What event planners are really dealing with right now: AI, venues, marketing and momentum

There is something very reassuring about hearing other event people talk honestly about what is actually going on in their work.

Not the polished version. Not the highlight reel. The real version.

The conversations where someone is sourcing venues and tearing their hair out over sales teams that drip-feed information. The conversations where someone is trying to launch an event while juggling travel, work and life. The conversations where someone else is quietly wondering whether they should keep chasing a lead that is already feeling hard.

That is what came through in our last session of this round of the 8 Week Event Plan.

What started as a course catch-up turned into a genuinely useful conversation about venue sourcing, AI, event marketing, content creation, pricing, accountability and what it really looks like to build confidence as an event professional.

AI is helping, but it is not doing the thinking for you

One of the biggest talking points was how useful AI can be when it comes to speeding up event planning admin.

I shared how I used Claude to create a venue brief for a conference. Normally, venue sourcing can become a long and frustrating back-and-forth. Venues want dates, numbers, budgets, room setup details, AV requirements and catering needs, but they often ask for those details in bits and pieces. You end up answering the same questions over and over again, slightly differently each time, and it becomes hard to compare venues properly.  Using AI to create a clear written brief changed that.

Instead of writing the whole thing from scratch, I used my notes and previous project information to prompt Claude to draft a venue brief that I could send out to multiple venues. In about 15 minutes, I had something polished, professional and ready to go.

That said, and this bit matters, AI got some things wrong.

It underestimated the room size. It forgot to properly account for the stage and AV. It needed further prompting and correction before it was right.

That is the key lesson.

AI can save time, absolutely. But you still need to know enough to check the work. You cannot just hand over your brain and hope for the best. You still need your own knowledge, your own judgement and your own understanding of what the event actually needs.

Used properly, AI is brilliant. Used lazily, it will trip you up.

A good venue brief saves time and helps you compare properly

Another strong thread in the conversation was how important it is to have a proper venue brief.

A brief does more than make you sound organised. It makes the venue sourcing process cleaner and more strategic. When you send the same brief to multiple venues, you are far more likely to get comparable responses. That means you can assess options properly instead of trying to piece together inconsistent replies.

It also means you do not have to keep answering follow-up questions that should have been dealt with upfront.

There was also a good discussion around what to ask venues first.

Before you get too deep into a quote, there are a few basics worth clarifying early:

• minimum spend,
• room availability,
• catering package pricing and
• AV arrangements.

That one step can save a lot of time.

If a venue has a minimum spend that wipes out your budget before you have even looked at AV or styling, you need to know that quickly. If their in-house AV supplier is known for premium pricing, that matters too. These are the details that shape whether a venue is truly viable, not just whether the room looks nice in photos.

Venue finders can help, but they are not the whole picture

We also talked about venue finders and business events directories.

These services can be useful, especially if you are short on time, but they have limitations. Venue finders are paid by commission from the venue, which means they may only recommend venues that pay commission. That excludes a whole range of options, including many council venues, schools, government spaces and other locations that may actually suit the brief perfectly.

The same applies to tourism or business events directories. They are helpful, but they usually only feature member venues. So if you rely on them alone, you are only seeing part of the market.

That does not mean do not use them. It just means know what they are for, and know what they are not showing you.

For regional organisers, this opened up a useful line of thinking too. If you are not sure where to start in your own area, your local tourism or economic development team may already know the venue landscape better than you think. It is worth asking.

Event content is not just for socials

Another big topic was photography and videography, and whether it is worth the cost.

My answer is yes, more often than not.

People tend to think of event video as something you use to promote the next event, and of course that is one use. But it is far from the only one. Good event footage can also be used for websites, speaker promotion, stakeholder reports, recruitment, internal communications, sponsorship conversations and destination marketing.

That content can work much harder than a single social media post.

We also got into the practical side of briefing videographers properly. If you are paying for content capture, be very clear about what you want. Ask for the edited cut, yes, but also ask for the raw footage. That matters. You may want to reuse clips later, cut them differently, pull stills or create shorter pieces for other platforms.

And if social content matters, ask for vertical phone footage too.

A beautifully produced video may work brilliantly on LinkedIn or a website, but not necessarily on Instagram or Facebook. Sometimes the less polished footage performs better because it feels more immediate and more human.

So again, the answer is not either-or. It is knowing what kind of content you need, and briefing for that.

Accountability matters more than people realise

One of my favourite parts of this conversation was hearing the participants reflect on what had actually made a difference for them during the course.

Yes, the templates and tools were useful.
Yes, the AI demonstrations were useful.
Yes, the structured learning was useful.

But what really stood out was the accountability and the sense of being in it with other people.

So many event professionals work alone, or mostly alone. They are the decision-maker, the organiser, the problem-solver and the one carrying the mental load. Having a small group to check in with, bounce ideas off and get honest feedback from can make a huge difference.

Not because you need permission, but because momentum is easier to maintain when you are not operating in a vacuum.

Marketing is market research

At one point, the conversation moved into launching an event without having every detail locked down. People often feel they need to have the venue signed, every last detail confirmed and every piece of the puzzle in place before they begin marketing. But sometimes that caution slows them down more than it helps them.

In this case, my advice was simple: if the venue options are in the same area and the core concept is clear, start the marketing. Because marketing is not just promotion. It is market research.

If people respond, click, ask questions or buy, that gives you information. If nobody engages, that gives you information too. Either way, you are learning something useful.

Waiting until everything is perfect often means waiting too long.

Not every lead deserves your energy

There was also a really honest moment around a possible client lead that was dragging on.

This is something event professionals do not talk about enough. The cost of a lead is not just the time you spend emailing or quoting. It is the mental space it occupies.

When someone is slow to respond, vague, disorganised or already difficult before the work has even started, it takes up room in your head. You keep wondering if you should follow up. You keep leaving the tab open mentally. You keep spending energy on something that may never become real. That has a cost.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is draw a line. Ask for a decision by a clear deadline. If they cannot meet it, step away. Because while you are mentally tied up in the wrong opportunity, you are often not focusing enough on the right ones.

Personal branding for event people is complicated

We also had a lovely side conversation about personal branding, merch and visibility.

This is a funny one for event people because so much of the job is about making everyone else look good. You are often behind the scenes. You are there to support the event, not become the centre of it. So promoting yourself can feel awkward, even when it is smart.

The conversation touched on wearable branding, event merch, practical giveaways and the difference between promoting yourself and simply being memorable. Sometimes the best branded item is not about your business at all. It is about giving people something genuinely useful or delightful, and letting the connection happen from there.

That is often a much better strategy than slapping your logo on something forgettable.

Content visibility is not just about the algorithm

There was also a useful discussion around content and social media, where one participant introduced us to the idea of the “two week train”.

The basic idea is this: when someone starts following you, there is a window where your content is more likely to be shown to them. Every time they engage with it, that window extends. If they stop engaging, the platform starts assuming your content is not relevant to them.

That is a useful reminder, because people often blame the algorithm for everything. Sometimes the issue is not that the platform is hiding your content. Sometimes it is simply that there has not been enough meaningful engagement to keep the connection active.

The real value of these conversations

What I loved most about this session was that it was not performative.

It was event people sharing what they are learning, what they are testing, what is frustrating them and what is helping. It was practical. Honest. Generous.

There was talk of AI, yes. But also judgement.
There was talk of marketing, yes. But also timing.
There was talk of content, yes. But also confidence.
There was talk of growth, yes. But also accountability.

Not just learning how to produce an event, but learning how to think like an event professional. How to make decisions faster. How to market with more confidence. How to stop overcomplicating things that need action. And how to build systems that support you instead of constantly draining you.

That is the kind of conversation I want more of. Because nobody needs more noise. They need better conversations.