As we recently began planning an event, the Vibe team took an approach more planners should use: AI-assisted research.
Instead of spending hours scouring CVB websites and industry news sites, we turned to ChatGPT for information about the destination to use as the starting point for the meeting’s agenda.
In return, the popular app immediately pulled up facts about new neighborhoods and venues for us to begin with.
It’s no wonder Vibe Founder Valerie Bihet says meeting planners who are not using AI are “missing the boat.”
While not perfect, AI is a timesaver for event producers who are trying to make magic with less resources than ever.
“It gives you some direction in two or three minutes,” she explains. “AI can help you with marketing and promotions, email campaigns, track new target audiences, and do all of your analysis in no time. It’s really great.”
In a world of constant innovation, AI is arguably the most useful immersive technology planners and marketers can adopt for their events.
Here are three important things to remember when using AI to boost your events.
1. Do a Fact Check
Information such as local restaurants and venues could be outdated due to closures and new developments the internet has yet to learn about. Other details could simply be factually incorrect.
AI is only as good as the information it can access. Information that humans have to create and share digitally – such as new venue features, menus, or even a new business opening.
Utilizing ChatGPT can get you a good bit of the way toward a solid product, but what will separate companies is how smartly they use the technology. That includes maintaining a human element.
2. Train Your AI
Rather than thinking of AI as a technology tool – which it is – Valerie advises planners to think of ChatGPT, and the countless other programs employing it, as a virtual assistant.
Just as a new employee would require training and education about your company and its goals, so does ChatGPT.
The more you use and edit AI to adjust content’s tone to match your company’s style, the more it will learn and require fewer corrections – just as it should be when onboarding a new employee.
“You need to make adjustments so it will sound more authentic,” Valerie advises.
Ultimately, this will save time and free staff from other duties that AI can’t perform.
3. Don’t be a Technophobe
If you were caught unprepared when virtual meetings, the metaverse, augmented reality and virtual reality went mainstream, this is your chance to get ahead of the curve.
While it can be easy to fear AI and other emerging technologies that facilitate tasks you are used to doing, history is filled with innovations that make our lives easier and AI is just the latest example.
Our best advice is to jump right in. The more you use AI and teach your team to integrate it into their daily processes, the smoother your operations will become and the better positioned for growth your company can be.
And if customers see you lag behind, you risk losing them to the competition.
“Younger generations are attracted by new technology; you need to integrate those elements into your events,” Valerie says.
AI can’t do your job for you (at least for now). Even with all its efficiency benefits, it will never be able to replicate the level of creativity and sensitivity to the human experience only another human, and a creative thinker at that, can provide.
But, as Valerie and the entire Vibe team know from experience, AI in all its forms – from ChatGPT and Gemini to photo editing & graphic design software – is a valuable tool that will only become more useful in the near future.
