Featured in ‘the meeting professional’: On using AI in event management

I’m using AI for gut checks but I don't hand it the entire contract.

The latest issue of The Meeting Professional asked a group of MPI planners how we're actually using AI right now. My answer is likely the least futuristic answer in the room: sparingly, and with rules.

It's found me an off-the-beaten-track property I’d never have surfaced on my own. It's quick for a registration rate forecast, or a fast second opinion when I'm weighing a specific contract clause (you know, the ones that make you stop and think, "Wait, am I reading this correctly?").

Here's what it doesn't get: the full contract, registrant details, anything proprietary. The fine print is my responsibility to read and that's not me being precious about it. That's the part of this job I believe nobody should be handing to a chatbot.

The environmental cost still bothers me, and every time I read about what these tools pull from the grid, I pause. I've since learned it isn't only AI. So much of our digital life runs on the same resources: streaming, social, cloud, all of it.

That interview was back in April, and the honest update is that I've gone much deeper since. I'm building things now, not just running the occasional gut check. The line hasn't moved though. The contract, the proprietary details, the human judgment that earns my fee, that all still stays with me. The tools just got sharper around the edges of that.

Thanks to MPI and The Meeting Professional for including me.