Every day, event teams find new ways to optimize their processes with the help of AI-powered tools.
Setup processes that used to take hours or days can now be completed instantly. Data can be transformed into actionable reports and strategic recommendations in real time. On-site, attendees can get quick answers to navigate complex schedule options — or just find lunch.
Meanwhile, real-life events are even more highly valued for their authenticity and human connection. Attendees want an experience that feels human-centered, original, and inspiring, including all of the content they see on stage.
To continue delivering those high-quality sessions, content teams must guide their internal and external speakers’ usage of AI workflows in their session creation.
Many people are increasingly tuning out undifferentiated, low-impact AI-generated content in both their professional and personal lives. Event attendees will leave disappointed if they travel to a highly anticipated conference only to sit through flat sessions that fail to provide the genuine learnings or unique viewpoints that your speakers’ abstracts and bios promised.
Incorrect data, confusing inconsistencies, and off-brand visuals can also plague presentations generated by AI without the right guardrails.
Session content best practices
Here are four strategies for helping your speakers maximize their efficiency with AI while preventing content quality loss. You’ll also minimize any stressful back-and-forth and last-minute internal rework.
One: Provide clear examples of recommended use cases — and what not to do.
Busy presenters can save a lot of time with AI. In speaker communications, you might suggest how they can automate repetitive processes, consolidate internal documents, extract key takeaways, test different narrative sequences, or tackle quick refinements like shortening copy to fit layout constraints.
But “shortcuts” like copying and pasting generic LLM outputs, generating low-quality imagery, and relying on unverified (potentially hallucinated) quotes and outdated statistics may cause problems. Alongside other event stakeholders, define specific guidelines that suit your event and share them with every speaker early on. AI capabilities evolve fast, and every company’s tech stack is different, so encourage open question-and-answer dialogue.
Two: Reiterate the unique value of speakers’ experiences and points of view.
In a competitive call-for-papers process, each speaker is selected for a reason: Maybe they’ve deployed a creative implementation of your product that their peers can learn from. Maybe their abstract was especially compelling. Or they’re an industry rebel who’s well known for their lively, opinionated takes on the latest issues, and attendees have always given top marks in past event surveys.
Whatever the reason that each winning session submission stood out, overreliance on AI can dilute that value — and, by extension, your event’s value.
Three: Include quick reminders in templates or other provided materials.
Even before the rise of AI, a full cadence of speaker communications has always been essential. But email overload is a daily reality for busy professionals. By the time some of your event speakers (or their teammates helping to create the presentation) sit down to draft ideas and build their slides, all of those previous emails about best practices and AI guidelines might be long forgotten — if they were ever read at all.
If your team supplies slide templates, consider inserting your guidelines as a temporary first slide for easy reference. You can also post quick reminder banners within the speaker portal. Alternatively, a friendly instructional video might prove more memorable and easy to consume.
Four: Get a view into content with a speaker success program.
Serving as a resource for speakers by providing guidance and check-in points from proposal acceptance onward helps keep them on track as submission deadlines approach.
Some might welcome assistance and a regular sounding board through scheduled meetings. Others prefer a more hands-off approach, working on their own and reaching out only if specific questions arise.
For everyone, maximum visibility into content as it’s being developed can help identify any issues, including AI-related concerns. A speaker success program empowers speakers while raising the bar on session content quality.
Great event content helps your attendees learn and keeps them engaged. With AI efficiencies added at the right points during session content development, your speakers can save time while making sure their unique expertise continues to shine when they take the stage.
Learn more about end-to-end speaker enablement in the RainFocus platform.
