Abena Poku-Awuah - founder of Legacy Events

I am a sustainable events producer and consultant, and the founder and managing director of Legacy, a sustainable events agency and consultancy.

I help companies organise virtual and in-person events, whilst considering the environmental impact of the event, its carbon footprint, and its potential for positive social change. I also support and advise event professionals to run more sustainable events through training, workshops, audits and bespoke advice.

My whole career has been about raising awareness of climate change and how to improve our environment and society for the better. I started off as a Physicist, specialising in improving sustainability in buildings and for towns and cities. I’ve always organized events as an unofficial part of my role and really enjoyed it – so decided to make them the focus of my work. I founded Legacy in 2016 as a sustainable events agency and consultancy, to make environmental and social sustainability intrinsic to event management.

What inspired you to start your business?

My mission is to transform the old ways of organising any type of event, by making sustainability the guiding light for everything that we do. My lightbulb moment came in 2016. Events bring people together, they are powerful mechanisms for facilitating change.

They are important for companies to connect with their staff and wider stakeholders. Unfortunately, the events team in a company are often left out of discussions that are happening at corporate level, especially around sustainability. That creates a disconnect between what a company is saying to its audience and how its events are perceived.

It can be so jarring as an attendee to go to a business event and see plastic everywhere, huge amounts of waste and no consideration of social issues. I want to show that by carefully considering the impact of the suppliers, venues, and materials that you use for your events, the communities that they are located in and how you clean up after yourself, anyone can design beautiful events that delight and inspire your guests and which serve as inspiration for other event organisers.

The first steps I took to start my business

The idea for Legacy had been brewing in my head for a couple of years before I took the plunge. I took some consultancy work to keep myself afloat at first and went to as many events as I could to learn the ins and outs of the events sector. I also saved money by building my website myself and doing my own social media.

Starting a business can seem daunting and taking those first steps into the unknown is often the hardest part. However, many purpose-driven founders are driven by that exact thin, purpose, which can sometimes make those first steps easier.

My advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs

People starting new business ventures can be quite secretive about what they are up to, in the fear that their concept might be stolen. My advice is to tell as many people about your ideas as possible. Your initial idea is just a starting point and the best way to refine it and see if it will work is to get feedback.

Plus you never know who will be able to help you out or give you a perspective you had not considered before. Don’t be afraid to make a stand.

The essence of being purpose-driven is having the confidence to stand up and speak out even when others aren’t. Using your power for good and giving a voice to those who might not have one is vital. Putting your head above the pulpit can often seem scary but leading the way for other brands to follow suit is one way to bring about serious positive change.

My business role model

Despite recent unwise statements on social media, I am a huge fan of Elon Musk. According to his biography, when he was in college, he thought about what he wanted to do with his life, using as his starting point the question, “What will most affect the future of humanity?” The answer he came up with was a list of five things: “the internet; sustainable energy; space exploration, in particular, the permanent extension of life beyond Earth; artificial intelligence; and reprogramming the human genetic code.”

The incredible thing is, he has managed to achieve his goals in the first three of those areas and he is working on the other two. Remember in the 1990s, when we would call strangers and give them our credit-card numbers? Elon Musk dreamed up a concept called PayPal. His Tesla Motors and SolarCity companies are making the transition to a clean, renewable energy future a reality. SpaceX is disrupting space technology and reopening space for exploration.

I really admire his focus and his ability to set a goal and achieve it, no matter what sceptics and naysayers may claim.

My work-life balance

Work-life balance is important to me and I’ve made it a fundamental part of working at Legacy. We are a four-day week business; we work Tuesdays to Fridays which means we have three days off for our personal lives. In practice, the nature of events means that you are often working towards a fixed date. You can’t move your deadline – you have to do whatever it takes to be ready when your event arrives!

I make sure the whole team takes time off between hectic projects to recharge.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I am really excited to be launching a new product in Spring 2021, the Legacy Marketplace. It is an online marketplace to help anyone organise an event using sustainable suppliers. It aims to solve two problems: making the event organising process easy and hassle-free whilst increasing awareness on the environmental and social impact of events.