Isla,
the business events sustainability organisation, is closing its membership
programme at the end of the year to better focus on its mission to make 'business events sustainable.'
This would include leveraging its carbon measurement
platform TRACE - which was launched in April 2022 - to provide fresh insights and help the industry transition to net zero.
The decision was announced in
a statement from CEO and founder Anna Abdelnoor, where she said: ‘the
strategies that worked five years ago are the not the strategies that work
today’.
Launched in 2020, Isla
amassed over 300 members in its five years, from across the business events industry, but - speaking to AMI -
Abdelnoor said the time had come ‘to get back to basics.’
Isla started with a small
group of founding agency members focused on
industry reporting, but the pandemic prompted a rethink – with the
business pivoting to a broader membership model with lower entry fees.
Subscriptions took off,
exceeding expectations, and by the time business events were back in full
swing, Isla had positioned itself as one of the industry’s leading
sustainability movements.
However, Abdelnoor said the
membership model was 'unsuitable for scaling isla’s
mission' and had become out-of-sync with industry member needs.
“Even though our renewal rate
is something like 85 per cent, when we’re having those conversations, it’s
clear what our members really want is solutions,
clear guidance on what to do, and access to a community consultancy.
Our focus on membership delivery has
started to detract from our purpose, which is to work
at an industry-level to create the conditions that will make
business events sustainable.”
Isla has won plaudits for its
TRACE
carbon measurement platform and this would now take priority as the
organisation sought to restructure around a wider community model.
Abdelnoor said the challenge
of decarbonising the business events industry required ‘systems change’
thinking that favoured a focus on community participation – rather
than membership.
“We have built a community
through our thought leadership, our education, and industry partnerships that
goes way beyond our membership – and that needs to be protected.
“Sometimes membership can
feel like gatekeeping, and that can make engaging freely with the wider
community – and systemic change – difficult.”
In the company’s statement,
Abdelnoor said the landscape had changed since 2020 and it had become ‘normal’
for businesses to embed sustainability as a priority, even if implementation
didn’t always follow.
She told AMI that decarbonising
the sector means building a ‘circular’ events economy, and insights would enable us to innovate around this
goal, which was now crucial if the industry was to meet its net zero
targets.
Abdelnoor said she was,
‘deeply grateful to every member, partner, and supporter’ who had supported
Isla and who would ‘continue to shape the future we build together.’
Written By
James Lancaster
AMI editor James
Lancaster is a familiar face in the meetings industry and international
association community. Since joining AMI in 2010, he has gained a reputation
for asking difficult questions and getting lost in convention centres. Proofer, podcaster, and panellist - in his spare time, James likes to walk,
read, listen to music, and drink beer.
