Posts

As an event planner, you must be on the lookout for ways to improve the event experience and ensure that your attendees make the most of their interaction. In the modern era, this means that you need to embrace the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) and understand that there are many ways to use these tools to make your event a success. Certainly, this is an ever-changing landscape as new products emerge, and existing products develop, and you’ll always need to be flexible and ready for the next “big thing.” In the meantime, here are six ways that you can capitalize on AI when planning your next masterpiece.

1. Early Planning

When you have to start with a clean sheet of paper, you need all the help you can get. You may be given a brief by a client but will still need to do a lot of detailed work. You have to locate venues, open discussions with appropriate vendors, and even reach out to people who may be interested in attending your event once it springs to life. In the past, you may have had to do all this manually, trawl through records or reach out to industry sources. Today, you may be able to use AI algorithms to find those perfect matches in a fraction of the time.

2. The Ubiquitous ChatBot

According to Exhibitor Magazine, the global chatbot market is expected to grow at an annual rate of more than 24% per year, reaching a value of $1.23 billion in 2025. While this is hardly new technology and, in fact, can be traced back half a century, the chatbot is nevertheless an element of AI that you simply cannot do without.

When you incorporate chatbot software, it can interact with people with a very high level of efficiency and can mimic human conversation remarkably well. You can program your chatbot to handle a wide variety of different questions at the event, and this will take a lot of the pressure off your staff members. Users can “talk” naturally or type questions and expect a considered answer.

Use the chatbot to handle all your frequently asked questions, give access to the event schedule and provide valuable feedback at the end. This will generate real-time insight into how attendees feel, their satisfaction levels and their reaction to your overall support. And the good news is that chatbots are relatively affordable these days – and scalable to any size of event.

3. It’s All in the Presentation

If you’re organizing a multifaceted event where attendees can choose their own agenda and where you may have multiple breakouts or peripheral meetings, AI is your friend. You can create a matchmaking engine powered by AI, which can provide recommendations to each attendee, so they can make the most of their participation.

The AI can analyze each attendee’s profile or behavior to suggest the most appropriate breakout. This will overcome the random nature of large events and make sure that these people are using their time most efficiently. Use the information you may gather during registration or other accessible data (if you have the permission) to make this type of AI work best.

4. There Is an App for That

You can use a variety of other apps on the event to further personalize the experience. If you have attendees from many different countries, remove the language barrier with a translation app powered by AI. Create a separate application to provide collateral so that you do not have to rely on paper handouts or schedules. 

This AI can also generate a survey to gauge satisfaction, and this can be rolled out at the point of delivery or midway through your event. You will get timely feedback and won’t have to wait for attendees to respond manually, as this often leads to lower quality data. eShow Event Management Solutions created a personalized event app that can be used as a mobile hub for all info on your event, connect with all attendees, and provide event support from start to finish!

5. Handling Safety and Security

You need to ensure that your venue is as secure as possible and that attendees are well cared for. Use AI to help confirm each attendee through biometric registration or facial recognition. You’ll be able to scan your guest as they pass from one part of the event to another and avoid close contact with a human being. Of course, in these socially distant days, that can only be a good thing.

Utilizing a pre-existing RF ID method to contact trace and provide safe parameters for your attendees is a great way to increase non-invasive COVID event processes.

6. Help with Forward Planning

You may have a finely tuned “gut feeling” that can tell you whether your event was a success or not, but still, you need measurable data so that you can make the next event more successful. Consequently, you need to use AI to gather that data, examine your event metrics and calculate your bottom line. 

Using the aforementioned apps, you’ll be able to gather a lot of this data during the event itself and before your attendees forget the details. You may even be able to make changes on the fly, but principally, you will get granular and high-quality data that can aid with your future decisions and planning.

With this type of focused data, you will know whether your keynote speakers were a success, whether people could navigate their way through the event and whether they felt that their time was used effectively. Use the information gathered by your AI today to improve the performance of your AI software on future events.

Crafting Your Event Management Solution

Whether you plan something that is in-person, digital or hybrid, you will need a raft of support and specific tools to help manage your event ecosystem. This is why you should turn to an industry-leading event management company like eShow. Here you will find professional tools and web-based solutions that can help you plan any size of event from beginning to end – and all underneath one umbrella. For example, build a registration hub at the outset, create a floor management plan, or handle attendee housing and travel. Make use of the Virtual Event Management platform, an all-inclusive solution that is built on experience.

So, as you put more of your faith in AI, work with a company like eShow to integrate these methods and make your next event a roaring success.