aspenPLUS the easiest way to manage your IT
aspenPLUS the easiest way to manage your IT
With COP26 now over, we’ve been taking some time to reflect on our part, in what was a momentous event for the city of Glasgow.
Originally supposed to happen in November 2020, before the pandemic stopped all events, Glasgow has been abuzz this month, welcoming delegates from all over the world. We were honoured to have been selected as an IT provider for the event and were hard at work in the lead up to ensure everything was taken care of. All in all, we worked individually with over 50 countries & organisations attending COP26.
The goal of the COP26 summit was to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This was a massive platform for Aspen Solutions as the world was paying attention to the smooth running of the event itself, and the action plans put in place.
The Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow, where the event was held, is a client of Aspen Solutions and we sit on their approved supplier list. However, we had to enter a competitive tender process to ensure we had the capability to deliver on all requirements of such a large-scale event. As part of our working processes, we submitted emissions reports which detailed the carbon footprint of our involvement.
We were asked to provide an array of IT kit for the event. From monitors and laptops to printers and large display screens, we brought in top quality equipment from the very best suppliers. In the spirit of what COP26 represents, we also took an eco-friendly approach to our hardware, using refurbished kit to reduce waste. This was a great opportunity to show the potential of refurbished and recycled tech at a large-scale event.
Our team started work on COP26 in Spring 2021 and continued to order kit right up until the start of the event, as orders from the nations attending were still coming in!
The star of our show for this event was Alexandra McArthur, who was the Project Leader. She has handled an incredibly high-profile and complex event with expert knowledge and ease. Alongside a full team effort, the wonderful Mhairi Beeby and John Clark provided indispensable help in support roles too, but overall it was a fantastic team effort! Everyone put in long hours to ensure our activities at planning stage, and then on-site throughout the event, went without a hitch.
An event of this magnitude was not without its challenges. Getting stock such as laptops & screens was tough, with a well-documented global shortage of microchips, but we are proud to say we managed to fulfil all requirements.
COP26 has been incredible to be part of and all of us at Aspen Solutions sincerely hope it will shape the future of how the world can improve. Working with people from across the globe and building great connections has been really exciting too. We really believe that in bringing people together like this and forging connections, so much can be done to move forward as a connected, global society.
One connection we’re grateful to have had is Jenny Brown at Hire Intelligence, an audio visual company we worked with to supply screens for the event.
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The whole team is still buzzing with excitement from this event. The work we’ve done in the lead up to and during COP26 has been frenetic, yet joyful! We all have a sense of collective achievement from demonstrating that we are more than capable of working on events at this level – those with international attention, scale and importance.
Across 2021 our schedule has been packed with supporting big events, like the BBC One Show at Edinburgh Festival, TRNSMT music festival, and the Scottish Gaelic Awards. We hope that our experience of delivering for high-profile events at scale, and with an exceptional level of service, will see Aspen Solutions continue to be a provider of choice.
