Even if you do everything in your power to green your event, exhibitors with environmentally unsound practices can cancel out your efforts. Why not encourage exhibiting companies to adopt your standards of environmental accountability? They’ll not only complement your efforts, they’ll also make a statement to their potential customers and competitors. And the greenest booths can sometimes be the most interesting.

For instance, software company Autodesk’s entertainment division unveils a new exhibit booth each year for the six U.S. shows it attends, but it’s always made of the same materials as the previous one. “This year, we have a fresh, new look, but we reused large portions of last year’s booth, such as the frame and structure,” says Bruno Sargent, Industry Manager for Film and Television at Autodesk. “Every piece is made from recycled materials; for instance, the built-in meeting tables are made of old floor boards.” And while the booth itself is made of recycled materials, its focus on Web streaming “makes it even greener,” Sargent says.

The centerpiece of the booth is a theater with a camera switching system that records live presentations and streams them to the company’s Web site, where global traffic, attracted through Facebook, Twitter and traditional trade associations, can watch the presentations and experience the Autodesk booth without ever stepping foot on the trade show floor. Autodesk presentations from a recent trade show drew 36,000 online viewers, while the show itself drew 10,000 attendees. “We have a capacity of 60 people in the main theater, but if we have 500 people watching online, that’s 500 people who don’t have to get on an airplane and that saves energy,” Sargent says.

While he says the need for face-to-face events and the forum they provide will never disappear, Sargent believes that balancing live events with a strong online component can be more environmentally efficient and boost events’ success. “If you get the balance right, you can build a much stronger event,” he says. Sargent encourages event organizers to provide recording equipment and bandwidth for streaming presentations to make it possible for exhibitors to reach wider audiences without adding to the event’s carbon footprint.

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