New Intent is a new organization designed to promote diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) and environmental advocacy by working with destinations, event strategists and the event supply chain.
“I very much believe that DEI and sustainability go hand in hand, you can’t have one without the other,” says Rory Archibald, the founder of New Intent. “The UN SDGs (United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals) were created in 2015 as ‘blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.’ They recognize that societal change must take place in order to combat climate change as well as reducing our carbon footprint.”
Archibald’s primary job is leading the associations, sectors and marketing departments of VisitScotland and he will maintain this position while running New Intent. “Today is an incredibly exciting day,” he says. “DEI and environmental action need to take a much greater priority in our industry. I believe that we must do more as an industry to properly drive DEI and environmental action forward and start to take what we preach and put it into action.
“I am excited to launch New Intent and realistic about the challenges we face. We will bring advocacy to the forefront, engage in challenging conversations, and face up to the journey we have in front of us. We have the power to create real change and transform an industry by collaborating, sharing and demanding change.”
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Scotland has been a land of many firsts in the DEI and climate change worlds over the past couple of years, including being the first to make LGBTQ history mandatory in school curriculums and the first to make menstruation products free. It’s also one of the countries with the highest amount of its electricity backed by renewables, at 97%. “Although these are great achievements, there is a huge amount of work to do,” Archibald adds.
According to a company press release, New Intent will create educational sessions, white papers and knowledge sharing. New Intent offers partnerships with the events industry supply chain, transformation strategies for events and speaker services. In addition to DEI and environmental advocacy, topics will cover UN SDGs, corporate social responsibility and the politics of meetings.
“DEI and environmental action is not a competition,” Archibald says, “and only by collaborating do we stand a chance of creating societal transformation and combating climate change.”
