Everyone’s talking about AI and its potential for transforming events. But which strategies have proven the most popular? What’s holding some organizations back from deeper AI deployment? And which measurement fundamentals are the most important?
At INSIGHT Premiere earlier this week, two industry experts joined RainFocus CMO Ashleigh Cook and RainFocus CTO Mike Bushman for an in-depth panel discussion.
Brent Turner — EVP, strategy and solutions at Opus Agency — and Nicola Kastner, CEO, Event Leaders Exchange (ELX) — shared their own success stories with AI deployment and offered candid advice on upskilling, measurement, relationship-building, and much more. Here are just a few of their top takeaways:
Event teams still have plenty of room to grow with AI implementation.
Kastner presented research showing that although 69% of event leaders surveyed by ELX said their teams are using AI, a great deal of potential remains untapped.
“Many organizations are just scratching the surface so far,” she said. “They’re using AI for simple tasks, like writing, researching, or doing admin work, not strategy or analysis or deep dives. AI can drive a lot of innovation. We have to think about it as a tool and partner.”
The panel cited upskilling team members, as well as ensuring data privacy and IP protections to keep inputs safe, as key steps for removing common obstacles to fuller AI deployment. Busy teams also might need to simply prioritize pausing between events and devoting time to creating innovative approaches to stay competitive internally and externally.
Event data and the right approach to measurements are more important than ever.
AI deployment success requires trustworthy, consistent, accessible data. This reality highlights the imperative for event teams to do more with their data. They also must be able to readily share it across their tech stack across the entire event lifecycle.
“Event professionals need to be able to understand data,” Kastner stressed. “They need to know what it means, and what levers they need to pull to shape an outcome. Data builds accountability for the organization. Measurement and data fluency are critical.”
Turner even encouraged event leaders to shift their whole framework around measurement to better suit the unique role that events play — and the power that they hold within sales and marketing pipelines.
“You cannot just apply the same type of channel measurement to events like they’re another part of marketing,” he explained. “An event is a product. That mental shift changes the entire event KPI dashboard.”
Don’t forget the true stakeholders.
Finally, the panelists emphasized that technology, innovation, and AI can’t replace the real-life relationships and experiences that attendees crave at events.
“Attendees don’t come to an event because of executive egos,” Kastner reminded the audience. “Designing for the attendee journey is very important.”
“The stakeholder is not your boss,” Turner said. “The real stakeholder is the attendee.” He recommended always answering the simple question, “Why does this event exist?” and aligning each event with specific audiences or pipeline goals.
Even amid rapid change with AI and other developments, the core appeal of events remains. Regardless of each event’s specific purpose, it’s a time to tell the organization’s story to an engaged audience, Bushman said.
“Events are unique,” he said. “When else do attendees have that time away from their bosses? They aren’t walking around with laptops, and they’re not distracted. Being front and center is a huge opportunity.”
If you missed the panel discussion or want to revisit it, we’ve made the full video available to watch on demand here.
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