Welcome to the Daily Plan-It (Published quarterly) designed to inform and inspire your meetings and conferences to higher levels of success! Read on for ideas and tips to expand the strategic importance of your meetings, enhance your delegates’ satisfaction, reduce costs and help the planet. Further ideas and information can be found at www.meetingstrategiesworldwide.com. If you prefer to not receive future issues of the Daily Plan-It, please contact editor@meetingstrategiesworldwide.com.

Choices
By Nancy J. Wilson, CMP

As individuals, we make choices everyday…paper or plastic? Window or aisle? Debit or credit?

As conference organizers, we make choices too…Beef or chicken? China or disposable? Local or organic? Plated or buffet?

The choices we make about food and beverages are critical to the well-being of our guests, our budget and our planet. We have the responsibility of making these food choices for the large number individuals attending our meetings and events. These choices have become increasingly complicated as guests have come to expect food that fits their daily way of life whether that is low-carb, organic, or one of the many other options. Not only do we make choices about the food and beverages served, but also about how it is served.

Start 2006 by considering a few ideas that will make those decisions easier.

Choose food in season. From economic, health and environmental standpoints, choosing food in season in the local area has great benefits. Buying locally grown products helps support the local communities and offers fresher, seasonal and regional choices without the transportation impact. It is also a great way to celebrate the local flavor of the region. Local and organic is certainly the preference if available.
Choose seafood from sustainable fisheries. Increased consumer demand for seafood is depleting fish stocks around the world and harming the health of the oceans. Today, nearly 70 percent of the world's fisheries are fully fished or over-fished. Simply choosing seafood from the guides below will take the guess work out of menu selection:

The Monterey Bay Aquarium publishes Seafood Watch, a guide for consumers. They provide a free pocket guide you can download and carry. (www.montereybayaquarium.org)
Blue Ocean Institute also publishes a Mini-Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood in a pocket guide format. It is available for free at www.blueoceaninstitute.org.

Choose food based on the history of your attendees’ preferences and attrition. You know your group’s preferences, whether a hearty salad is plenty or a full warm meal is their favorite, and can order accordingly. In addition, guarantee meals based on their history. Are they early risers and all show up for breakfast, or do they arrive just before the general session rushing in at the last minute grabbing a cup of coffee? Do they skip the conference lunch to have smaller business meetings at local restaurants? If you don’t have this history ask attendees to sign up for meals in advance, saving both money and food.
Choose china service. Disposable cups, plates, and silverware not only add to the landfill, they don’t have the same “first-class” service experience for your guests. The Environmental Defense Council reports, “Using 1,000 disposable plastic teaspoons consumes over 10 times more energy and natural resources than manufacturing one stainless steel teaspoon and washing it 1,000 times.” Using cloth instead of paper napkins also adds to the experience.
Choose not to serve individual water bottles. Serving water from large pitchers or containers saves a tremendous amount of money ($5-10 per guest per day depending upon the venue). You do the math. For one client, that choice saved $25,000 over the conference. It also saves all those plastic bottles from getting into the waste stream.

As grandma always said, “Choose wisely.” Your guests, your checkbook, and the Earth will thank you!

Conference Case Study

Testing new ideas and addressing challenges at different meetings presents useful opportunities to learn and innovate. Conference case studies in the Daily Plan-It will share the unique approaches and solutions that we have adopted to meet the goals of meetings we are involved in.

Greenbuild
By Amy Spatrisano, CMP

Did you know most scrambled eggs served are delivered in large vats with chemicals added to them to ensure they don’t turn green? Did you know that most caterers buy their produce and supplies from purveyors that are not local? Did you know that not pre-filling water glasses at served meal functions saves (the caterer) time and money and helps the environment? Did you know asking for items to be served in bulk containers saves the caterer money? Did you realize by working with the caterer in the initial stages of the event planning - instead of a couple of months out - can ensure most of your environmental requests will be implemented? Well I didn’t. These are few of the many logistical details I’ve learned about food and beverage since I began working with clients to request caterers provide a healthier, affordable, more sustainable menu and service.

Greenbuild is a conference we’ve worked with for the past four years assisting them in ensuring the most environmentally responsible practices available are implemented in all aspects of the conference — food and beverage being a biggie.

The Greenbuild International Conference & Expo is presented annually by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit coalition of more than 5,500 private companies, nonprofits and governmental agencies working to transform the building industry. Throughout its 10-year history, USGBC has been at the forefront of green building - introducing the LEED Green Building Rating System in 2000 and launching Greenbuild in 2002.

One of my favorite stories about the work I do with USGBC is when the Greenbuild conference was coming to Portland - my home town. I began conversations with the caterer - Aramark - over a year prior to the conference. I was fortunate to find a champion within Aramark, the general manager, Brendan Coffey, who shared my commitment to being environmentally responsible. Brendan also wanted to use this opportunity in working with us to enhance Aramark’s ability to provide a more sustainable approach to food and beverage.

It was Brendan who educated me about how we would have to work with local, organic farms at least a year out to ensure he could get enough local produce to serve over 3000 meals, three times a day for 3 days. Because, in some cases, the amount of food used to produce that many meals could be the entire production capacity of a farm. Knowing this, Brendan and I worked together to create a sustainable menu that would support the local community and enhance the quality of the food. In fact, in all the evaluations not one complained about the food. Amazing when you’re feeding over 9000 meals a day! And very little food was not consumed at the meal functions. Personally, I attribute that to the meals being predominately local and organic (and of course the fabulous job of the Chef).

Finally, measurements were a great way for both Brendan and me to educate and enroll others in the accomplishments.

Here are some of those measurements:

Reduced source waste by using china and linen service, serving condiments in bulk and avoiding the use of garnishes. China and linen service was estimated to have avoided the use of 87,500 disposable plates, 122,500 napkins, 52,500 disposable cups, and 52,500 cans or bottles.
3.82 tons of compost was collected by the Oregon Convention Center, representing 23.9% of food served. This was the first time food composting has been undertaken by the convention center.
Over 3000 lbs of leftover food was donated.
50.7% of food served was acquired locally; 7.4% of food served was organically grown.
All condiments were served in bulk containers, saving approximately 50% of the cost over serving individually packaged products.

Recommended Resources

Watch this column for useful online resources and tools that can help make the process of planning your meeting easier.

America's Second Harvest
The Nation's Food Bank Network is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization.
http://www.secondharvest.org/

Local Harvest
Use this website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area. Includes a map with search functions.
http://www.localharvest.org/

USDA National Organic Program
Information on organic food regulations and guidelines, consumer information, and state programs for organic food.
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center – Organic Food Production
Website has lots of links with several resource guides and links to USDA publications, as well as organic grower associations.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/

USDA Food Recovery and Gleaning Initiative
This is a comprehensive guide to food donation laws, including links to state Good Samaritan Laws, resource lists and information on food recovery.
http://www.usda.gov/news/pubs/gleaning/content.htm

Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act
Actual text of the Act.
http://www.usda.gov/news/pubs/gleaning/appc.htm

World Centric – Fair Trade and Eco Store
Online store with several serviceware products that are biodegradable and compostable.
http://www.worldcentric.org/store/index.htm

US Environmental Protection Agency - Composting
This site has information and links on composting as well as links to laws and regulations.
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/composting/index.htm

Chef’s Collaborative
Website is for a national network of more than 1,000 members of the food community who promote sustainable cuisine. Includes list of member restaurants and a Farmer-Chef connection program.
http://www.chefscollaborative.org/

The Monterey Bay Aquarium - Seafood Watch Guide
Free pocket, seafood guide for consumers.
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp

Blue Ocean Institute - Mini-Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood
Another free pocket guide to seafood.
http://www.blueoceaninstitute.org/Seafood/

Ask the Experts

In each issue, your questions will be answered by experts in the industry including responses from both planners and suppliers.

Q: Can leftover food be donated, and if so, what is the process?

Erin Peterson, Meeting Planner, Meeting Strategies Worldwide
A: Yes, the various foods leftover from your event can be donated. Most major cities have local food banks. The Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act has made it possible to donate leftover food from your event without liability concerns. The best way to ensure that food will be donated after your event is to communicate your intentions with the caterer in advance. Ask them which food bank program they intend to use. Consider including a clause in the contract with the caterer that states their commitment to comply with your donation requests. After the event, ask for a receipt from the food bank showing the amount of food donated. Your guests will want to know what was donated on their behalf.

Brendan Coffey, General Manager, Aramark, Oregon Convention Center
A: Any food that has not been handled by the public, and that has been held at appropriate temperatures (based on HACCP or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point guidelines) can be donated. At the Oregon Convention Center we evaluate all leftover food to establish that it is "food safe" and then the food is donated to Blanche House, a local community service organization with whom we have pre-established donation procedures. Last year, the Oregon Convention Center donated approximately 10 tons of food.

Have a question for the experts? Send your questions to experts@meetingstrategiesworldwide.com

Upcoming Events

Check out what is keeping Meeting Strategies Worldwide busy this spring!

Speaking Engagements

Meeting Professional International Professional Education Conference – January 22-24, 2006, Charlotte, NC
January 23 - Meet Green: The Business Case
January 24 - Implementing Green Meeting Strategies

Client Events

Spring VON 2006 – March 14-17, 2006, San Jose, CA
One of Meeting Strategies Worldwide’s longtime clients, pulver.com produces the bi-annual VON conferences. VON is the industry event for VoIP, and is now in its 10th year. The Spring VON Expo is the largest VoIP exhibition in the world, showcasing the very best of IP communications technology and solutions.

EclipseCon 2006 – March 20-23, 2006, Santa Clara, CA
The 2nd annual conference Meeting Strategies Worldwide has organized for the Eclipse Foundation, EclipseCon is the premier technical and user conference focusing on the power of the Eclipse platform. From implementers to users, and everyone in between, if you are using, building, or considering Eclipse, EclipseCon is the conference you need to attend.

Forest Leadership Forum – May 3-6, 2006, Portland, OR
This the 2nd time Meeting Strategies Worldwide has had the opportunity to work with Metafore, who are building on the widespread success of the inaugural Forest Leadership Forum in 2002. They will take the next step with their Forum May 3-6, 2006 in Portland, Oregon by convening action-oriented global leaders in business, environment and society to move dialogue on responsible business practices to action.

Food for Thought

Providing vegetarian cuisine prevents waste by conserving energy and water. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork, 22 calories for 1 calorie of poultry, and just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein.

Dishing it out for a good cause. Those of you in Portland, Oregon, are invited to join us (and bring a friend) on Friday, February 24th from 1-4pm for our quarterly volunteer time at the Oregon Food Bank. You will get an opportunity to see the entire Meeting Strategies Worldwide team in hairnets, gloves and plastic aprons. If that isn't enough reason to sign up today, we will also be hosting the libations afterwards at a nearby Portland brew pub (work first, we will tell you the location afterwards). All you have to do is RSVP to nancy@meetingstrategiesworldwide.com and show up. Nothing else is required! We hope you can spend a few hours with other folks in our industry volunteering for this very worthy cause.

Contact Us

Meeting Strategies Worldwide
6220 NE Glisan
Portland, Oregon 97213
U.S.A.
Phone: (503) 252-5458
FAX: (503) 261-0964
operations@meetingstrategiesworldwide.com
www.meetingstrategiesworldwide.com