This year, the IFES World Summit took place in Munich from 16–19 June. Aligned with its theme, Navigating Change, Shaping What’s Next, the programme was dedicated to technology, market development, and future talent. Yet, sustainable practice remained a consistent thread running through the venue choice, attendee travel, event materials, and content programme.
Venue and Host City
The Summit was hosted at the INFINITY Hotel & Conference Resort Munich in Unterschleißheim, a LEED-Gold-certified venue. Accordingly, sustainability is built into daily operations, from waste sorting and solar panels to EV charging stations and locally sourced food and drinks. Munich itself proved a fitting backdrop: a city pairing modern infrastructure and quality of life with continued investment in renewable energy, green building, and sustainable urban policy.
Travel and Materials
As in previous years, attendees were asked to report their transportation to and from the Summit, feeding into the event’s overall carbon footprint calculation. A notable number of Europe-based participants chose to travel by train rather than fly. Materials were kept sustainable throughout: the stage was built using a modular, reusable system; voting cards for the Annual General Meeting were printed on carbon-compensated, 70% recycled FSC paper; and attendee gifts included a tote bag made from 100% organic, ethically sourced cotton and a reusable, recycled bottle.
Better Stands and the AGM
Sustainability was also addressed directly during the Annual General Meeting, where the progress of the Better Stands initiative was discussed, together with the continued call for more reusable stand building across the exhibition industry. IFES acts as the Secretariat for Better Stands and has established a separate business entity, IFES Services GmbH, to manage this aspect of its work and support the initiative’s continued development.
The Event & Social Responsibility
More than 240 attendees gathered in Munich, consolidating countless individual meetings and enhancing cross-border collaboration. The content programme also engaged directly with the broader dimensions of responsible innovation and social sustainability. For example, Dr. Auxane Boch’s keynote, “The Friendship Algorithm: Will AI Replace My Friends?”, examined the social and ethical impact of artificial intelligence, challenging attendees to think about how technology can augment rather than erode human connection.
Wednesday’s programme featured an especially solemn and sobering hallmark: a guided tour of the Memorial Site Concentration Camp Dachau. Confronting the weight of history, prejudice, and hatred, the tour deeply underscored Germany’s “Erinnerungskultur”—a deliberate, societal commitment to confront the past, embrace the present, and approach the future with unwavering respect.
Thursday morning also saw the ITT Sustainability Run bring attendees together for an active start to the day, combining informal networking, wellbeing and a shared commitment to more sustainable event participation.
From venue to voting cards, sustainability in Munich showed up less as a headline and more as a set of consistent, practical choices—in keeping with IFES’ ongoing commitment to responsible event practice as the Federation looks ahead to World Summit 2027 in Lake Garda, Italy.