence audience attitudes and behaviours beyond the event itself.
Following on from the success of the AEME (Association of Event Management Educators) panel at last year’s GEI, we have once again invited the association to bring together a panel of academics to discuss the demand for sustainability skills across the industry in ‘Supporting sustainable employability skills for current and future generations of festival and events managers’, as research has identified a big skills gap with a shortage of trained sustainability practitioners and leaders across industries.
In “Presenting Ecosystem Collapse – Sponsored by Oil and Gas”, Sangeeta Waldron (Serendipity PR) welcomes Luke Howell (Hope Solutions, fellow of IEMA, chartered environmentalist, and strategic sustainability lead for Coldplay and Glastonbury Festival) to discuss with Ed Collins (InfluenceMap) the thorny issue of sponsorship and sustainability; and Carol Scott (TAIT) and chair of LIVE Green welcomes a panel of industry experts including Ross Patel (Whole Entertainment, Music Manager Forum) exploring how green clauses can become an integral part of standard industry contracts, and ways of doing business in the next step beyond Green Riders in “Contracts for Climate”
In the week before GEI, The O2 will host the world’s first carbon-removed gig, featuring The 1975 in partnership with AGF and carbon-removal experts CUR8. The results of this event will be discussed in “The World’s First Carbon-Removed Gig”, which features Sam Booth (AEG Europe), Mark Stevenson (CUR8), and AGF’s Claire O’Neill.
Elsewhere in an agenda bursting with climate-busting, planet-saving sessions, acclaimed rapper, musician, nature filmmaker/presenter, zoologist, and activist Louis VI will deliver an impassioned speech in Nature Ain’t A Luxury; Louis VI will be joined by folksinger, activist, and Mercury Music prize nominee Sam Lee to explore the links between music, biodiversity and politics; and “Extreme Weather Events: Adapting to the New Climate” will highlight the ever-increasing issue of extreme weather events brought about by climate change and will feature the representatives of some of the events that were hit by extreme weather during the festival season of 2023, Yungblud and Massive Attack Tour Manager Jamal Chalabi (AGF / Backlash Productions), alongside Professor Richard Betts (Met Office, University of Exeter).
Returning for 2024 is the ever-popular Quick-Fire Innovation Round, hosted by Abena Fairweather (Legacy Marketplace), which brings the latest ideas and technologies driving sustainability in unique ways. Innovations include everything from blockchain for food traceability, recycled speakers, to biodegradable cable ties and much more.
And then, after a full day of entertaining, informative, and inspiring conversations, the International AGF Awards 2024 will conclude proceedings, with 27 events, venues, and innovators from 12 countries already announced as finalists. GEI delegates will raise a glass to the winners, followed by a final networking drinks reception. More info here.
Even more sessions are to be announced in the coming week. GEI is kindly supported by Ecotricity, TAIT, Instagrid, and KB Event.
