Press Releases
Press Release - 24/05/2012
Footprint Management Systems, MeetGreen and QuickMobile ‘get their green on’ to win the 2012 IMEX Commitment to the Community Award
Footprint Management Systems, MeetGreen® and QuickMobile have been awarded this year’s IMEX Commitment to the Community Award in recognition of their co-development of a mobile game called ‘Get Your Green On’ (GYGO). The award was presented to Shawna McKinley, Director of Sustainability for Meet Green, at last night’s 10th annual IMEX Gala Dinner.
The IMEX Commitment to the Community Award pays tribute to events, incentive programmes, conferences, associations or business projects that have demonstrated an innovative effort to benefit a charitable cause. It is judged against three primary criteria: suitability, creativity and sustainability.
The GYGO mobile game proved a huge hit with the IMEX judges who were impressed by the innovative nature of the mobile-app based game, which was developed pro-bono by Judy Kucharuk, Shawna McKinley and the team at QuickMobile for Event Camp Vancouver (ECV) last November. Event Camp enables event professionals to experiment with innovative event design and the GYGO game was central to the whole event, being deeply embedded into every part of ECV.
The GYGO game encouraged delegates to undertake fun and inspiring ‘Acts of Green’ (simple sustainable actions), each of which scored points. In turn, each completed action triggered a $1 contribution to the BC Cancer Foundation in Vancouver.
The primary objective of the game was to achieve “1000 Acts of Green” during ECV 2011, a measure it comfortably surpassed. Planning committee members were invited to participate in developing the game early on and other collaborators and service providers were given the opportunity to promote their own sustainable features and services via the game. Organisers incentivised delegates and others to play GYGO by promoting its fundraising benefits and offering prizes for top-scorers.
On collecting the award from IMEX Group Chairman, Ray Bloom, Shawna McKinley, Director of Sustainability for Meet Green, commented: “On behalf of everyone at Footprint Management Systems, MeetGreen® and QuickMobile, I would like to say a big thank you for this award and would like to also thank everyone who participated in the GYGO programme and helped achieve this success. We have received outstanding feedback from participants with just over 80% saying they learned new and valuable information relating to their profession and a touch over 77% stating their knowledge of mobile application technology for events had improved as a result of playing. We are pleased to have contributed to the industry with a programme that has made a genuine mark and that encouraged people to consider how they can boost their green outputs, whilst also raising money for the BC Cancer Foundation.”
The 90 on-site and 50 remote participants completed 1,715 Acts of Green, uploaded 168 photos and helped raise $1,500 for the charity. The ‘Acts of Green’ included 168 vehicle trips which were avoided by participants who chose to walk, take public transport or car pool (saving an estimated 17 kg of emissions per trip, or 2.85 metric tons of CO2). In addition to a variety of water-saving measures, 9% of attendees offset their carbon footprint against eight tons of carbon emissions
The IMEX Commitment to the Community Award is made in partnership and under the guidance of the Green Meeting Industry Council.
-ENDS-
Editors' notes
- The next IMEX in Frankfurt takes place 21 – 23rd May 2013
- All IMEX show press releases can be downloaded from www.imex-frankfurt.com/press.php
- Printed copies can be obtained from the IMEX Press Centre at Messe Frankfurt until 17:00 24 May 2012.
- High-resolution photos of the show are available at www.imex-frankfurt.com/imexphotos.html
- The next IMEX America will take place at the Sands Expo and Convention Center at the Venetian/Palazzo from 9 - 11 October 2012. www.imexamerica.com
Media contacts during IMEX (22 – 24 May)
Kit Watts
Tel +44 7968 417518
Email: kit.watts@imexexhibitions.com
Carina Bauer
Tel +44 7785 392812
Email: carina.bauer@imexexhibitions.com
Press Centre during IMEX
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