The Event Surplus Outlet is a project devised by two professionals, Rob Caplan and Steven Mason. Steven’s interest peaked whilst working at an international sports venue, where he was placed in charge of corporate gifts given out to VIP guests. A large amount of merchandise was subsequently placed into storage after the event, no doubt remaining there until being discarded as commercial waste some years later.

Subsequently, work brought him into contact with another business that was recycling items used by public bodies, but with no benefit to wider society. The two directors discussed this amongst themselves and, in turn, decided to find out the answers to a series of questions they raised, such as:

 

  1. What do sponsors of major events like London 2012 do with their left over promotional merchandise?

     

  2. What happens to the branded merchandise of a company when an overhaul of its logo takes place?

     

  3. What do tournament, exhibition and event organisers do with their event-specific items such as staff clothing and corporate gifts once the event is over?

     

  4. How can we help persuade businesses to subscribe to the message of Corporate Social Responsibility at no cost to themselves?

     

Research showed that there was often no clear policy for dealing with such items, beyond placing perfectly reusable items into storage or sending them to be recycled. This led them to resolve to persuade businesses that such items could be reused for the benefit of a social responsibility programme. It was of course recognised that there would be times that clients may wish to use their service to recoup monies from their own production costs, for example when a commercial enterprise is in difficult financial circumstances. In those instances, The Event Surplus Outlet resolved to donate at least 10% of their own proceeds to good causes.