4.5 Min. Read

The UN declared 2021 as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development because the orange or creative economy (with its components of creativity, technology, and innovation) is an indispensable path to achieving the UN’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals set for 2030. In this context, it is worth asking about the role that digital marketing and virtual events will have in this year that has just begun.

The UN outlined the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to create a roadmap for governments, businesses, communities, and individuals to contribute to a sustainable and better future for all. These are:

Why is the creative economy so important to reach them? For many reasons, perhaps the most obvious is the flexibility that characterizes it. As the UN General Assembly identified, “the creative economy fosters creativity and innovation for inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth and development while facilitating life transitions.” This advantage applies anywhere globally and makes it possible to contribute to economic growth, job creation, and expanded opportunities for all sectors of the population since the creative economy works with knowledge and the interaction between human creativity and ideas, knowledge, and technology. Besides, the creative economy is directly related to the need for workers to have access to lifelong learning opportunities and for all students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to promote sustainable development. 

From this perspective, the world of digital marketing and virtual events has an essential role in searching for socially and ecologically sustainable development for all. 

The worlds of digital marketing and virtual events have the enormous advantage that the teams involved in their development can be at opposite ends of the planet and still collaborate seamlessly. It may even be that this geographical distance allows creativity to develop further and to a greater exchange of ideas. With this element alone, the digital marketing and virtual events sectors already demonstrate their potential to contribute to five of the seventeen objectives (1, 2, 3, 8, and 10). If a person with great creative potential can access a decent job, regardless of his/her location, that encourages personal development, brings well-being to the society and surrounding community, and contributes to the life-quality and well-being of all by reducing inequalities in his/her context. 

Digital marketing and virtual events can contribute to at least two other sustainable development objectives: quality education and climate action. 

Virtual events and interactive videos (one of the digital marketing tools) can help large percentages of the population access quality content and educational opportunities. 

Both interactive videos and virtual events can be used to provide non-formal education services (such as those found in platforms like Master Class, Udemy, or LinkedIn Learning). They also have the potential to be used in employee onboarding and continuous training processes, two tasks that contribute to the sustainability and growth of companies and, in turn, feed the virtuous circle that results from more people accessing decent jobs. 

Finally, virtual events can contribute to climate action by substantially reducing the need for thousands (even millions) of people to travel from one country or continent to another to attend an event, directly impacting the tons of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere. 

In what other ways do you think the creative economy can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals? 

ONU, tecnología, creatividad, innovación, desarrollo sostenible, economía creativa, marketing digital, eventos virtuales

Economía naranja, Año Internacional de la Economía Creativa para el Desarrollo Sostenible, Video2Market, eBrightConnect, Optime Consulting, Digital Marketing consulting

Business Trends – Technology and creativity will be essential for a sustainable future, says the UN
By: Ana Maria Enciso, January 2021