Last chance to register for this week's exploration of the pandemic’s effects on meetings and events. Share your stories, learn from experts, and move forward together. 

Margaret Launzel-Pennes, CEO of POP Experiential, isn’t just chatting about AI, she’s putting it to work to build (as far as I know) the very first all AI-created conference experience. Penes (with a little sanity checking from her human staff) is using a variety of AIs to plan, create, and promote an event. AI is creating the P&L sheets, identifying venues, setting the agenda, and searching for speakers. The event will be held next February (in person) and it's called AutonomousXP. Pennes will join us this October to walk us through “How She Did This.”

I asked her to send me a paragraph about the event, and of course, she put ChatGPT to work.

 

Unveiling the Future of Events: Get Ready for AutonomousXP! 🌟

 

Imagine a world where events are no longer limited by the boundaries of human capabilities. A world where the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) meets creativity, technology, and innovation to craft experiences that leave attendees in awe. Are you ready to embrace the future of events?

Industry executives Margaret Launzel-Pennes, Mark Roberts, and Audry Hegwood, founders of AutonomousXP, are thrilled to introduce you to this groundbreaking conference, a first-of-its-kind event that will revolutionize the event industry. 🚀

📆 Save the date: February in Los Angeles] 🌐 Learn more: [www.autonomousxp.com]

 

No secret that we’ve got more information than we have hours to digest. The TL;DR (too long; didn’t read): attention spans are getting shorter. We compete for attention in a universe of distractions across a range of popular platforms. Plus, the audiences on those platforms now have an average attention span of just 8 seconds

Enter snackable content. Mini-bits of content created from your larger body of “will never be watched” content. AI is a mighty assistant that we’re starting to learn may be better at cutting than creating. Here are four tools (in alphabetical order) that we like for putting our long-form content on the chopping block, in a good way!

Riverside has long been a favorite for podcasters, but they just sprinkled some AI pixie dust on their platform with the addition of Magic Clips. After you record your podcast (video and audio), it will automatically find the highlight clips and generate captions for them. Customize the format, and even remove portions by deleting text in the transcript. Free version available. 

Simplified is a suite of four separate online tools can make short work of many tasks. For social media posts, you can create images, generate text (including SEO-driven hashtags), and then schedule your posts on multiple platforms at once. All four modules have free versions.

Unriddle Summarize can analyze a long article on a website and show you the gist of it so you don’t have to read the whole thing. It’s a Chrome browser extension that works in just seconds. Free version available. 

Vidyo.ai lets you drag and drop your long video onto its website, and it will identify segments of interest and create clips complete with transcripts. You can edit the transcripts, change the format of the clips, and even apply templates to give them a “produced” look. It’s free for up to 75 minutes of uploaded content per month. 

The website There’s an AI for That has a full section devoted to snackable content. Be warned: you can spend hours deep diving into these tools, nothing snackable about them. Thanks to our technology editor, Alfred Poor, for putting this quick bite together. 

The free ride for experimenting with AI is coming to an end. First, it was the $20 a month charge to get a more powerful ChatGPT. Now Microsoft is going to charge $30 a month extra to use AI that will be built into Office. Midjourney has three plans with different limits on usage: $10/mo, $30/mo, and $60/mo plans. You can still use DALL·E 2 for free. Descript charges $12 a month. Many services still have a free tier, but expect to pay for the features you really want or if you use it for more than just dabbling. You can see how quickly you can get into the hundred-plus a month. 

It’s true that AI searches are costly because they chew up so much computing power (never mind human labor to train AIs), but once again, as we start charging for the use of tools, we create the next digital divide, possibly one with even more severe consequences than the existing one. And let’s get this straight. It’s AI creators like you and me who should be receiving some stipend as we’re the contributors to the body of content. Lots of big questions to resolve here. Drop us a line if you hear of any ingenious solutions. 

Back to School: Marco Giberti’s Master Class for Extra Credit
Get to the top of your class faster with this LeaderPass course about the business of events. Learn business models, marketing strategies, emerging technologies and more. 25% off for VEG members (we are a marketing partner of BusinessOfEvents.com). Get CMP credits for attending and learn from some of the best. Contact Dahlia El Ghazzar to learn more.

All the Girls and Claude
What’s in a name? Chatbots, whether they’re AI endowed or not, have always skewed female. Well, except for Bob the original helper.

Microsoft Bob (aka ‘clippy’). Image credit: Microsoft

Don’t believe it? 

1. Priceline — Jenny
2. Amtrak — Jane
3. Amazon — Alexa
4. Bank of America — Erica
5. HSBC — Amy
6. WestJet — Juliet
7. National Eating Disorder Association —Tessa
8. Tesla — no name female so we’ll call her “X” for now
9. Google — just say “Ok, Google” but she’s a woman
10. Apple — Siri (also a female voice)

Researchers have long said that female voices are reassuring, comforting and friendly. So what to make of Claude, the new AI from Anthropic? The company touts Claude for his ability to offer harmless, sensible, better-quality information thanks to a number of underlying technologies. Is it just male braggadocio or is there really something to it? 

AI Smarts

Need to get AI smart fast and free? David Birss offers some good advice in his LinkedIn course on how to be more successful using your AI tools. He’s entertaining and informative with plenty of fun examples.

Image credit: David Birss

A reminder to join our fast growing community. Together, we’ll stay on top of all of the tech trends that are changing how we meet. New programs, new content, and new colleagues await. Join for $99.

Refer a friend for a 20% discount using the code VEGSUMMER.