Everything is about AI right now, and of course, this also applies to the MICE industry. If you have been involved in conference or corporate event planning in the last 12 months, chances are, that project briefs encompassed the directive 'to feature the topic of AI'. But what does this mean? Use AI-automated participant registrations or create event visuals in the undeniably artificial AI look with distorted text elements? (hello DALL-E 😆)
More than efficiency!
Katrin Taepke (blog in German language) does - as always on digital topics - a great job of introducing tools in useful clusters, explaining everyday automation use cases like bulk processing for presenter briefings or promotion, suggesting ChatGPT support for compelling headlines, and other text work.
Cvent, as one of the biggest digital meeting service providers, presents proudly AI-based matchmaking during virtual events or the option to craft more or less generic program announcements with AI ("in case the speaker did not send the requested background").
And on stage? In at least three public events dealing with the topic of AI that I attended, came up with the idea to read out host text written by AI (or even worse: display those as screenshots within the ChatGPT chat 🙈).
SERIOUSLY? Is there no one out there looking into the mindblowing options to
- create completely new experiences for the various stakeholders of an event,
- and promote the huge value of in-person gatherings in the era of accelerated AI adoption and implement appropriate methodologies for sustainable and evaluable impact?
Don't get me wrong: efficiency is a good thing, especially in an industry grappling with budget limits and a high workload on the organizers' side. And if applied in full scope it may help especially in public gatherings like sports and music events, festivals, and fairs.
Event planning does not equal dramaturgy!
But my home ground is rather in business and when asking ChatGPT about the impact of AI on AND via corporate events it lists three benefits:
- Enhancing Workflow Efficiency for Organizers and Creatives. AI is revolutionizing event planning by automating repetitive tasks and providing data-driven insights. For instance, AI-powered tools can analyze data to personalize marketing strategies, ensuring communications resonate with target audiences. Additionally, chatbots are being employed to handle attendee inquiries, offering instant responses and freeing up organizers to focus on more complex tasks.
- AI-Driven Creative Methodologies in Corporate Meetings and Conferences. Incorporating AI into meetings enhances engagement. Automated note-taking and transcription services allow participants to focus fully on discussions, fostering the exchange of ideas. AI can also suggest agenda topics based on previous meetings, ensuring relevant and productive sessions. Furthermore, AI-powered tools can provide real-time language translation, making meetings more inclusive for global teams.
- The Value of Corporate Gatherings for AI Literacy and Workforce Adoption. Corporate events play a crucial role in promoting AI literacy among employees. Workshops and seminars focusing on AI applications can demystify the technology, encouraging its adoption across various departments. A report by the Institute for the Future of Work emphasizes that AI and automation can lead to a fairer future of better work, but attitudes must change, and trust must be built. The research finds that good communications and HR policies are key in getting people to embrace automated workflows.
In summary, AI is not only streamlining event planning and execution but also enriching the creative aspects of corporate gatherings.
effective event design with and about AI
To get beyond the fluffy 'something with AI' brief, it is worth first to take a basic decision on the design side,
-
to utilize AI tools for notably different and improved experiences of
stakeholders like attendees and presenters (revealing it or not),
- or to bring it in prominently as a topic and let the audience get explicitly in touch with it in interactive sessions.
Both ways allow for creative designs and both will have added value for the customer, so this is an important re-brief aspect.
A second decision point is about the level of abstraction and this one requires alignment with the customer's goals, their own AI strategy, and where they are with target group initiatives. This is sometimes not easy as corporate AI deployment rarely is in the hands of one function, so HR may have a different position than IT or C-level leaders.
AI adoption surveys find businesses struggle with barriers on various levels. The big C-Suite study conducted by IBM with 3.000 CEOs from over 30 countries and 26 industries e.g. found "that 64% of those surveyed say succeeding with generative AI will depend more on people's adoption than the technology itself. However, 61% of respondents say they are pushing their organization to adopt generative AI more quickly than some people are comfortable with.
Most employees on the other side state a lack of skills, expertise, and knowledge as a barrier to AI adoption, but also ethical concerns and missing clarity on the rules of when and how to use AI on the job.
If it's not fully clear which aspect matters most for the respective event, I'd recommend one of my favorite pre-evaluation tools: interviews with selected members of the target group. With smart
questions and a trustworthy approach as advisors, we probably can at least mirror if the focus should be on AI strategy communication, AI-fueled innovation or use-case development, or
discussion.
Once the purpose and the context are clear, we are all set for the next level of dramaturgy and event design: the flow with 'what-when-who-how', connecting program elements with formats,
methodologies, and people, while never losing the 'why' out of sight.
AI-Driven Creative Methodologies
Two core elements of working with AI are
- do things better, easier, faster than before,
- and doing things you haven't been able to.
If 1. successfully applies to real workflows in day-to-day corporate business depends on many factors, that's why it is helpful to use gatherings and events to show it rather high level and/or out-of-the-box.
Use e.g. the pace of LLMs to let groups create roleplays on topics they can relate to, e.g. sustainability conversations or customer service interactions (link to example). Let them experience the beauty of automated processes around reputation checks, competitor analysis, or SocialMedia statements of GenZ talents. With no big license hassle or cost it is super-easy to set up safe and closed AI environments to test such things, fostering collective creativity and understanding better how systems connect (even itif in their corporate Microsoft environment Copilot is just functionally embedded).
Even more fun it is to work with 2., e.g. by video creating storyboards and visuals for talent or CSR campaigns, learning how to work with bulk ideation, personas, and automated funneling for fancy crowd innovation (fill in Henry link). Why not develop a no-code customer game in a competitional session or brainstorm with AI tools on better debate culture in meetings?
There are tons of options to replace the good old film or theater workshop, the collage or Ted-Talk exercises, with AI-driven interventions that come with the same teambuilding feeling but with futureproof ways of working and a playful learning effect.
AI as content
To get the full organization on board it is majorly important to take them on the journey early and 'hands-on', allowing also for nay-sayers to be heard and concerns to be raised. But also thoughtfully showcasing visions and options - there is no better moment for sharing thoughts than during a team offsite or a functional conference.
As a communications consultant and event dramaturgist, I have always dived deep into topics to come up with appropriate concepts that really make a difference.
Marketing e.g. is one of the areas where early adoption is taking place in agencies as well as in corporations, but also here it seems crucial to review the whole existing concept of thinking and workflows instead of just automating tasks when aiming for efficiency and and effectiveness gains. That's why for a Corporate Marketing and Sales Conference you might want the attendees to listen to a few podcasts (fill in examples) and discuss the postulations while checking them with the own way of working.
For support and service functions it probably won't be a good idea to avoid the topic (having the the Klarna story in mind) but it might be groundbreaking to make them jointly develop customer personas and build/test chatbots while openly discussing the required human qualities that those might miss.
Also, the corporate AI deployment can be explored in a
large group setting - with nearly everyone working on the topic it's time to take a step beyond the obvious 'state of AI in our company' presentations at All Hands meetings, showcasing pilot
projects. Based on many experiences I strongly believe in self-steered group work and crowd wisdom and with LLMs and AI tools agenda and topic voting and group discussion outcome sorting in Open Space and Barcamp settings get a completely new quality.
Corporate events, business gatherings, and functional meetings offer great opportunities to approach the diverse aspects of AI in an innovative, playful, and effective way. But it requires a
thoughtful approach and design plus some knowledge, of which tools and platforms to use and how to apply them effectively.
You are responsible for meeting or event design want to learn more about AI-enhanced dramaturgic options, tools, and methodologies?
📆 LET US CHAT!
You already have put AI on the agenda of your next event but you still lack a versatile and topic-expert host or facilitator?
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