When we first thought of making Nullcon Berlin 2022 a Green Conference—there was a constant struggle with our thoughts between balancing the infosec conference as well as making it sustainable.
Managing a Green event can be challenging at times, yet we were looking forward to providing our attendees with a personalized, rich, and good quality experience without compromising on our environment. Thus, our aim became two-tracked, to make it the finest infosec conference for our German attendees and devoting these 2-days to encouraging our attendees towards mindful usage of resources. Having said that, there were primarily 3 aspects we looked at to reduce the massive impacts caused due to our Carbon Footprints.
1. Encouraged Sustainable Travel:
We had a whale of a time watching our attendees and speakers post on social media the different ways they were contributing to the Green Conference. To recognize everyone’s efforts we requested them to save their travel ticket or show their social media post at the registration desk. Each post encouraged another individual to add to this good cause. Our speakers who were traveling from outside the city made sure to take an overnight train. People living locally preferred using public transport or covering the distance by walking. An immense amount of joy and appreciation was received when Nullcon rewarded the contributors with Exclusive Green Con T-shirts. Furthermore, we also partnered with TIER E-scooters which were parked right outside the venue for easy access to our audience for any quick de-tours.
2. Eliminating Wastage of Resources:
With conferences like ours, it involves a lot of packing and printing materials. We made a conscious effort to restrict plastic and paper usage, to keep us on track the same was communicated to our vendors as well. Our attendees and speakers received all notices/communications through digital media for announcements, self-health declaration forms, distributing prizes, and more. To manage food preparations, we reached out to our audience in terms of their food preference and allergies to assure making meals in proper quantities. Glass bottles were provided for drinking instead of single-use plastic bottles, and separate waste bins were installed for proper waste disposal. Different swags distributed during the conference were put in a cotton tote bag instead of wrapping in individual plastic bags.
3. Utilizing Materials beyond the Conference:
A usual practice after each wrap-up at Nullcon is to store materials such as signs, banners, swags, and more that could be reused at a later date since it is an annual event. A great addition as well as a bolt from the blue moment for the Green Conference was when one of our attendees took back our banner frame to make a solar panel board holder for their house.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every individual who contributed to making Nullcon Berlin a Green Conference. Cheers to many more sustainable events!
