The 4th international Green Events Europe Conference is the best so far!

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]The 4th Green Events Europe in Bonn was another big success. The leading pan-European conference for sustainability in the live music and events industry saw two and a half days of top-level discussions, presentations and exchange.“I think this edition took our little conference to another level. It was better than I even expected and I'd like to thank everybody who made this possible. The great speakers we had, a concious and communicative audience and our partners who contributed so much and so well! We were able to grow in almost all sectors and the content was just brilliant.“ said conference organiser and Sounds For Nature board members Holger Jan Schmidt referring to almost 160 registered participants from 17 countries attending between november 24th and 26th in Bonn/Germany.GreenEvents Europe offered 15 very well received high-class sessions at the Wissenschaftszentrum on November 25th and 26th on topics including:- Meat or no meat?- Do people behave better in a clean environment?- “Down The Loo“- Multi-use vs one-way cups- Degrowth and events- The Power Panel- It's only teenage wasteland - camping & wasteIn the so called “Elephant Round“ the discussion went from funny to serious to thoughtful, students hosted the wonderful World Cafe and the Slow Food Youth Network delivered an incredible tuesday lunch from "ugly fruits" donated from local farmers - fully organic, 100% veggie and delicious. The whole program can be found here.The conference started with a great beginner workshop on the Sunday Nov 24th afternoon at the IBIT class room before the informal and very nice warm-up in the city of Bonn. On monday night the famous GreenEvents Dinner was onece again presented by Yourope (the European festival association) and brought 60 delegates even closer together. Two evenings that did a lot to a fantastic conference atmosphere.GreenEvents Europe was supported and funded by the Federation For Environment and Development of North Rhine-Westphalia. The conference profits immensely from the contributions of essential partners such as the European festival association YOUROPE and GO Group (Green Operations Europe) - initiated at GreenEvents 2010. Special thanks to the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz) and Slow Food Youth Network.The 160 participants included major events like Rock Am Ring (85.000 visitors, Germany), Roskilde Festival (75.000 visitors, Denmark), Exit Festival (45.000 visitors, Serbia), Montreux Jazz Festival (220.000 visitors, Switzerland), German Protestant Kirchentag (100.000 visitors, Germany), Hurricane Festival (60.000 visitors, Germany), Way Out West (30.000 visitors, Sweden) or Open Air St.Gallen (30.000 visitors, Switzerland) and institutions such as Green Music Initiative, Bucks New University, Cologne University, Powerful Thinking, A Greener Festival, Fareshare, Zero Waste. GreenEvents included guests from Scandinavia, Benelux, United Kingdom, Serbia, France, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, India, Czech Republic et al. - 17 countries altogether. The international attendance was more than 40%.Holger Jan Schmidt: “It feels great to welcome all those wonderful people in my hometown - just a few meters from where I used to work on the topic we are dealing with as a festival promoter myself. It's great to see them coming back with great expectations and it's a challenge to fulfill them. I had some real euphoric feedbacks and I am thankful for that, but I wouln't be possible without these great people attending GreenEvents. Those are what makes the weird green family so special. No doubt about it: green rocks! “GreenEvents Europe 2013 quotes:Looking at the growth and developement of the Green Events Conference since 2010, it is proof for the importance for more sustainable events and the great work that has been done for this conference.Christof Huber (chairman of Yourope – The European Festival Association)Green Events 2013 really took the next step and dared to take a holistic view upon the hotspots. So after poo, tents and waste the most pressing - and still unsolved - question seemed to be: how to power your festival on renewables. With this mission defined all participants left more informed, more inspired and very much looking forward to the next year.Jacob Bilabel (founder Green Music Initiative)This year’s Green Events conference surpassed all previous years. Great topics, great speakers, brought together to explore an even broader range of issues and contexts. No wonder the audience was the biggest yet. Well done the Green Events team.Teresa Moore (Bucks New University)This is my second visit to GreenEvents. Each time I have left inspired and encouraged about the level of expertise and passion behind making events better, and honestly addressing our environmental challenges. There is always much work to be done and more to learn, and this event helps to accelerate that process.Claire O'Neill (A Greener Festival / Association of Independent Festivals)This years conference was another meeting of minds, with scientists, festival promoters and events professionals coming together to share experiences and knowledge - a few longstanding mysteries were solved for us, such as how many times do you need to use a re-usable cup to be more ecologically beneficial than a disposable? Green Events conference is a place for facts, inspiration and action.Chris Johnson (Powerful Thinking / Shambala Festival)GreenEvents Conference is a stirring opportunity of meeting like-minded professionals to discuss best practice toolkits for sustainable event production in general and of getting inspirations to develop new tools for our own events.Marten Pauls (Campo Event Engeneering / Rock Am Ring)The thing that got to me was the session on plastics. The photographs and the commentary given by Claire were horrific but the results shown as a result of banning plastic bottles from the Shambala Festival were so positive and show us the way forward. Tell the world!Carl A H Martin (Arena & Stadia Design / Operational Consultant)Serving food that is both delicious and ethical at public events not only pleases the crowds, but it also supports local farmers and food producers, strengthens the local economy and is better for the environment - let's see how far we can take this!Nadja Flohr-Spence (Slow Food Germany e.V.)All GreenEvents Europe Info can be found here:www.green-events-europe.eu www.facebook.com/greeneventstwitter.com/greeneventsconf [/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]