International Confex Keynote: Learnings from G7, a trial run for COP26

At Interntional Confex in London, 1 September, Michael Gietzen, managing director of creative agency Identity, discussed learnings from the recent G7 Summit in Cornwall, England, held on 11-13 June. G7 was a “unique project”, Gietzen told the Keynote Theatre. “We were delivering the first event after the pandemic on an international scale. When planning a Government project, you tend to plan the event in its entirety at the procurement stage. You need to break it down into bitesize chunks.” For Identity, sustainability and social value were vital. “G7 was a flagship project for thinking about sustainability,” says Gietzen. He said: “We were really thinking about: is this required, do you need it? It was a great trial run for what we are going to do for COP26.” For social value, Gietzen claimed the UK is leading when it comes to hosting events. “Going into hosting COP26, we were thinking about what social footprint are we leaving behind? There’s a big responsibility on the agency to facilitate it.” The proudest moment of G7 was ‘the family photo’. He said: “There’s always that moment where you look back at what you built and say we’ve done it.”