Tag Archive for: CSR

If you’re in the Events business—any part of it—you’ll know that meetings, events and incentives really can make an impact. Not just on your business bottom line, clients and staff, but also on the communities your event touches—and not always in a positive way.

“Any kind of enterprise needs social license to operate—effectively broad social approval from the local community and stakeholders to carry on your business at their ‘place’.”
Sharon Levingston, Head of Events at The Events Authority.

As such, social license is fluid, has to be earned and then maintained.

Community engagement through tree-planting in Myanmar. Credit: AsianTrails.

The global tourism industry is dealing with what happens, for example, when social license is withdrawn. Anti-visitor sentiment is festering in cities like Venice as over-tourism negatively impacts the lives of locals. Overstretched infrastructure, overcrowding from cruise ship day visitors, and short-term Airbnb rentals turning homes into guesthouses have put pressure on the city which has responded with turnstiles, day-tripper levies and other measures to regulate visitor access.

‘Tourists Go Home’ graffiti on a wall in Oviedo, northern Spain. Photo: EPA

An uneasy peace between the industry and locals is a fair indication that social license has been revoked or suspended. And once it’s gone, it’s hard to get back. If you’ve ever wondered what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was all about or why it was important, well, there’s your lesson.

We know that the events we work on here and abroad have an impact on the communities they make contact with. So working with partners with great CSR ethics and local knowledge is important to us, particularly overseas. And so it should be for you when you’re planning your meetings, events and incentive programs.

A great example is our relationship with our supplier partner DMC in Asia, ‘Asian Trails’. Asian Trails operates in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, China, Indonesia and Malaysia, and has a considered, project and community-based approach to CSR that can be incorporated into team building programs.

Asian Trails’ projects are designed to spruce up cities, towns and villages, clean up the environment and build connections and understanding between people. For participants they provide a meaningful way to connect with communities and improve the local amenity. Depending on your program, you could be helping out at a Buffalo dairy in Laos, planting trees with local villagers in Myanmar, or transforming plastic into eco-bricks in Malaysia. It’s real, long-lasting and meaningful.

Making eco-bricks in Malaysia. Credit: AsianTrails.

We have partners like Asian Trails all over the world offering programs of a similar ilk and adding value through incredible, responsible, meaningful experiences in destination.

When you’re planning your incentive program, team building off-sites, meeting and conferences, ask about how your group might be able to interact with the locals and give back to the community that has granted you the social license to be there.

And do good.

Real good.