Festival Code of Conduct for all events

TechNext Festival’s ambition is to be a Good Festival with ‘for good’ being a core value that runs through the full events programme. This will ensure the festival focuses on quality, inclusivity, diversity, accessibility, and sustainability, protecting our planet and creating a welcoming experience for all.

As part of TechNExt festival, we ask for your commitment in helping with this ambition. Here is our festival code of conduct, which we ask that you do your best to follow during the planning and delivery of your event.

Inclusivity and Diversity

We strive for inclusivity and diversity throughout the festival and ask that your event reflects the diverse nature of the tech sector and the wider society we live in.

• Consider your panels and speakers carefully, striving for a balanced representation across class, education, race, gender, power and influence*.
• Make efforts to reach out to underrepresented audiences.
• Treat everyone with kindness and respect, avoiding language and behaviour that could be considered offensive or discriminatory.

*See IIED article on Why Balanced Panels Matter.

Accessibility

Wherever possible, venues and events should be accessible to anyone who would like to attend.

• Ensure venues, stages and facilities are fully accessible to individuals with physical disabilities and other additional needs.
• Consider access to venues via public transport and provision of disabled parking.
• Designate accessible seating areas and prioritise accessibility in room layouts.
• Consider offering a quiet space or other area at your event if your event is likely to be very noisy or crowded.
• Provide equipment such as hearing loops for those with hearing impairments, where possible.
• Check slides for visual clarity and consider fonts for those with visual impairment.
• Where your chosen venue is unable to be accessible in any area, please make it clear on your event booking information.
• Please reach out to discuss with our team if you have any concerns about your chosen venue.

For more advice on ways to make your event more welcoming to everyone, please download VisitEngland’s helpful toolkit. More information can also be found on their website.

Sustainability

We recognise that all events have a direct impact on the environment, and we strive to provide a high-quality itinerary whilst minimising the environmental footprint as far as possible.

Transport

Reduce the environmental impact of travel wherever possible.

• Choose a location that minimises the requirement for travel, particularly by car. Consider one that is close to public transport links and promote these links to delegates.
• Offer an online joining option for your event, where feasible.
• Provide a link to a map and advise delegates how they can reach the venue by foot.
• Help us to track the carbon footprint of the festival by capturing and providing us with the travel information from your audience.
• Offset carbon emissions or encourage delegates to offset their own.

Venues

• Where possible, we ask that you use a venue which has sustainable or environmental policies or have an environmental management system certified to a national or international standard.  
• Try to use a venue of appropriate size for the number of attendees to limit excessive heating and cooling, and use heating/air conditioning sparingly.
• Provide clearly labelled recycling bins for different types of waste and advertise their presence.

Refreshments and catering

• Offer tap water and reusable glasses for delegates. Please avoid plastic bottled drinks wherever possible and any single use cups.
• Encourage attendees to bring their own reusable coffee cups and water bottles.
• Serve fresh produce in season and avoid individually packaged items.
• Consider choosing vegetarian or mainly vegetarian and plant based food menus.
• Reuse crockery, glassware, cutlery, tablecloths etc.

Communication and handouts

• Communicate electronically rather than by paper.
• Instead of handouts, provide documents as electronic downloads.
• Use whiteboards rather than paper flipcharts.
• If electronic downloads are not possible, use reusable handouts printed on recycled paper and ensure any waste is appropriately collected and recycled.

The TechNExt festival will produce a post event report, including a carbon footprint for the festival. In order to create this, we will require the following information from you post event:

• Number of attendees (in person/virtually)
• Attendee organisation name (if applicable) and whether the organisation is a small, medium or large business (tick box)
• Start of home postcode of attendees (i.e. NE30, YO1 etc)
• Mode of transport used (options: Car diesel, car electric, car petrol, car hybrid, bus, metro, mainline train, coach, walk, bike, car share)

Please remember to include these questions in your booking form.  

TechNExt is underwritten by Dynamo North East CIC, which is co-organised by Sunderland Software City. The festival is a collaborative festival, working with partners across the North East and delivered by BeaconHouse Events.