Latest / PCMA Convene Podcast / Convene Talk: How Convening Leaders 2026 Bakes Sustainability Into the Experience
Transcript
- Convene Talk, ep. 89/December 5, 2025 *Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene Podcast. Welcome to another Convene Talk. Convening Leaders is just around the corner, so we are turning our attention to the event for the next few episodes. Kate, want to get us started? Kate Mulcrone: Thank you, Maggie. So today we are going to talk about sustainability. Just to set the Stage, Convening Leaders 2026 is going to celebrate PCMA's 70th anniversary, but it's also going to be the beginning of some exciting new initiatives for greener meetings. I talked to Corey Clark, who's the director of Events and experiences at Honeycomb Strategies, a couple of weeks ago just to get a high level view of why convening leaders 2026 in Philly is going to be very sustainable. Before we talk about that, it's worth noting last year's, well really this year's meeting was recently certified LEED Platinum. So we already have a high bar to overcome. Looking ahead to January. So here are just a few of the things that we can all expect to see in two months. First of all, in keeping with PCMA's mission to be sustainable by design, every attempt is going to be made from partners, the catering staff, all event staff to reduce food and materials waste and also keep the carbon footprint of the meeting as small as possible. As far as food goes, this means minimizing food waste, but also just little things. Like one example Corey Clark shared with me is setting out 10 ounce carafes of salad dressing instead of 20 ounce and refilling them if needed so that you're not throwing out all the extra dressing. And this was a good example of like mitigating the food waste before it happens rather than just on the floor itself. And then the other thing I wanted to mention about F and D is just that Convening leaders will partner with local organizations to redistribute any leftover food. So I think that is great for F and B. And Barbara, do you have something to share about the F and B? Barbara Palmer: Yes. You know, I was so happy to hear you mention that about the using right sized containers for the salad dressing rather you know, the smaller sized crafts and filling them up. Because there was a project. The World Wildlife Fund has been very involved for a number of years in working with hotels and now convention centers on how to, how to like not just figure out how to compost and how to like take leftover food and get it to someone else, but to go back back much earlier in the cycle and say how do we, how do we not waste as much food? We have a story in it which we can link about it, but they did it in a very scientific way, like encouraging planners to just take these small steps and see how it works. And, like, maybe you can, like, count the desserts, like take one small place where you see a lot of waste and then just try, you know, just cut back by 10%. I'm just really excited to see the shift to the making food and not putting the food out. And it means that the banquet managers and the kind of the interims between the kitchen and the serving places are involved. It's like it has to be every part of the chain participating. Michelle, what are you thinking? Michelle Russell: I was reminded of a story I worked on years ago, which kind of mirrors that whole thing you were saying about making small changes and how they could have a big impact. So this was about how one, I think it was a convention center or a group at a convention center, a lot of people are embarrassed to go back for seconds because it makes them look like they're in Italian. We would say gavones, but like, they're just a little on the piggy side. And so people can tend to like, load their plates at a buffet thinking, oh, I can't go back for a second, so I'm just gonna load up here and then not eat and everything on the plate. And that results in waste. So they just put little signs out that second helpings are welcome or come back for more so that people didn't have this anxiety about it. And it made a big difference in terms of how much food waste was left on their plates. And I think it just shows that sometimes it's just a behavioral thing, and it's just like little tweaks can be made to reduce the amount of food waste. So that's what I was reminded of when you were talking, Barbara. What else, Kate, can you tell us any other initiatives that are. They're going to roll out? Kate Mulcrone: So one thing that I thought was really cool, and maybe Maggie will be able to really explain this better as an event planner, but Corey shared with me that because the Pennsylvania Convention center has like a standardized show floor layout, that means that exhibitor can use flooring they already have, they can bring it with them, or if they commission something for this meeting, they will be able to reuse that. And that that is not only like a huge savings in terms of sustainability, but also obviously money when compared to the example Corey gave me is if you have like a convention center with a curved layout, you're going to have to get custom cut pieces to fit Your bo and then you're just going to trash them because you'll never be able to use them again. And then another way that the PCC is just a very helpful venue for if you want to have a green meeting is that there are tons of built in options for digital signage. So pretty much everything can be digital. And then the few things that aren't going to be digital from PCMA will be made of recyclable materials, like not plastic basically. Another thing that I thought was cool was because Philly is so walkable, the only shuttles this year will be for accessibility purposes. And I think that's kind of a double benefit because if the shuttles are only for accessibility, that means it's much easier for the people who need them to get on them quickly. And Corey did point out when we talked that it's important when we think about sustainable design to also think about the social aspects and then, you know, giving back, redistributing food, partnering with local organizations, but also simply making sure everyone is comfortable. Barbara Palmer: Barbara, you know, I just wanted to mention like you, you talked about how Philly makes it like makes it easy to do a sustainable meeting. And it just reminds me of it. You know, this is quite some time ago, but there used to be this circular argument that convention centers would say, well, there's not a demand. Meeting planners aren't interested in this, you know, so we, we don't invest in this because meeting planners don't want it. And then meeting planners are like, well, it's too hard to do it there because we don't have the things in place to help. And I just feel like that argument has dissolved in the reality of convention centers really being networking with one another and working together so that, you know, so that they have like these kind of systems, like standardized floor plans and where you, or you've got a plan for where the food goes. The meeting planner doesn't have to come in and say, oh, before I go, I need to. This is another thing on my list. I'll find someplace in Philadelphia that I can donate food to. I think that's really exciting. Founder of Honeycomb. Her first job was at the Colorado Convention center and she had like this network that she set up where she just talked to other sustainability coordinators around the country. And I just feel like that, you know, this network of sustainability interventions from convention centers then leaves room for meeting planners to be really creative about what their particular meeting could do and they can just really focus on like some of the more people oriented things but the infrastructure for sustainability is there. Maggie? Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, I really like that you honed in on that aspect of now this big question for event planners is being solved because of the initiative that convention centers took. And I 100% agree. And I feel with this approach at PCMA and Honeycomb and everyone involved really in putting Convening Leaders together, what they have created now is this sustainability DNA of an event, of the event. So everything is embedded. It's not only sessions, but everything connects and touches on sustainability from the get go. And I really, really like that because it feels that a few years ago it was focus on sessions, focus on a few things we can do, but everything was kind of disjointed, to use the first words that comes to mind really. Now it's integrated. It's, it's there, you know it's there and you can feel it. You don't necessarily have to look for it, you just know as an attendee, it's all connected, it's all being thought of and you don't have to pretty much worry and be on the lookout for those sustainability moments. Kate. Kate Mulcrone: Exactly. And just to close us out in terms of the integration, there is a lot of sustainability related programming that our attendees can look forward to. Barbara mentioned the World Wildlife Fund, Atara Dalton will be talking about data driven approaches to reducing food waste. There will be two different sustainability tours of the convention center. So and that's just some of what people can see. You will be able to recycle absolutely anything you might have with you. And also the PCC is going to make charitable donations to offset electricity use on and Honeycomb is going to calculate the impact of attendee travel to and from the event and facilitate carbon offsets afterwards. Barbara Palmer: That's great. And can I just jump in and say that it's Lindsay Arrow is the founder, the co founder of Honeycomb. Magdalina Atanassova: It's great addition not having the founder, but the actual name. Barbara Palmer: Exactly. Kate Mulcrone: Yes. Magdalina Atanassova: So it's great really to see how sustainability has become a part of the DNA of Convenient Leaders. And I just want to briefly mention in our next episodes we'll be talking about the programming and some of the headliners of Convening Leaders and some other things that we as in the Convene team are preparing for Convening Leaders. So just keep on listening to find out what's ahead of us. Thank you all for the discussion. Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.