This member-only webinar will be hosted by friends of AIF ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ founder, Chris Thompson. It will explore the politics, practicalities, data capture, insights and behaviour change that can be gained by using digital assistant technologies to tailor highly personalised low-carbon-routing options and travel advice to festivalgoers.
Digital assistants, in their many forms, have become pervasive. They influence our behaviour in almost every aspect of modern life. At the same time (in 2019) an estimated 32.7 million people travelled over 55 billion miles for UK leisure purposes. 61% of them travelled by car. Dividing this by the average party of 2.2 people travelling together gives an estimated 33.7 billion leisure miles, a carbon emissions footprint of 6.6 million CO2 Tonnes, and, under international Climate Change Agreements, a potential levy to the UK government (or carbon credit dividend if removed) of £312,378,000. Post-Covid, despite notable efforts to promote alternatives from the independent sector, travel to festivals by internal combustion engine vehicles increased in 2022.
The webinar will highlight the travel demand management challenges in tackling the carbon footprint of festivals, which as we know is typically dominated by travel behaviour. The interactive session will showcase the positive environmental impact that deploying the ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ travel assistant service achieved for Radio 1 Big Weekend, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and UK City of Culture events, including Coventry’s 180k attendee Godiva Festival. It will also include a demonstration of live deployments created for Brighton’s On The Beach, for Anjunabeats artist tours, and integration of Ecolibrium’s carbon-balancing service. It will reveal innovative visitor engagement strategies and explore new revenue opportunities that support a sustainable festival travel proposition, for festivalgoers, organisers, and for the sector as whole.