The Rundown
Topics: AI, Event Technology | 2 min read
AI is a genuinely contested topic, and plenty of people in the creative industries are concerned about what it means for their work.
It is also already affecting events and experiential, and that is likely to deepen. Used well it can improve return on investment and audience engagement rather than replace the people delivering the event.
Our view is that AI makes live experiences more relevant rather than less. The thing an algorithm cannot do is put several hundred people in a room together.
Here is where AI genuinely helps an event planner, where it is being oversold, and the issues that come with it.
Planning and Personalisation
Event Planning
AI tools can support the planning process by analysing past event data, participant preferences and other relevant information.
That helps planners make better-informed decisions about everything from venue selection to agenda construction, and can automate scheduling and logistics coordination.
The value depends entirely on the quality of the data behind it. An organisation with several years of clean attendance and feedback data gets a great deal from this. One without gets very little.
Personalisation
AI can create a more personalised experience for attendees.
Machine learning can analyse someone's behaviour at similar events to recommend sessions they might value, or people worth meeting.
Networking recommendation is where this has proved most useful in practice. Matching people meaningfully at a large conference is a real problem, and one that suits the technology.
Predictive Analytics
AI can forecast attendee behaviour and preferences - anticipating catering requirements, or predicting which sessions will be oversubscribed.
That has an immediate practical payoff. Getting room allocation right, and reducing food waste, are both worth money.
During the Event
Virtual Assistants and Chatbots
AI-powered assistants can provide instant support to attendees - answering common questions, giving directions, and helping with registration and check-in.
They work best on the narrow, repetitive queries that otherwise occupy a help desk: where is the session, when does it start, where can I eat.
They are less good at anything requiring judgement, and a poorly implemented chatbot is worse than no chatbot.
Sentiment Analysis
Organisers can better understand how an event is landing by analysing social posts and online conversation in real time.
That allows adjustments during the event rather than after it - which is the difference between fixing a problem and reading about it in a post-event survey.
Security and Access Control
Facial recognition and similar technologies can manage access and help identify potential threats.
This is the area needing the most care. Biometric data carries significant privacy obligations, and attendees should know what is being collected and why.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Not strictly AI, but these often leverage it to create more immersive and interactive experiences for attendees in the room or joining remotely.
Afterwards, and the Caveats
Post-Event Analysis
AI can play a real role in assessing how an event performed.
Machine learning can process surveys, social mentions and other data to show what worked and what did not, which makes the next event better planned rather than merely repeated.
Free-text survey responses are the strongest case here. Most organisations collect them and very few read them all.
The Challenges
AI brings genuine issues, including data privacy and the potential for job displacement, and both need managing thoughtfully rather than ignoring.
On privacy specifically, be clear what attendee data is being processed, by whom, and on what basis. Events collect a great deal of personal information and expectations around it are rising.
Where It Is Oversold
AI does not design an event, read a room, or solve a problem on a show day.
It is a tool for handling volume - data, queries, patterns - so that people can spend their attention on the parts that need judgement.
Treat it as capacity rather than as a replacement and it earns its place.
Applied Well
Used thoughtfully and creatively, AI can meaningfully improve event planning, engagement and return.
Talk to Premier Live about your next event on 0116 202 9953 or info@premier-ltd.com.
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