Event planners and producers, let's get excited! Welcome to the very first edition of Event Pulse. Every Tuesday, I will bring you a new edition of Event Pulse - your new go-to weekly insider for staying ahead of the curve in our dynamic event world. This newsletter is your handy guide to the latest how-tos, what-to-dos, insider tips, and need-to-know insights to keep you informed and thriving as an event expert.

I’m Camelia Yeung, an event producer turned art administrator with 28 plus years in the trenches on 3 continents and I'll be your host sharing an honest, behind-the-scenes perspective after decades on the frontlines.

Whether you're managing massive festivals, a conference or intimate gatherings, Event Pulse will ensure you're always in-the-know on what's hot and what's not. Are you ready to take your events to the next level?

The Great Disruptors: COVID-19 and AI Shake Up the Event World

Let's kick things off by talking about the two seismic forces that have rocked the event world in recent years: the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of AI technology. We've all lived through the painful postponements and cancellations, lost contracts and revenue during those lockdown years. Just as we were catching our breath, AI burst onto the scene promising to ‘revolutionize’ everything from marketing to operations.

Now, I'm a big fan of leveraging AI's capabilities, providing they are used responsibly. These tools can streamline workflows and spark creativity. But we've also seen some serious AI missteps that remind us it's not a short cut, nor a set-it-and-forget-it solution.

Who could forget the DevTernity conference drama where the organizer thought it was OK to fill the blanks in their speaker lineup with AI-generated speaker profiles and images? Or the recent massively overhyped and under delivered Willy Wonka Experience tour in Glasgow fueled by wildly misleading AI-rendered marketing materials?

Examples like these are a crucial reminder: AI is a tool, just a tool. As event creators, it's still our vision and human ingenuity that breathes life into an experience. AI can't (yet!) replicate the personal touches, attention to detail, and real human connection that make events truly memorable. We have to really pay attention when curating the AI outputs - fact checking is a MUST and managing audience expectations.

Speaking of being diligent with AI, that's exactly what I want to dive into next. Because when leveraged properly, these technologies can be powerful aids in bringing your event visions to life. In the Planning Tips section following this article, I'll outline my top 5 strategies for ethically implementing AI into your event workflows - from ideation to marketing to execution. We'll cover setting clear boundaries, techniques for customizing AI outputs, and more. The key is making AI work for you, not the other way around.

So stay tuned, because AI is here to stay in the event world. Whether you embrace it or run screaming, understanding how to be an ethical steward of these tools is crucial for protecting your creative vision and professional reputation.

What disruptive forces have impacted your event world recently? I'd love to hear your perspective! Let's get this conversation started in the comments section below.

Planning Tips

While on the subject of AI, here are my 5 top tips for ethically and effectively using AI when planning an event:

1. Brainstorming with AI

Leverage AI language models to kickstart your brainstorming process for event concepts, themes, marketing slogans, etc. But be sure to thoroughly customize the AI outputs - don't just run with the first idea it spits out. Use it as a thought-starter, then put your own creative spin on it. And fact check, fact check, fact check. AI can and often gets it wrong.

2. Deploy AI Chatbots (Carefully)

AI chatbots can be incredibly helpful for things like answering FAQs, guiding attendees, and handling basic customer service queries before, during, and after your event. Just be transparent that people are communicating with an AI, and always have a real person backup step in for more complex issues.

3. Streamline Registration with AI

Use AI tools like form prediction to streamline your event registration process. Form prediction uses artificial intelligence to automatically fill out online form fields based on existing data sources, saving attendees from redundant manual entry. AI can auto-populate forms in this way, reducing errors and creating a smoother registration experience for attendees. Leverage form prediction's ability to intelligently auto-complete forms by cutting down on duplicative data entry. Again, have humans review the output to make sure there is no unintended bias.

4. Leverage AI Analytics

Put AI's powerful data parsing capabilities to work analyzing attendee data, feedback surveys, social chatter, and more to gain valuable insights after your event. Data parsing refers to the process of extracting insights and synthesizing information from different unstructured data sources like surveys, social media, documents, etc. AI excels at automatically parsing through large volumes of unstructured data to identify relevant pieces of information and pull out key insights. This can uncover opportunities for improvement related to your event while reducing the manual effort and time required for a human to review all that data.

5. AI Content Customization 

Especially for large-scale events, AI can help create personalized emails, schedules, recommendations and more for all your attendees. But have real humans thoroughly review all AI-generated content to catch any insensitivities or nonsensical outputs.

No matter how you use AI throughout the event cycle, the watchwords are transparency and human oversight. Maximize AI's capabilities while never losing sight of your creative vision and brand voice. These tools are assistants, not replacements for your irreplaceable human ingenuity.

Fun Fact

Get this - when AI generates something that's more fiction than fact, the techies call it a "hallucination." No joke! So you've got to keep one eye open when putting these tools to work.

Thanks very much for coming on board for our very first edition. Stay on the pulse of the event world, join us on Event Pulse next week as we talk about the unsung heroes of the event industry. Yes, I am talking about us, the producers and planners who bring the visions to life. Our second edition drops on Tuesday.