About Us
As of February 2025, Positive Impact has a community of almost 2,000 global event professionals, over 40 corporate Head of Events, over 40 Corporate Head of Sustainability, over 160 SMEs with a Race to Zero commitment, over 5 memorandums of understanding with United Nations bodies.
For almost 20 years not for profit Positive Impact have been providing engagement, collaboration and education to create a sustainable event industry. You could describe Positive Impact as the ‘critical friend’ of the global event sector.
In 2023 we began to focus on bringing needed innovation to life by supporting two projects:
Technology to make it easier for your event to have a positive Impact
Positive Impact is the only event sector body to be a Race to Zero Accelerator, UN SDG Action mobiliser and to have education certified by the world’s largest and leading CPD accreditation working across all sectors, so our education is accessed by heads of marketing, HR and sustainability.
Our funding comes from everywhere and nowhere, and every penny, cent or yen is used to advance the event sector so every time an event happens the UN Sustainable Development Goals are advanced and events are recognised as ensuring 'participation and inclusion in decision making’ (UN SDG16).
This is a timeline of Positive Impact's journey and the creation of a sustainable event industry. It reflects initiatives from:
The United Nations
Positive Impact
CEO Fiona Pelham
Key developments in the creation of a sustainable event industry.
Upskilling over 30 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Offices on sustainability
Positive Impact collaborated with British Embassy Helsinki to create an ISO 20121 toolkit which was shared widely to empower and upskill the FCDO network to be in action on event management sustainability.
Engaging with CEOs on the UN SDGs White Paper
This white paper explores the role of the SDGs in building the future of how human connection happens. It explains why the event industry is best placed to play a key role in SDG achievement and explores the ideas, inspiration and calls to action available.
Engaging with CEOs on the UN SDGs
Positive Impact wrote a white paper to engage with CEOs, Corporate Heads of Sustainability, Corporate Heads of Events and United Nations event organisers and any others who are in action innovating to achieve the SDGs. It explored the role of events in achieveing the SDGs and building the future of how human connection happens. It could also be used by event professionals to talk to their CEOs about the SDGs.
Empowering 1000 event professionals to be ambassadors for a sustainable event industry
The Positive Impact Events community reaches over 1,000 global Ambassadors, and guidelines for planning an event with the consideration of human and child rights are launched.
Contributing to the UK Events Report 2020
Positive Impact Events CEO Fiona Pelham provided content for the Sustainability in Events chapter, which was shared with members of the UK Parliament as part of the Business Visits and Events Report.
Closing our sister company, Sustainable Events Ltd
In Spring 2020, after 10 years of providing consultancy to create a sustainable event industry, Sustainable Events Ltd has closed. Our CEO has recorded a message to share why this is a good sign for the future of the global event industry.
Addressing the role of plastic in the event industry
Positive Impact collaborated with Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau to launch a campaign to address the role of plastic in the event industry. This award-winning campaign resulted in an app being created to measure the plastic being used at events.
Empowering 100,000 #eventprofs to be in action building the future of how human connection happens
On 14th April 2020, we joined our ambassadors in launching our grassroots campaign to empower 100,000 #eventprofs to be in action building the future of how human connection happens. This summary report explores the results of this campaign.
Sharing examples of how events can be used to achieve the UN SDGs for #EarthDay 2020
The Positive Impact Events team and the global #eventprofs community shared examples of how events can be used to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Exploring the future of the global meetings and events industry for GMID 2020
Positive Impact celebrated Global Meetings Industry Day by hosting a webinar with a panel of industry leaders including Cvent, Northstar Meetings Group and UNFCCC on the future of the global meetings and events industry. This webinar discussed how the events industry can help achieve the UN SDGs and our 2020 100,000 campaign to empower and upskill 100,000 event professionals to build the future of how human connection happens.
Celebrating International Women’s Day 2020 with our Girls Creating campaign
In 2020, Positive Impact celebrated International Women’s Day with our annual Girls Creating Campaign. Positive Impact facilitated a webinar, interviewed leading female CEOs and encouraged people to share stories of women in their lives who have inspired them.
Creating a sustainable event industry since 2005
Positive Impact has worked to create a sustainable event industry since 2005. We have set up an archive so we can keep a record of all the resources we have created since our creation. Although some of these resources may no longer be relevant, this archive documents our journey and successes in achieving our vision of a sustainable event industry.
Growing our ambassador community in 2019
In 2019 our ambassadors grew to 403 ambassadors. We provided our ambassadors with monthly challenges to be in action on progressing the UN SDGs. We also sent our ambassadors a powerpoint to inform their communities about how completing the event industry MyWorld survey will tell the story of the power of events and create a sustainable event industry.
Accelerating towards the SDGs by using events
Positive Impact submitted an acceleration action to the United Nations SDG Summit explaining the role of the event industry in achieving the SDGs.
Creating resources with Unicef UK for the consideration of Human and Child Rights and Safeguarding
In 2019, Positive Impact Events began a collaboration with Unicef UK to produce resources to support an event to be planned with the consideration of Human Rights and Child Rights. This guidance is a consultation draft that will be able to be used as part of an event organiser’s implementation of ISO 20121.
Encouraging the event sector to take part in UN SDG Action
In 2019 Positive Impact began submitting Acceleration Action plans to UN SDG Action campaign. Find out how they encouraged the event sector to take part and support this initiative.
UN Survey tailored and launched for event industry
Positive Impact Events collaborated with UN SDG Action to tailor the SDG survey to meet the needs of event professionals. Over 7000 commitments from event professionals in 58 countries were gathered in one month and this was the first time the UN My World Survey was tailored for an industry.
Discussing with EventIcons the business case for sharing ideas with the United Nations
Fiona Pelham was interviewed by EventIcons about the clear opportunity and the business case for sharing ideas with the United Nations by creating an Acceleration Action for the event industry.
Facilitating a sustainability policy roundtable with destinations and policymakers
Positive Impact facilitated a policy roundtable at IMEX Frankfurt to explore with destinations and policymakers what needs to happen so policy enables sustainable action at events.
Exploring the importance of measurement with the UN
UN representatives from UN SDG Action Campaign and MYWorld and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) were invited to IMEX Frankfurt to discuss the importance of measurement. These representatives participated in a successful presentation to a standing room only audience of over 200. They also joined a roundtable with industry leaders to support industry actions on measurement.
