Green Meetings: Beyond PC – Michelle Johnson and Chris Gasbarro, C3 Green Meetings: Beyond PC –

Certainly the hottest topic in our industry, “Green Meetings” has become the new vernacular-but is it too much a marketing or advertising position? As a meeting professional, planner or supplier, this session will allow you to evaluate and take proactive steps to truly make your programs more “Green”. It’s not just a word, it’s an action-one that the meeting professional plays an important role in by influencing the green opportunities with your organizations, vendors, and attendees. Beyond PC refers not only to successfully navigating the “Politically Correct” world of sustainable meetings and events, but also a more “Mac” approach to creating green-through design and innovations. Deliverables you will take away are a broader understanding of “Greening” opportunities that exist in your meetings and events; contract and negotiation examples to leverage a better meeting footprint for your next meeting; how to design your meetings and events to allow for maximum sustainable practices; how to influence your partners and vendors for a smaller meeting footprint.

Chris Gasbarro represents the creative aspect of C3, a meeting and event experience agency based on the Seacoast of New Hampshire. His background combines expertise in event production, media creation & development, environmental design and brand messaging. In short, Chris collaborates with clients to deliver powerful ideas and storytelling in the meeting and event landscape Chris pushes organizations to try it differently. The results are astounding. By urging clients to take calculated risks, organizations open people up to new ways of listening, learning—and changing. Chris’s creative approach uses humor, energy and excitement to lead and develop gatherings. He developed it over the course of a colorful decade-long career during which he toured with bands across North America, sound-checked Fortune 500 CEOs, served as director of sales & marketing for a renowned staging company, reorganized 2 businesses, and even captained boats. His most valuable experience came from witnessing the thousands of ways organizations presented their message in meetings (both right and wrong) over the years.

Michelle Johnson is the Champion of Community Building at C3. Her background as Senior Manager of Global Meetings for The Timberland Company taught her that shared purpose makes a community—and a successful meeting. Michelle’s true expertise is getting clients to start with a vision and carry it through to the end—a task requiring collaboration on a wide scale and seamless execution. Michelle gained her formal experience in meetings and events during her 8 years at Timberland. There she managed her own team on an average put on 12 sales meetings, 6 trade shows, and 20-30 regional shows each year. The insights she gained proved to her the critical role meeting planners can plan in organizations’ futures. She knows first hand how by elevating the role of meeting planner you can create events with powerful stories that make the most of budgets and have real impact. She’s an indispensable teammate because, she urges companies to step outside their comfort zones and push their creativity and expectations.