Relying on what different stakeholders express on social media to repurpose and reposition sustainable events of the future

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to capture what the concept of sustainable events means for different stakeholders, what they think and express in social media about sustainable events, and so be able to take it into account when repurposing and repositioning events in life for the future in a responsible way based on sustainability.Design/methodology/approachAuthors have performed the photographic analysis proposed by Albers and James in 1988 but adapted to social media, specifically Instagram. A content analysis has been carried out with the posts containing the hashtag #sustainableevents, based on dimensions such as temporal variants, geographic conditions, demographic characteristics or languages used. After that, a semiotic analysis has been held to see how these dimensions are related with the image and with the subjects/objects that are being portrayed.FindingsSustainable events is a term that can have many meanings, becoming an abstract term, which is not being used today in social networks by private individuals. Companies and content creators seem to use the term more as an advertising claim, to attract customers and followers, than as a real applicability in their day-to-day actions. They use the term “sustainable events” related especially to an environmental dimension, leaving aside the economic and the social dimension.Originality/valueNowadays, the photography through social media is one of the most powerful sources for communicating people awareness. Nevertheless, researchers are only starting to understand the impact of social media and technology on the habits of people. To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first analyses of Instagram posts based on a hashtag to analyse what different stakeholders express in relation to that hashtag.