Monday Insights – March 7th

This Monday’s Insights feature brings you the industry headlines you may have missed from the previous week.

Headlines

Culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, has called for Russian participation to be stopped at all UK events. She says Russia will be banned from attending or competing in sporting events and called for event organisers to block Russian involvement and cancel performances. Speaking in the House of Commons Dorries commented:

“Culture is the third front in the Ukrainian war. Across sport, the arts and entertainment, we’re ostracising Putin on the global stage. Putin is now suffering a sporting and cultural Siberia of his own making, and it will be causing the Russian leader real pain. Putin needs the kudos of these global events to conceal his illegitimacy and the hideous acts he is perpetrating in Ukraine.

She continued: “The Russian despot is desperately trying to hide the grim extent of his invasion from his own people. It’s why I strongly support, and continue to encourage, the kind of emotional displays of solidarity we’ve seen across sporting events in the last week, including the Carabao Cup Final and the Six Nations.”

The Meetings Industry Association (mia) has appointed a dedicated diversity equity and inclusion director. VisitBritain/VisitEngland’s Debra Lang joins its voluntary board of directors to lead on diversity, equity and inclusion work.

Lang, who is the Director of HR & Professional Services of the national tourism agency, will be using her extensive experience to develop a strategy and best practice framework for the business meetings and events sector to ensure it is recognised as being fair, impartial and without biases.

Kerrin MacPhie, mia chief executive, said: “While working at the national tourism agency she’s [Debra] transformed the employee experience launching a people strategy during lockdown and creating numerous diversity and inclusion networks, which will provide great insight to our work championing best practice in this area.”

Read the full story on Conference News, here…

IMEX in Frankfurt has banned Russia from exhibiting at the show in May in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Group CEO shared the news on Linkedin while showing support for the Ukrainian people.

IMEX Frankfurt takes place at Messe Frankfurt on 31 May to 2 June, and Messe Frankfurt has also put out a statement in response to the situation.

IMEX Group’s announcement from Carina Bauer (CEO) and Ray Bloom (Chairman) included: “Sadly, today we have taken the decision to suspend Russian state enterprises from participating at IMEX in Frankfurt 2022, as a direct result of the current political situation. We do this with a heavy heart, understanding that the world is in an unprecedented situation. Our hearts go out to everyone who is affected and especially the people of Ukraine. All of us wish for a speedy and peaceful resolution to this conflict.”

Read the full story on M&IT!

Double take

The NEC Birmingham and the International Convention Centre (ICC) have donated over 13,200 portions of food to their local community in the past 18 months using food-sharing app Olio.

The initiative also averted over 11,400kg of carbon emissions, equivalent to taking 38,700 car miles off the road, and has saved 2m litres of water.

Marc Frankl, food and beverage director for the NEC Group’s in-house caterers Amadeus, said: “It has been a tough, yet rewarding journey for us to transform our operations in this way. Our staff have really embraced the partnership and it’s moving from strength to strength. OLIO is fantastic as it allows us to reduce any food waste from events, while giving back in the areas in which we operate.”

Read more on this fantastic achievement on Exhibition News.