Ever wonder how many trees it took to produce all the paper distributed at your last conference? Let’s take a look at a typical conference:

• Call for Papers/Presentations: 50 10-page papers submitted, 5 review copies each: 2500 sheets
• Save the Date Post Cards: 2000 cards, 4 to a sheet: 500 sheets
• Conference Invitations: 3 pages, 2000 copies: 6000 sheets

• Conference Materials: 10 presenters, 12 pages per presenter, 200 copies: 24,000 sheets
• Total: 33,000 sheets of paper.

Paper is a significant, if often hidden, line item in your budget.  If it cost $0.25 per sheet to copy/print those 33,000 pages, that’s over $8,000.  And that doesn’t account for the cost of mailing or shipping.   Reducing the amount of paper used is not just good for the environment; it is also good for your bottom line.  And that’s why we see more and more meeting planners looking for ways to “Go Green”.If you are interested in adopting a “Go Green” strategy for your conferences and meetings, what can you do to move towards a paperless event?

• Invite potential speakers to submit their proposals electronically and distribute them to reviewers electronically. Saves 7%.
• Use electronic marketing to get the word out about your event. Saves 20%
• Require that your speakers upload their bios, presentations, hand-outs etc. to a central repository. Saves 70%

What are some of the technology options to explore?

• Marketing: Create a compelling event website and use electronic invitations. Even for closed or invite-only events, you can market effectively online.
• Registration: Online registration for speakers, as well as attendees, using a system that allows them to upload documents for you, and/or your attendees, to download.
• Memory Sticks instead of Conference Books: Here’s where you can get a huge paper savings. Provide document kiosks in the registration area where attendees can download, onto a memory stick, all of the conference materials, organized by speaker or session.

At MeetMax.com, we have the systems and tools you need to reduce the amount of paper you use at an event, and at the same time reduce the overall cost of producing the event. The MeetMax.com online registration system includes electronic event marketing features like conference websites and electronic invitations, and speaker support for uploading materials (and it includes tracking tools for you to see who has or hasn’t uploaded their materials). The MeetMax Conference Kiosk system builds a document library, branded with your corporate and conference identify, for your event that attendees can access on-site to download those materials they want to take home.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Meeting Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.