Creating Better Association meetings: A Sense of Place and Purpose
17 October 2024
At Lime Venue Portfolio we have this mantra of ‘betterment’. It used to be about ‘being a cheerleader for better events’, but its morphed over the years. We’ve picked up experience, within and outside of our business, that’s brought us close to event food, the future of food, food and sustainability, but then wider initiatives from sustainability to advocacy, event legacy to neurodiversity and mental health.
This mantra, with our continual learning, has changed to encompass more than just cheerleading, but a genuine desire to make events better.
For me personally, the central aim has always been to put ourselves next to the event organiser who, inevitably, shares this desire. How can we, a group of venues, work with event organisers to make their events better, regardless of where they host them? Also, when is it our place to advise, and when is it our place to just support.
Over the course of our journey into this world of ‘betterment’ we’ve met some incredible people, none more so than in the association congress industry. These are stunningly interesting events, run by people who care deeply about what they do. They have shared with us contemporary and genuinely innovative ways of bringing vitally important content to their communities, but also creating meaningful experiences around them.
Sammy Connell, one of the Co-Chairs of ABPCO, has been particularly impressive, and we have joined the long list of ‘fans’ behind her crusade to make a real impact on this sector. Something she said at one of our partnership meetings with ABPCO really resonated with me, as she spoke about her own conference for NASUWT, a teachers union.
It was during a session we were running on Event Legacy, alongside our colleagues at Associations Meetings International magazine, and Sammy started talking about the connection between the event and the local destination. She spoke articulately about how her next conference, which is going to be in Liverpool, was looking at local issues, for the local teaching community, that the event can support.
She spoke about the incredible situation whereby many teachers are increasingly reliant on foodbanks, about period poverty, and other issues that, while universal in the local community, are also specific to teachers. Sammy also spoke about how these issues were being recognised by the conference, and were coming off the street, into the conference programme, with special sessions that directly addressed poverty among teachers and students. But the issues then went back out of the conference room as the organisers looked to positively affect local charities and social enterprises as part of the event’s legacy.
We, as part of the venue and destination team, sometimes undervalue our impact here, but Sammy bought it home. For me, this is about a sense of place that she and her colleagues at NASUWT were building in Liverpool. A partnership of real social value between the event, its community, and the local community it was visiting. It was about leaving behind something of value, but also integrating that partnership into the event agenda. It was brilliant.
As a venue group it made me especially proud of what we can offer. Lime Venue Portfolio is a group of venues, up and down the country, from conference centres to museums, sports grounds to major attractions. But every single one of them has a sense of place, and it gave me more ambition to make our venues part of the story event planners like Sammy want to tell.
Cricket Grounds like Edgbaston for instance, are doing incredible amounts with local communities. Specifically, they have worked hard as a club to support South Asian communities move out of poverty, and give kids a sense of purpose through cricket. At the same time, the Royal Armouries in Leeds are working with local farms to help them create better, less wasteful produce, that can be eaten at events, and that really add value to the quality of food, as well as the farm.
These examples are symbiotic, but they also create incredible content for the event to play with. It also underlines this sense of place and purpose. At its best, it contributes speakers and sessions in the conference agenda with field trips and visits becoming part of the experience.
There is so much to be excited by at the moment. Association events are leading the way in new and modern event behaviours that are thinking deeply about what they are, how they can affect communities and the legacies they leave behind after they leave.
From the perspective of Lime Venue Portfolio, this is betterment in action, and frankly, it’s not difficult to be a cheerleader behind that.
Kerry Wright
Head of Group Sales at Lime Venue Portfolio
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