UN Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals that were established in 2015 by the United Nations. The SDGs are an urgent call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. The goals cover a broad range of interconnected social, economic, and environmental issues.

The SDGs are a universal call to action, and everyone has a role to play in achieving them. The need for collaboration and global action is captured in Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

Goal 17 calls on people from all countries and professions to recognise the urgency with which our world, climate, and life need to be protected for future generations.

Business events are the perfect forum to bring people together to help meet the SDGs. Business events bring global communities together to discuss significant global topics like poverty, human health, or climate change.

We want to help make the connection between business events and the SDGs clearer. We want to help business events realise their potential to contribute positively towards the SDGs. We want to help business events become outcome focused and help develop events that create change in the world, delivering value, education and community to delegates and members.

At VisitScotland Business Events, we are aligning our work and our campaigns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The 17 Goals

The 17 goals positively contribute in Economy, Society and Biosphere; And business events can be vehicles to achieve peace and prosperity for people and planet.

How business events can help achieve them

In the Business events industry, we need to understand how individual business events can help achieve the UN SDGs. Business events professionals, venues and convention bureaux are all part of this journey.

• Recognise that business events can be a force for good and create positive and social change.
• Understand each meeting's topic; surgery, pharmaceuticals, economics, management. The list of subjects and specialisms in the business events world is endless.
• Event planners, working with local support (i.e., convention bureaux, national bodies) need to understand how their conference programme relates to the SDGs. Also, how they can have a real world impact outside of the conference hall.

There are many ways this can be achieved depending on the conference, the country, and the subject. Some organisers will prioritise conference proceedings, rather than external issues, and that's ok, its for each conference to decide on their objectives. But for those conferences who are keen to engage and help use their knowledge and power, we as destinations need to be ready to help them do that.

In Scotland, we have engaged a network of national partners and are working closely with the Scottish Government. We aim to help connect conferences with policy makers, industry leaders and our innovation centres. See an example here.