Dead tree or USB?

By Alex Manchester, Editor, The Internal Comms Hub (Australia), Melcrum

We were discussing in the office today a development for the IABC's International Conference in New York this year (as normal, quite a few members from Team Melcrum are going).

It being 2008 and all of us being more concerned than ever about the damage we're doing to the planet, the IABC is not providing conference packs, well not the dead tree kind anyway...

Going Green: Protecting our environment The book of speaker handouts and conference directory will be available on a USB flash drive provided to all attenders, eliminating 365,000 pages of printed material, or approximately 43 trees.

The conference brochure uses paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and sourced from responsibly managed forests. Online conference registration and confirmation is offered, and exhibitor kits will be distributed electronically.

Flash drives only, saving 365,000 pages of printed material (or 43 trees) with paper from managed paper resources.

Mightily impressive, I think you'll agree.

Now, the question is, how will this go down with those attending? Do you love your weighty tome conference packs, or long for everything on USB? Do you love to write notes on the slides or, is a blank, A5 notepad and downloadable presentations (not even USB sticks) plenty enough thank you very much?

Answers on a postcard...

Comments

[James Dellow]

It depends on how environmentally friendly the USB drive is? Check out http://earthdrive.atpinc.com/

[Shashank Jaitely]

On the face value, it seems to be a good idea. If one conference can save 43 trees, imagine the numbers of trees we can save all over the world...millions of them..:-)

But the question arises, how safe and easy is to dispose digital waste. Excessive use of USBs and computers will also arise a need of the disposal few years from now. How do we do that..? And I think, this is more critical then saving some trees as we can plant trees again but not take out toxic elements sent in the ecosystem by digital waste.

[Barbara Engelbart]

I will be attending the IABC conference in New York this year and am pleased with their decision to move towards USB drives. I have been at other conferences that have done this and enjoy the ability to print only what I want, and download presentations and share them with others. I have also recommended this in house and with other conferences I have attended which have provided paper instead of other solutions.

As most of us bring our laptops it is no problem to view the presentations ahead of time or even bring your laptop into the presentation with you and take notes directly into the presentation.

It also eliminates the need for paper, which is helpful when traveling, and airline weight regulations.

I am also very environmentally aware and like the new IABC green approach.

Way to go IABC.

[Beth Miller]

For our annual sales meeting (where we assemble a dispersed sales force of approximately 200), we switched to this format for meeting materials in 2007. Constituents were delighted, giving us a 100% approval rating for USB flash drive "handouts." Not only does this shift support sustainable business practices, the tiny drive is a lot easier to pack into a briefcase (or pocket) for the return trip home. Our sales force also embraced the ready-to-use e-files; some, energized by the meeting experience, began working with the files on the flight home.

[Alex Manchester]

Thanks for all the responses. So there are no concerns about not having the notes/slides to go by at the actual event?

The environmental issue and digital waste is a very valid point. Capabilities to recycle are much greater now, for example the way you can hand in printer toners, old mobile phones and their batteries. Even computers can be sent back to the manufacturers (Apple, Dell etc. have dedicated programs now) but sure we should be careful of disposal.