Sustainable Events Show

The 6th annual Sustainable Events Show will take place on Friday 6 November 2026 at the Chicago Booth London Conference Centre in the heart of London’s Square Mile. This carbon-neutral exhibition connects event organisers and buyers with vetted eco-friendly suppliers.

EVENT OVERVIEW & LAYOUT

• Date: 6 November 2026 (8.30am – 4.00pm)
• Location: Chicago Booth London Conference Centre, City of London EC1A 7BL
• Format: One-day carbon-neutral event industry trade exhibition and seminar series
• Exhibitor Layout: Arranged in an efficient, IKEA-inspired floor plan featuring 80 specialized eco-vendors ensuring you don’t miss anyone!

KEY EXHIBITOR ZONES

 Event Venues: Showcasing sustainability-verified and certified spaces
Event Services: Featuring catering, sustainable furniture, and entertainment providers
Event Technology: Highlighting hybrid/virtual solutions, lighting, sound, and digital registration
Dedicated B Corp Zone: Highlighting accredited organizations leading in social and environmental responsibility

PROGRAM FEATURES

Seminar Theatre: This year’s theatre programme follows one journey through the day. Drop in anywhere, but the day builds:

• BASIC sets the foundations.
• BETTER is your opportunity to improve the industry.
• BEST pushes leaders further.

The same three specialists speak in the morning and the afternoon. Each topic is pitched once for people starting out and once for strategic decision-makers, so you can pick the level that fits you or attend both.

MORNING

Opening Keynote seminar
What’s actually stopping us? by Anna Abdlenoor (This specific seminar, unlike the rest of the morning sessions, is aimed at those individuals at all levels of experience)
We know more about how to make events sustainable than ever before. We have better data, more alternatives products and services, and plenty of good intentions. And yet progress still feels painfully slow.

So what’s actually getting in the way?

In this opening keynote, Anna Abdelnoor explores the space between caring about change and being able to make it happen. She’ll look at how our ability to act shifts depending on where we sit within a system, what happens when responsibility sits with people who lack the power to deliver change or when we have more agency than we’re willing to exercise.

It’s an invitation to start the day differently and get clear on the outcome you need from your day.

Maybe it’s better information, infrastructure, or technologies. Maybe you need other people to act. And maybe the solution is already in front of you – you just need to decide whether you’re willing to use it.

BASIC
For coordinators, executives, early-career planners and career changers. The language is plain and no prior knowledge is assumed. Every session has to pass one test: could someone in their first year use it on the Monday following the Sustainable Events Show?

Commercial & Sustainable, with Ben Quarrell, Sustainability Simplified
Sustainable choices and commercial choices usually point the same way. This session covers why clients now ask about sustainability in briefs and tenders, and where it saves money on menus, materials, freight and energy. It explains event carbon in plain English and shows how to put a sustainable option into a proposal without it looking like an add-on.

Social Value in Events, with Matt Grey, event:decision
This is the S in ESG, the part most people are never taught. The session explains what social value means for people, place and legacy. You’ll leave with easy wins you can own on your next event.

Certifications & Accreditations, with Ariela Schnitman, Worlds Better
This session demystifies the badges on supplier websites and in tenders. It maps ISO 20121, B Corp and the main venue and supplier schemes, and explains what each one proves and what it doesn’t. You’ll also learn how to check that a supplier’s claim is real, and where certification fits for a smaller agency or a freelancer.

LATE MORNING: BETTER

Responsible Futures London: Live Data Session, hosted by Matt Grey
This session is for anyone and everyone in the building. Take part in a live survey and add your voice to the Responsible Futures programme on everything sustainable and responsible.

AFTERNOON: BEST

For agency directors, heads of sustainability, corporate buyers, procurement and venue GMs. The sessions bring evidence, challenge and a forward view. The test here: does it change what you plan to do next year?

Panel: Is it all going to sh*t for agencies?
With Matt Grey, Ariela Schnitman, Ben Quarrell, Ed Richards, Mike Kershaw
Agencies face squeezed budgets, procurement-led buying, AI and rising demands for ESG data. The panel asks whether the model is breaking or whether responsible practice is the way through. It’s a frank, high-energy start to the afternoon.

Commercial & Sustainable: Leadership Edition, with Ben Quarrell
This session treats sustainability as a strategy for revenue, margin and client retention. It covers how to price measurement and reduction as a service, how procurement scores sustainability in tenders and what wins, and how to build the business case for the board.

Social Value in Events: Leadership Edition, with Matt Grey
This session takes social value from good intentions to something you measure, report and bid on. It covers what the existing data reveals about the gap between what the industry says and what it does, how to evidence social value and how to win on social value in tenders without overclaiming.

Certifications & Accreditations: Leadership Edition, with Ariela Schnitman
This session helps you decide which accreditations are worth the investment. It covers choosing the right scheme for your business and clients, what certification really takes in time and cost, and how to use it to win work while meeting the governance it demands.

The Greenhouse
The day closes with an innovation showcase of new ideas from five to ten suppliers.

Programme
08:30 Doors open: exhibition, B Corp zone
10:00 Welcome: how Basic, Better, Best works
10:15 Basic sessions
11:30 Better: Responsible Futures live data session
13:00 Agency panel
14:00 Best sessions
15:15 The Greenhouse
16:00 Show closes, followed by post-event drinks hour

Networking Hub: Dedicated networking platforms matching corporate and agency event buyers with sustainable supply-chain innovators.
Optimization Clinics: Face-to-face advisory opportunities targeted at top sustainable event agencies