From October 15 to 17, the first version of the World Meetings Forum Sustainable Edition 2019 (WMFSE) was held at the Costa Rica Convention Center, as a result of the efforts of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute to continue promoting the country as a vanguard destination and sustainable in the event industry.
The WMF is a platform that seeks to generate business ecosystems for attendees through four strategic pillars: Business, learning experience, networking and a clear social contribution; This model, which is exported for the first time outside of the Mexican territory, is aligned on the occasion of the Sustainable Edition with global sustainability trends based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, Rafael Hernández, Chairman of the Forum, reported.
Costa Rica is a destination that offers a complete and varied infrastructure aligned to sustainability for international meeting planners; 50,000 rooms, an offer that will increase in the coming years with the opening of 11 new hotels and a new convention center of 15,000 square meters with a capacity for 4,595 people, which was built under the guidelines of a cutting-edge ecological design using glass ceilings to reduce electricity consumption, rainwater recycling systems, automatic shut-off keys, LED lighting and 10,000 m2 of solar panels to power the facilities, Rafael Hernández added.
Rafael Quesada, Coordinator of the ICT Meeting Tourism Strategy, commented: “Being the venue of this important event fills us with joy and pride, because sustainability is precisely the pillar of our tourism development model. It also validates the marketing strategy to position Costa Rica as a solid destination in the tourism segment of meetings and congresses, due to the quality of services and for having international and competitive quality venues such as the Costa Rica Convention Center ” .
The event has had as a baseline the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nationals which will be reflected not only in the operation and production of the event but also in an academic agenda which seeks to raise awareness about some of the most relevant objectives and of greater impact of the event industry and had special participation Natalia Lever, Director for Latin America of Climate Reality Project, foundation of the Nobel Peace Prize Al Gore against climate change, Carlos Lopez, Director for Latin America of Wizards Without Borders, Rosario Marin, former US Treasurer among other speakers.
It should be noted that WMF, through the World Meetings Forum Foundation (WMFF), performs in each event the inclusion of people with disabilities by hiring these people to be part of the WMFF team, with the aim of raising awareness about the industry about of how important it is to accommodate this group of society and thus contributing to the objectives of sustainable development 8 and 10 that refer to decent work and economic growth and reduction of inequalities respectively.