By: Kate Cardoso – Travel with Purpose Pact, Sheba Gurm – SITE Sustainability Community Committee Member
Madrid is redefining what it means to host impactful, purpose-driven events. Through its PLUS Platform and Legacy programs, the Madrid Convention Bureau (MCB) has created a dynamic blueprint that empowers event planners to generate meaningful, long-lasting change.
These initiatives also align closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and foster collaboration between public institutions, businesses, communities, and academia.
And yet — despite the richness of these offerings — greater engagement is needed to unlock their full potential.
Here, we explore strategies to elevate participation and outline how other convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) can adapt Madrid’s approach to amplify their own sustainability and legacy agendas.
A fresh perspective on legacy and sustainability
Traditionally, events were measured by their short-term economic impact. Today, Madrid is part of a global movement transforming events into platforms for social, environmental, and economic progress.
The Legacy Program empowers event organizers to co-create community-centered initiatives that generate lasting social, environmental, and educational value in Madrid. Inspired by global models like the Copenhagen Legacy Lab, it follows a seven-phase framework — from goal-setting to post-event evaluation — to align events with local needs and the UN SDGs.
The PLUS Platform (Platform for Legacy with Us) complements this by offering a digital toolkit to help planners measure and reduce their environmental impact. Accessible via the Madrid Convention Bureau, it includes a CO₂ emissions calculator, a sustainability diagnostics checklist, a supplier search tool for eco-certified vendors, and legacy mapping features tied to the SDGs. Both programs are supported by MCB staff and available throughout the event lifecycle.
Together, these initiatives turn events into platforms for purpose — ensuring meaningful, measurable outcomes long after the event ends.
These programs support a comprehensive cycle, from early planning to long-term monitoring, ensuring that events become catalysts for innovation, inclusion, and measurable impact long after the last attendee has left.
Current engagement challenges
Despite the strengths of Madrid’s PLUS and Legacy programs, adoption remains limited. Key challenges include:
- Low awareness among hotels, DMCs, and event professionals about the program benefits.
- Limited supplier diversity, particularly in eco-certified and community-based providers. However, the MCB website provides an option to select suppliers with eco-friendly initiatives — information that is continually updated.
- Restrictive eligibility criteria, such as requiring over 100 confirmed attendees, can deter smaller but highly motivated events.
Strategies to boost participation and value
1. Expand and diversify supplier networks
- Establish stronger partnerships with sustainability-focused SMEs, NGOs, and inclusive enterprises
- Create a matchmaking tool for event planners to connect with certified local suppliers and service providers
2. Elevate marketing and education
- Launch targeted LinkedIn and trade media campaigns
- Host webinars, info sessions, and immersive learning experiences
- Leverage the storytelling power of real-life impact case studies to inspire action
3. Introduce flexible and inclusive participation options
- Enable associative and corporate events of all sizes to participate in modular legacy components
- Offer legacy “micro-projects” that are easier to integrate into tight timelines and budgets
4. Harness the power of technology
- Develop an AI-enabled dashboard for real-time sustainability insights and legacy progress tracking
- Use impact measurement tools to quantify social, environmental, and knowledge-sharing outcomes
5. Incentivize action through recognition and support
- Offer tiered sustainability certifications (e.g., gold, silver, bronze)
- Provide financial incentives or co-funding opportunities for legacy-focused activities
Insights from the MCB Legacy Framework
The MCB Legacy Toolkit, based on models such as the Copenhagen Legacy Lab and BestCities Global Alliance, outlines a seven-phase lifecycle to embed legacy in events — from setting goals to evaluating long-term impact. Madrid also identifies high-impact actions across multiple areas:
- Education: interactive workshops, exhibitions, and training programs
- Sustainability: eco-tourism, green logistics, circular economic initiatives
- Community engagement: Inclusion programs, volunteering, local business integration
- Innovation: collaboration between universities, companies, and government
- Talent development: mentorship, employment platforms, skills training
- Impact evaluation: tools to measure social and environmental outcomes
These strategies ensure that events are not just sustainable, they’re transformative.
A replicable model for global CVBs
Madrid’s model can guide other destinations in developing legacy and sustainability programs by:
- Defining clear, SDG-aligned objectives that reflect local needs
- Building multi-sectoral partnerships with NGOs, government, academia, and the private sector
- Investing in training and offering resources like toolkits and e-learning
- Sharing success stories through digital media, elevating visibility and credibility
- Standardizing impact metrics, joining benchmarking platforms like the GDS-Index
Calling other CVBs into action
Madrid is showing the world how events can be more than moments — they can be movements.
The Legacy and PLUS platform serve as living proof that sustainability and social impact are compatible with world-class events and essential to their success.
Next Steps for CVBs:
To embed sustainability and legacy as core pillars of destination strategy — not just add-ons — CVBs can take the following steps to strengthen their role as changemakers in the global events industry:
- Expand and diversify sustainable supply chains — to foster local impact and reduce environmental harm
- Educate and inspire through storytelling and training — to build internal capacity and industry-wide momentum
- Enable flexibility for a broader range of events — so smaller or niche events can still contribute to legacy goals
- Embrace digital tools for transparency and accountability — to measure, track, and communicate progress
- Recognize and reward sustainability leaders — to reinforce and scale best practices
Let’s create events that leave a legacy — not just a footprint.
The authors are grateful for feedback and expertise provided by Jorge Treceño Pachón (Madrid Convention Bureau); Rocio Cela Fernandez (Four Seasons Madrid); Katrin Naumann (AnotherKonzept); and Joana Pissarra (VOQIN’).
For more information about these programs, please contact t he Madrid Convention Bureau team.
Other resources:
Madrid, Creating Legacy through your meeting
100 Ideas to Celebrate Sustainable Events in Madrid
A replicable model for global CVBs
