Events with purpose 👁️ What is your why?

Since 2015, Purpose Conference has explored, celebrated and amplified the growing momentum around ethical, regenerative and social impact business.

As we gear up for the 2022 conference, we sat down with Natasha Ritz, the team’s Marketing & Partnerships Lead, to chat about how to create events with a foundation of purpose.

When discussing purpose in relation to events, we’ll cover operational elements, environmental impact, diversity in your program and partnering with organisations that align with your values. More broadly, we’ll ask you to examine why your organisations exist and how you can have a positive impact across all touchpoints.

What is your North Star?

Let’s start with some big questions…

Why does your organisation and event exist? What’s the purpose of your event to your organisation? What decisions do you make that can have a greater impact outside of your organisation? Does your event make the world a better place?

The next time you sit down to plan an event strategy, ask yourself “What is my organisation’s purpose and how does this event support that purpose?”.

You might need to do some investigation to get to the bottom of this one. If you need help, bring it to the boardroom and start a conversation with your leadership team. Whether internal or external, as a key touchpoint in your brand’s story, events are a powerful means to live your organisation’s purpose and values and demonstrate it to your staff, customers and stakeholders.

Partnerships

Who are you partnering with on your event and are you aligned on values? Consider your sponsors, suppliers, caterers, venue, press and speakers.

Examine these partnerships and ask:

Does my organisation share a common goal with my partners? How can we achieve this together?
What are my partners doing to be sustainable in their operations?
Are my partners contributing to their communities?

Let’s take a look at the impact you can have by choosing, for example, a caterer that demonstrates strong values. A responsible caterer could:

Source 90% of its produce locally
Reduce landfill waste by preferencing cans, the use of keep cups and rewash stations
Employ a leadership team with 50% or more women leaders
Actively employ members of minority communities
Consult with and engage local First Nations people to support community projects

By meaningfully choosing partners with purpose, you compound your purpose. You enable your partners to actively do work that matters while strengthening each other’s cause.

Presenters & Content

The faces of your event program, your presenters, bring your content to life. Have you considered the tone your presenter selections set for your event?

When looking at your line-up, ask yourself:

What is my event community going to look for?
Are there balanced ratios of women, men and non-binary folks?
Do I have a diverse lineup, with voices of people with lived experience, people of colour and people from minority communities?
Does my speaker lineup represent a range of opinions on my subject matter?

Diversifying your content and speaker selection allows for more meaningful conversations and ensures equal representation.

AV1 is delighted to support this incredible event once again and we hope you can join our team there.

Purpose Conference

19 – 20 October 2022 at Carriageworks, Sydney

The program includes 70 + presenters covering an array of themes from Climate tech and Net zero, Impact capital, Regenerative economies, through to Biomimicry and beyond. A few of our favourites from the program include;