Launching on 13th April, Legacy Marketplace’s mission is to connect and empower anyone who wants to create successful, sustainable events and facilitate a positive change in the world. It will include everything needed for a successful sustainable event, in one place.

With time running out to fight climate breakdown, sustainable events have never been more important. In fact, the UK events industry emits 1.2bn kg of CO2e every year. However, events are hugely important for evoking positive behaviour change, with 43.1% of audiences stating that they had changed their behaviour as a result of green initiatives or ideas they had discovered at festivals (Powerful Thinking).

Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the events industry with many event organisers now wondering whether their safety measures and precautions are enough to encourage attendance at face to face events. This has led to a rise in virtual events. With research suggesting that our digital footprint will increase from contributing 3.7% of global emissions – more than the aviation industry – to 14% by 2050, it’s now more important than ever that businesses consider the impact of their virtual, and in person, events.

There’s a huge opportunity to revamp the world of events by making them as sustainable as possible and ensuring they have the least impact on the planet. The Legacy Marketplace ensures this a reality by helping organisers book entertainers and other suppliers for their own events. It’ll also have inspiration and guidance on how to make them more engaging and include a range of products and services that will make organising sustainable events simple.

Abena Poku-Awuah, Founder and Managing Director of Legacy commented: “We’re so excited to be launching Legacy Marketplace for the events industry. The platform is a modern way to deliver sustainability without compromising quality or ease. This one-of-a-kind platform connects event organisers to products and services that reduce their environmental impact and contribute to positive social change. It offers a clear way through the jumble for those who want to make a difference but who do not have the time or expertise to source a sustainable solution themselves. Now more than ever, sustainability is a mainstream issue and increasingly under scrutiny in the events industry and attendees are looking to events to lead the way on this more and more.”

Abena is a Sustainable Events Producer and the Founder and Managing Director of Legacy, a sustainable events agency and consultancy.

As a Chartered Scientist Abena has more than 15 years of experience of working in sustainability. Her clients include the University of Oxford, Spotify, Formula E, BNY Mellon, the UK department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy. She has provided event management advice to international event companies such as Red Bull and Incisive Media, whose portfolio of brands include Business Green, Channel Partner Insight, InvestmentEurope and Enterprise Technology Events. She was part of the team that produced the Legacy Masterplan Framework (LMF) for the London 2012 Olympic Games and she was featured in the top 50 BAME entrepreneurs of 2020.

Her lightbulb moment came in 2016 as she realised how monumental events are for bringing people together and as a powerful mechanism for facilitating change. It soon became apparent that Legacy Marketplace was needed to bridge the disconnect between event teams and top-level corporate decision-making. A naturally shy person, her biggest challenge has been to do more networking and public speaking engagements.

However, inspired by her mentor who reminded her it’s almost impossible to generate business if no one knows you exist, she has made great strides to overcome this and build her confidence through accepting as many opportunities to give talks as she can – while also trying to avoid being overly critical of herself if a talk doesn’t go as hoped.

The marketplace will launch with an online event on 13th April which is free to attend for all event professionals. It will include networking opportunities, an introduction to the marketplace, tips and advice for hosting sustainable events and a discussion around the future of sustainable events.

You can register for free here.