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Jayden Klinac, founder of For The Better Good, a New-Zealand-based sustainability company, speaks to the 140 attendees at a Feb. 17 AIME Hosted Buyer Breakfast in Melbourne. Tourism New Zealand committed to planting a native tree in New Zealand for each attendee. (Courtesy AIME)
Breakfast was worth getting up for at the Asia Pacific Incentives Meetings Event (AIME) this week in Melbourne, as hosted buyers feasted on sweetcorn hotcakes and sustainable local produce while networking with Tourism New Zealand officials and other New Zealand events industry venues and operators.
The sustainability focused AIME Hosted Buyer Breakfast on Feb. 17 was served by New Zealand celebrity chef Justin North. And for each of the 140 breakfast attendees, Tourism New Zealand committed to planting a native tree in New Zealand.
The trees will be planted by Trees that Count, a conservation charity that, according to Tourism New Zealand, aims to plant 200 million native trees across the country to combat climate change and protect the country’s landscapes, waterways, and forests for future generations.
New Zealand celebrity chef Justin North created the menu for the AIME Hosted Buyer Breakfast in Melbourne. (Courtesy AIME)
That kind of sustainability initiative, Tourism New Zealand noted, is one that organizers can incorporate into their own events in New Zealand.
On the menu at AIME were chickpea, zucchini, and sweetcorn hotcakes with a poached free-range egg and heirloom tomato, caper, and herb salsa; tropical coconut tapioca pots with mango, passion fruit, and lime, served with a fruit skewer of compressed pineapple marinated in lemon grass, vanilla, and kaffir; and “edible forest floor,” a concoction of toasted cereal, cocoa crunch, pomegranate and pickled cherries, dark chocolate ganache, and semi-dried blueberries.
Breakfast participants also heard from Jayden Klinac, founder of For The Better Good. Klinac’s New-Zealand-based company is “tackling waste by taking a regenerative approach to traditional plastic products and packaging, with innovations including bottled water in plant-based, compostable bottles,” Tourism New Zealand said in a statement.
“Organizers of international events have a responsibility to manage our environmental impact and give back more than we take away,” Tourism New Zealand’s global manager of business events, Lisa Gardiner, said. “The educational breakfast at AIME not only showcased what New Zealand is doing to host better business events, but hopefully inspired attendees to incorporate sustainable initiatives into their own conferences and incentives.”