I have been cleaning out my office over the past couple of weeks. It feels like the arteries of both my office and my mind have been cleared with each box of recycling. I am through the paper stuff, and am now down to things, like the recycled glass business card holder that is a relic from a conference I co-chaired in 2003. It is "things" that are the hardest. I can't, for example, remember the last time this particular object was actually used to hold business cards. But looking at it makes me remember the conference itself; the work I did with my co-chair to make it happen, the branding I designed, even some of the sessions I attended. So, what happens with this thing? Do I recycle it (presumably, being glass, it can be recycled again)? Do I keep it as it has become a memory?
This is a hard question and is, I think, at the root of our attachment to "things" in the meetings and events industry. Things become memories. Is there another way to preserve a memory without a thing, thus decreasing our environmental footprint and our economic obligations through the supply chain? Become like Dr.
Seuss's Grinch, whose revelation was:
"It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas -- perhaps -- means a little bit more"
Maybe meetings/events mean more than the ribbons and bags. Maybe conferences -- perhaps -- mean a little bit more.
