10 Ways to Use AI in Event Management

As in many industries, AI has taken the events industry by storm. During our recent INSIGHT conference, our attendees and speakers spoke about the many creative ways they’re already using AI to make their processes more efficient, optimize the attendee experience, and improve their events. INSIGHT content included several sessions on AI in event management and two peer discussions. Here are just a few of the use cases from our clients, partners, internal teams, and others in the events industry:

1. Personalizing Recommendations
   Events and marketing teams are looking at many avenues for AI-driven personalization. During INSIGHT, RainFocus leaders illustrated how our platform uses predictive analytics to group attendees by behavior and then deliver personalized recommendations for sessions, exhibitors, and networking in real time. Data can help identify correlations between session attendance and job title, company, industry, and more.
2. Post-Event Data Analysis
   After the conference, Rodney Hart, VP of events at RainFocus, used AI to consolidate survey responses into simple takeaways. Rodney shared these takeaways two weeks later during our Encore event (which is now available in RainFocus On Demand). With these time-saving tools, analysis that once took weeks can now be done in days. Combined with RainFocus’ powerful dashboards and reporting capabilities, AI has helped our clients find the information they need to build better event strategies year over year.
3. Automation of Setup Tasks
   Along with personalization and data analysis, AI can automate various event planning tasks such as speaker selection and scheduling, sponsorship approvals, budgeting, and expense tracking. Using machine learning and natural language processing, AI can analyze submissions to calls for papers, evaluate sponsorship proposals, and forecast future expenses. This automation saves time and helps event teams make more informed decisions.
4. Video and Audio Transcription and Cleanup
   Video and audio transcriptions of event sessions can be time-consuming to create or riddled with inaccuracies. Many INSIGHT speakers discussed how they are now using AI to clean up their transcripts and make session content more widely accessible while saving time. For example, Scott Allan from Salesforce said his team is using their proprietary AI, Einstein, to turn transcriptions into bulleted session summaries for those who missed out.
5. Chatbots and Automated Q&A
   Answering high volumes of attendee questions can be made easier with AI technology. Some event teams are beginning to leverage chatbots on their event websites to field attendees’ questions. This approach saves teams hours of work and provides attendees with quicker responses while providing personalized communications from real people when appropriate.
6. Video and Graphic Design Assistance for Event Promotion
   Some teams have used AI to translate brand images and logos into promotional videos and graphics. The ability to rapidly modify and create variations of existing branding allows for quicker launches of registration, websites, and catalogs, and speeds up email creation, and social promotion.
7. Translation
   AI is an easy solution for quick translation. However, as INSIGHT speakers warned, as with all generated content, these translations should be vetted. Translating promotional content, on-site signage, and mobile app text are just a few examples of how event teams are beginning to use AI for translation. AI translation can even help with translating text to audio or audio to text to accommodate attendees with disabilities, allowing for greater accessibility at events.
8. Enhancements for Meetings
   Smart AI assistants for meetings, such as Zoom’s tool, recap calls, translate conversations, generate responses for chats, locate and fill in whiteboards, and more. For event teams, these can help attendees get the most out of their experience and also streamline internal event planning and execution meetings.
9. On-Site Activations
   AI-powered activations are easy to implement and can create fun memories for attendees. At INSIGHT, we partnered with VDA to offer a personalized image-generating experience. Attendees got to see how they would look as either a rock star, a mad scientist, or a red-carpet celebrity. Posting the photos and comparing them with those of peers was a fun experience enhancement.
10. Augmented Reality
    Finally, AR has opened up a world of possibilities for event professionals. At INSIGHT, attendees learned about AI-powered AR for exhibitor booths. Use cases included the capability to scan a QR code at a booth and instantly visualize a personalized display of products that you can explore, or to ask a location-based question and see the path to a desired room at the event. These and others offer a more effortless experience.

All of these AI use cases are only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more opportunities to maximize AI to come.

But with so much innovation, it’s important to be mindful of security and legitimacy. To end, we’ll share a bit of advice from our founder, Doug Baird: “This is the key — training your AI with a trusted data source — then you’re able to trust the output, and that’s how it becomes a useful tool.”

Visit RainFocus On Demand to watch INSIGHT sessions and learn more.