11h20 CET - This is very "relephant"! It’s time to put meetings on trial. The case? Sustainability! Are we doing enough to justify meeting in person (and flying to and from the host destination for it)? Are we offering sufficient ROX to ensure meaningful attendance and a long-lasting, positive impact? Join this interactive “courtroom” argument questioning whether face-to-face meetings should be a thing of the past. Can we make them sustainable enough to last? You be the judge!

This session is co-hosted by Meetings Industry & Sustainability KGs, and moderated by David Peackock, Senior Advisor to Future Tourism Group at Simpleview.

*This conference is themed around “the elephant in the room”(those things we avoid discussing or dealing with that can crush us). “Is growth becoming the mammoth of tourism, and is the idea of quality tourism the white elephant of destination management? The City Destinations Alliance conference in Sofia, April 19-22, 2023 explores!”

In brief: An intimate overview of the 2023 GDS-Index timeline, deadlines, benchmarking tips and tricks, the methodology and criteria, as well as guest speakers sharing examples of amazing destinations doing sustainability better.

Time is flying by, and our 2030 and 2050 goals loom ever closer, making the GDS-Index a practical approach to measuring and managing your destination with continuous, collective effort. With 100+ destinations benchmarking this year, you aren't alone. Supporting you in this process are changemakers who spend all their time helping destinations to do better.

Relationship Managers Bella Shahsuvaryan and Khalisah Stevens will walk you through the basics of this year's benchmarking.

They'll answer burning benchmarking questions like:

- When does benchmarking season open? - How long do we have to submit our benchmarking application? - Are the criteria much different this year (clue: nope) - Who can I ask if I'm confused about something, like the criteria, or certification? - How can we ensure we get better marks this year? - What if I need help with something specific? Like strategy?

That's not all! You can also expect outstanding and inspirational use cases emerging from leaders in regenerative destination management:

- Kristin Oishi, Sustainability Project Manager, VisitOslo - Melissa Radu, Director of Social and Environmental Sustainability, Explore Edmonton

and dedicated breakout sessions to network with like-minded professionals.

Ready to put your best sustainability foot forward towards "Destination Regeneration"? Join us in this exclusive, live webinar designed specifically for participating destinations. We have two sessions to suit all time zones and schedules.

In brief: An intimate overview of the 2023 GDS-Index timeline, deadlines, benchmarking tips and tricks, the methodology and criteria, as well as guest speakers sharing examples of amazing destinations doing sustainability better.

Time is flying by, and our 2030 and 2050 goals loom ever closer, making the GDS-Index a practical approach to measuring and managing your destination with continuous, collective effort. With 100+ destinations benchmarking this year, you aren't alone. Supporting you in this process are changemakers who spend all their time helping destinations to do better.

Relationship Managers Bella Shahsuvaryan and Khalisah Stevens will walk you through the basics of this year's benchmarking.

They'll answer burning benchmarking questions like:

- When does benchmarking season open? - How long do we have to submit our benchmarking application? - Are the criteria much different this year (clue: nope) - Who can I ask if I'm confused about something, like the criteria, or certification? - How can we ensure we get better marks this year? - What if I need help with something specific? Like strategy?

That's not all! You can also expect outstanding and inspirational use cases emerging from leaders in regenerative destination management:

- Julie Benisty Oviedo, Sustainable Tourism Manager, Bordeaux Tourism & Conventions - Kristin Oishi, Sustainability Project Manager, VisitOslo

and dedicated breakout sessions to network with like-minded professionals.

Ready to put your best sustainability foot forward towards "Destination Regeneration"? Join us in this exclusive, live webinar designed specifically for participating destinations. We have two sessions to suit all time zones and schedules.

An invitation-only event for interested parties, including hotels and event organisers. Participants will learn about the principles of Sustainable event management as well as be inspired by multiple case studies presented at the session, presented by changemakers Bella Shahsuvaryan and Beatriz Ibanez.

Strasbourg Convention Bureau brings its members, suppliers, and supporters up to speed on its next sustainability steps. In a dedicated session, Changemaker Bella Shahsuvaryan introduces GDS-Movement and explains the 2023 GDS-Index that Strasbourg will be participating in.

Do you wish your destination's events created less waste, and more legacy? Less carbon and more social cohesion? They can do much more than that. They can deliver benefits to people, planet, and place, and improve business performance, profitability, and growth. How?

When you mitigate a meeting's footprint and amplify its handprint, you transform it into a strategic driver for lasting and inclusive positive change.

GDS-Movement and #Meet4Impact have partnered to take concerts, congresses, conventions, councils, exhibitions, assemblies, rallies, raves, tradeshows, and fora to the next level.

Enjoy the expertise of Genevieve Leclerc, Co-founder and CEO of #MEET4IMPACT, and Guy Bigwood, CEO and Chief Changemaker of GDS-Movement in the first Feeling the Pulse webinar of the year. They'll explain how we get events to "be the change we need to see" and explore some of the new collaborative projects you'll see in 2023.

In addition to their insights around impact management, we have invited top-performing GDS-Index destinations to share their "event-as-changemaker" successes and challenges with us, so that you can adapt, adopt, or transform their experience to empower your business and leisure tourism sector to

"GSTC2022 Sevilla will bring together international and domestic tourism stakeholders involved in the development and promotion of sustainable travel and tourism; including the public sector, hotels, tour operators, corporates, OTAs, academia, development agencies, NGOs, consultants, and more. Participating in GSTC’s Sustainable Tourism Training Programme allows participants to gain in-depth knowledge of the GSTC Criteria before the Conference begins."

GDS-Movement changemakers Bella Shahsuvaryan, Khalisah Stevens, and Guy Bigwood attend the event to connect with like-minded professionals and exchange knowledge with regards to sustainable tourism and travel. If you would like to know more about how GDS-Movement is creating positive impacts through radical collaboration in the industry, our changemakers are happy to share over a cup of coffee.

Join us in Seville to participate in a mixture of panel discussions and interactive workshops with international and national experts in sustainable tourism as speakers.

IBTM World is the leading global event for the meetings, incentives, conferences and events industry, taking place annually in Barcelona. It has one goal; to inspire the events world to deliver exceptional experiences for their customers. IBTM World is engineered to give you a year’s worth of profitable leads in just three days. It brings together the global meetings industry, with everyone having that one common purpose – to meet the right people that can create better business results for their organisation.

If you'd like to build in-person connections with the right people, gain key industry insight and of course, engage in unrivalled networking opportunities over the three days, look out for the smiles of GDS-Movement changemakers BellaGuy, Khalisah and Monica. They'll be attending and would love to talk destination sustainability with you!

Joining us at IBTM World will be 3,000+ exciting destinations and quality suppliers ready to meet and network with 15,000+ industry professionals, from over 100 countries across the world.