Avoiding the Age of Average: AI That Fuels Creativity and Efficiency

Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for being here. Whether you're watching this live or catching the recording later inside the InControl community, I'm glad you made the time. Because what we are talking about today is not a trend. It's a shift that's already happening in the way the event professionals work, get hired, or build their careers. AI is not coming into the event industry. It's already here. And the honest truth is, most of the conversations around it has been either hype or panic, not a lot of clarity in between. So today we are going to fix that. We're going to talk about what actually makes an event professional irreplaceable in twenty twenty six, where your value increases as the technology gets better and what you should be doing right now to make sure your career moves into the right direction. To have a proper conversation, I brought two people who are not just thinking about this, they are living it every day. Welcome, Mikko and Berit. Hi. Hi, it's great to have you here. Words about you is I collected some information and I hope I did it right. I will just say Nicole Eisenhower, you are the director of strategy innovation at Prosky. I just learned it's not Prosky, it's Prosky, a wonderful company, one of the most respected event agencies in Germany, known for their work in strategic meeting management for major global corporations. Nicole is the person who decides which technologies actually make it into client programs and which ones do not. She has led the development of virtual event platforms and AI power tools that are being used by Fortune five hundred companies right now. Is it OK? I will check this for my next introduction. Wonderful. And Barry is the managing director of eventmanager.de. It's the largest and most successful platform for event professionals in the German speaking market. Before stepping into that role, Barry spent over twenty years leading business transformations across marketing, media and corporate events in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. Well, I could speak for about two hours about your career, but I know that you know what the market is actually asking for, not just what people are posting about it on LinkedIn. So very great to have you with us today. Thank you, Damir. I'm looking forward to today's talk. Yeah. Well, let's just start with uncomfortable truths. Nicole, if you could be brutally honest with event managers listening right now. What is the one thing most of them are ignoring about AI that they actually shouldn't ignore? So we start in bold. I think ignoring that AI is and will take routine tasks and that there will be a black box from being a junior to becoming this expert we need leading the AI. What do you see, which aspects are the most crucial these days? When you say AI is transforming the industry, transforming what event managers should be. So is there something that's really crucial into this? In AI, I mean, it's crucial to not use it. I would say not be afraid of it, but use it because the speed is just real. It's overwhelming, right? So I took some months off last year and I was really overwhelmed about what has changed. And this is why I'm so eager to use this and why I recommend everyone to use it because, you know, the world won't slow down. have it here and um it's it's just amazing what um what you can do already now yeah but it makes consulting sometimes really difficult because you recommend something and like in two three weeks something else pop up and you have to change it and how do you deal with that is it something that uh happens to you as well in your I mean, this is a very relevant question, but also a question I could hold a keynote about, I guess. I think one thing to mention is that one skill set event managers need is adaptability. So we need to stay flexible. Because as you say, it's moving so fast. And we need to be flexible enough to go out of our comfort zone and do it. And then there is the company view and the strategic view. So as an agency, we, of course, can handle new tools in a more flexible way than large corporations can do. So here it depends on what contracts do we have. Do we use it for our internal processes, our client projects? Wonderful. Barry, you see the entire event market through your platform. Is the average event professional in denial about what's coming or are they further ahead than people think? Well, I don't want to rock the boat too much. But yeah, I think honestly that too many people I speak to are actually in denial and have a level of fear. And, you know, we're all creatures of habits, right? We like routines. We like things the way they are. We don't want to change it too much because it basically... everything we do is to make sure that we, you know, that we know what we're doing tomorrow. Therefore, you know, we repeat what we've done. So denying that basically helps you to continue to do that. Is that a wise long term decision? No, of course not. At the end of the day, the world around you doesn't stop. Right. So I get it. And we're going to be the example of that. Right. Too many people talk to talk. Right. And too few of us are actually walking the walk. And as Nikki, you just said, right, it's so overwhelming. So much stuff is coming at you. You can easily get crazy and get overwhelmed by it. And what you then do is, you know what, I'm just going to hide. Hopefully the storm passes over and I come out again and everything is fine. And that's not going to happen. What's there will only be bigger, will only be faster. and instead of being you know in denial and afraid of it i would say just and i said that in my in the previous uh conversation and blog i wrote be happy about it because actually you now have the opportunity to do all those tedious routine things that you always had to do in your event management role you can actually now give that away and you can actually start focusing on where do i actually add value? And how do I add value? And that's, I think, for me, it's a liberating thought because you start developing value towards your customers, your sponsors, your partners, whatever your event, your employees, et cetera, instead of being burdened by tasks that you always have to do. So again, if anything, it's helping, but that means that you need to start seeing, hey, this will actually help me to be a more valuable person creative individual rather than, okay, I'm just doing tasks and I do them every day, every week for different events. I was attending a best of events and I was speaking a lot about AI with different event managers also. And there was this provocative question or claim, how you say it. And one of the, older it savvy event manager said to me in two years no one will hire an event manager just for logistics and coordination so do you agree or is it overblown Well, no one is quite black and white, right? One to zero. But I definitely see that's going to reduce drastically. Because, again, if your current job is operational logistics, your job can be easily replaced by AI, just like that, right? I mean, ninety percent of that work can be replaced. Yes, you need human oversight. Yes, you need good prompting. Yes, you need it. But that can be reduced easily by ninety percent. I think that's, yes, provocative, but directionally very, very much in the right direction. Yeah. Niki, do you see it from agency side as well? Yes and no. There is this big password at the moment, right? Orchestrating systems. And I think this is where we nail it down to. Because when we translate this to the event industry, this is what event managers are always doing, right? They're orchestrating a multitude of stakeholders and suppliers to deliver the perfect event at the end. And now with this technology, Swift We just add a new player to the orchestra, AI. And this is helping us to deliver something stand out. So yes, I would agree. If it's in two years or at one point, nobody would pay a person to do a specific logistic task. But it's not about the whole job that will be replaced. It's about single tasks. And this is, as you said, Barry, it's not black and white. It's not about blending this one single task. It's really an orchestration of things to make an event outstanding. And there, everything needs to play together. I was having some consultations lately and one of the things I've heard that fits really well into this is the amount of time needed to execute the tasks will not change that much because right now we are planning a lot and then executing. In the future, we will be executing and then fixing things in the same period of time because we are too fast into different decisions and it's not all true. And we have also this conversation how to say the people will change the way how they work and not necessarily um everything will go as planned now so things will be different and uh when you look at uh perhaps the question from for you nikki for corporate clients they're spending a lot of money uh and uh events are very expensive things so they need uh to think about return investment and um Do you already have those expectations? Do they overestimate how much it will be easier and better and cheaper through AI? Do they expect now with AI that everything will be just like this and there will be no issues? That's a fantastic question. So the short answer is no, there are not clear expectations at the moment towards us. But yes, but new... new MSAs we are receiving and new requests we are getting. They're starting now to really quest and ask, how do we use AI to increase value and to improve? But yeah, we are right at the start of this, Damir. It's a perfect question. And this will come... So what I've... If I may chime in. And again, maybe that's my... my american corporate background which i had for for indeed twenty years is i think with the change in the transformation coming it's not only expecting okay we can potentially reduce costs so we can get product productivity higher we can actually start to develop more profit from the activities we are doing right at the end of the day All, if not most, if not all of the activities we're doing is to support the profit, right? To profit for business, either generating more performance out of what they're doing. And for that, you need productivity, right? Because if you can have a higher productivity and you're able with AI to do one thing, you can also have better matchmaking, you have more value. There is a lot of things you can do by using it. So you're not only reducing cost, you're reducing friction, yet you're able to show better performance. and that is ultimately i think what drives most companies and that will drive them more and more and more to say okay what's top line what's bottom line and how can we make sure that we do that as efficiently as possible and i truly believe will that sink cost So I don't think that probably is going to be a replacement from shifting from A to B, but B being more value add when it comes to how can we make sure that the experience for those people coming to an event, digital, offline, wherever it is, is going to be the highest, therefore paying out into performance and therefore profit. But you do that ultimately for the best and the benefit of those people. And I think that frees up AI because you can use your human capital into creativity. How can we do things better? How can we actually touch those individuals? And that's the final P. Then you're talking about passion. You're talking about how can I get that all coming together? Yeah, and if I can add something to this, it's fantastic. And if it's not a reshaping of budget within the same event, I would predict it to add just new events. Because I would see that there will be a rise in live events. Because with the flood of digital content, human connections matter more than ever. And this is why people will increasingly meet. And in this meeting, it's exactly what you just said, Barry. We need to deliver the spark. And we cannot deliver a unique best practice event that can come out of an AI. But we need to surprise and disrupt the people, because this is what really makes them move forward. So if I heard correctly, you say soft skills are the most important skill for the future, because hard skills could be easily replaced with better tech, with better AI. But innovation, experience, all this stuff is something that we need to provide in order to make events great. Do you agree with that? Absolutely. And Nick, I'm quite sure you're going to add to that. Absolutely. And whilst you guys were talking, I was like, how often I have this conversation. I was at BOE, I was at other events, and BOE actually was great. I think they're really making a good change from where they came from the last couple of years. But I think the last thing we all want to avoid, regardless of what event you organize, is that people walk out of that event and think, hmm, that could have been an email or that could have been a Teams meeting. As soon as that happens, you've made a mistake. You've not somehow built what you needed to do for a live in the flesh kind of interaction. So for me, that can only happen. Why do we connect? Because you hear my passion. I hear Nikki's insights. I see your experience and background. And suddenly, and hopefully for the people listening, we are connected. genuine way and yes this is a webinar but i hope this webinar is not being seen as hey this could have been an email right and i think for me it's like and it's provocative let's make sure that whatever you do is all about it's not it should it's not an email it's something much bigger and yes that means strong soft skills and they might need development right fine that's that's something we can work on but at the end of the day is all about connecting humans with humans Yeah, and also to add this and to your question, Damir, yes, I would agree that soft skills is something we all need to level up in. And it's a bunch, right? You mentioned expertise. I would add the judgment. We already touched the adaptability. It's the emotional intelligence, right? So event managers, they need to manage stakeholders. They need to build trust. and they can read the rooms right they can they can see an energy as swapping down and they can react in real time to keep the event running and all of this maybe goes aligned with understanding and this this sounds super easy but that's for me the core you need to understand where ai creates value and where risk Definitely. And this is a very good topic. You both mentioned in one of my favorite topics, matchmaking. I was speaking in Barcelona on IBTM about matchmaking. And then I met the person in charge for the hosted by a program. And it was not a nice conversation because this person accused me of destroying the business. Because if AI can connect people, with proper customers everything what is the purpose of hosted by programs and i was really surprised because it seems that lots of things misconceptions are driven by fear and they do not see the benefit and i just told them curation will not change machine will never curate as a person because as you said nicole we have uh different type of communications and our understanding sometimes face to face is totally different than when we talk over the video call and if you look at the hosted by a program this ai stuff will just help you make it more powerful work better it will not replace it it's just that you will use a different tool to curate it But it seems that people are really afraid that they will lose their jobs because AI will just start doing their job. And I don't see that way. Do you see it? I mean, if the question goes towards my direction, I did saw jobs, um, in, in events like, you know, translation, for example. So there, there, there are, there are parts and jobs, um, who are overtook by AI, but in general, I would say, no, I would say AI is taking tasks, but not jobs. Yeah. Yeah. And as you said, rather than with the host of mine, I completely agree. At the end of the day, it's all about connecting people with people so that they can do business with each other. Right. And if there is an AI that can help you understand who is in market, who is not in market, what the intention by they have great creation and you can do it more efficiently than any other tool. I think that's a win, right? Because Quite often I might be looking for something, but you get connected to someone who's not looking for what you have to offer and the other way around. So I think that will be more powerful and therefore more power to it, because I still think that in many, many events that just simply doesn't happen. And then overall, I think if you look at the average number of the CAGR of the industry until twenty thirty, event industry, seven to eleven percent growth. That's not just inflation. That's not just a higher rising cost. That's mainly because there is a higher volume, different kind of events, hence more investments going into it. So, yes, I think the mix of jobs will change, but it's a mix of job changes like in any other industry in the last one hundred years, regardless of the industrial revolution we're talking about. I looked into the numbers and actually German market is the most interesting event market in the world and we're growing by over ten percent so and this year there was also a push for live events obviously people want to meet and talk to each other there is the push behind this but Nicole, you are actually a veteran in this industry. I'm a rookie. If you look at your past, which skills will be hardest for AI to replicate? Who is in danger? Who is safe? Do you have a view on that? we continue with board questions, right? But to be honest, I would advise for the event manager, let's say it that way. Write down your tasks, you know, and make one list of repetitive tasks, routine tasks, And one side of the list, you do and note down what tasks needs collaboration, what tasks needs judgment, what tasks needs a decision, are you preparing a decision? And then you see, is it equal? Is it moving into one direction? And obviously, if it's towards the routine direction, then maybe you think or start thinking how to evolve. the next years. We just got the question and obviously it's again over the most beloved tool of event manager, it's Excel sheet. This is one of the things that I see everywhere and whenever I'm in the event, there is an Excel sheet for something. It seems that a lot of people are actually hanging on to these exercise sheets and they're not letting in. How should we explain them how to move forward and the good old ways are not coming back? Well, I saw the question coming up and I was immediately thinking. Again, for me, it starts by... helping, first of all, understand where it comes from, right? I mean, fear always comes from the unknown, right? Most of the fear is connected to unknown. If you don't know, you feel afraid about it, right? So it's, first of all, understanding where it comes from. Second of all, what I've done with a lot of event managers I've worked with and teams I've worked with, it's like, okay, let's focus on what's the actual value you think you're bringing to an event. And for me, working down a list of Excel sheet, the task in Excel sheet is actually not what your job is, right? That might be how you get your job done, but it's not your job itself. So what I would recommend is, okay, you need to start thinking making a shift in what is it you do. For me, you are the the bringing bringing people together to celebrate a anniversary for two years prosky uh you are helping i know that the run event is doing that in in june with with with the summit we bring people together to educate them and bring them move them forward in educating them on ai and how it can help them so once you start looking on a higher business level you can say okay Now I can actually focus on that instead of worrying about that the badges are all alphabetized and making sure that the hotel is booked. Yes, some of those things need to happen. Yes, they end up in Excel. But you can say, okay, that can be done quicker and faster by Excel. AI and other technology, and I can have all that space in my head to focus on whatever the deliverable is of that specific event. And if you do that, for me, once I started realizing that because I was there, right, it was liberating because, oh, wow, I'm actually not a a excel early right i'm not doing that no no i'm actually generating i'm the leader of a certain experience i'm the leader of helping you guys have an epic experience when you come join my sales meeting when you come for join my webinar when you are actually coming to my summit and when you see that for me then you are the orchestra right the conductor of the orchestra rather than the violin yeah I loved what you said, and I just want to repeat it. It's not about your job. It's about how you perform your job, how you execute. What do you achieve, right? What are you actually achieving with what you're doing? So basically, if you use the right tools, nobody questions using computers and smartphones today. People are not... fearing that smartphones will replace event managers. So they should start looking at AI in the same way. This is just a better tool, more useful tool. But in the software development, we always say, trash in, trash out. So if you don't know how to do the job, AI will not help you with that. We will not get... like events without and i that's why i'm really looking forward to the session that nikki will be having an in-control summit so we will talk about this risks and real cases you'll bring a lot of experience about that so what is what you will be talking about at the summit what is the essence of your talk Yeah, exactly. So we will bring a case. We just implemented our own company, GPT, and that's a journey. And that relates quite well to the question Barry just answered, because it sounds so simple. It sounds so simple, you know, don't feel a tool, just learn and use it. But it's not. We also experienced that you know ai is so dominant and people are shy they don't even want to communicate that they fear using it or that they never have used it and um so what what we will share is our journey on how to implement it how to manage clients um how to manage msa is how to work or work not with ai and how to implement it across the whole company. How to start with simply using a background, how to implement agents that free up some space. And this is maybe also answering both, Damir, your question and the question Barry just announced. Because I think one of the best advices is that AI will supporting the tasks that overloaded event managers for years. And they were complaining that they're overloaded. And now we have the solution. Exactly. Yeah. They were complaining for years. Everyone is complaining. And now that there is a solution, they say, no, no, no. We got used to it. And there's a lot of stuff. We got used to it. And I'm really looking forward because I think this is both educational and also helping you kind of relax a bit and say okay there is a path forward and there is a obviously a real case scenario where you can share from reality from not theoretical hypothetical scenario um last question for barry would be very are you afraid that uh ar will replace you as a event manager.de I think, no, I'm not afraid of that. I think at the end of the day, it's all about how can you make sure I come back to it. It's like my standard story. How can you make sure that you add value to, in our case, our readers, right? The people who come to our website. So for me, that means that we need to embrace AI, implement AI and actually help people. everyone coming to our platform to make sure that they get the most out of it uh what i add to that is our platform and if you're talking about manager is all about you know let's make sure we start connecting people even more where you in a niche can say you know let's bring them all together how can you help them educate how can you help them experiment how can you help them experienced whatever is happening in the event world ai obviously being a massive part of that will that change the way we do things for sure but will it replace us no i don't think so it will help us to be even more successful that's perfect because we just got the celebrity question one of your partners on the panel at the InControl Summit, Professor Stefan Lupold, and he would like to discuss this. The InControl Summit is the place to discuss this. And he said, in the near future, project management specialist or creative storyteller, communication expert or most essential provider. i think this is exactly that people wants to hear which parts are there how can we develop on what will be the most important uh topic so i'm really happy to see this i see stefan is already preparing questions it's going to be tough discussions should be prepared very but yeah i think the platform will help us share this news to everyone and i'm really looking forward to it amazing that we i i feel that we just started discussing this half an hour passed it was really super fast thank you so much um i invite everyone to join us at in control summit and to see all those great stories told in real life nikki will share stories from her own experience and barry will discuss our future thank you both for joining thank you both for amazing discussion and uh looking forward to see you at the control summit latest thank you so much