Insights

Ed Richards on what AI is actually doing inside events businesses. Field notes from Discovery Labs, free prompts that get used, industry signals and Zoby news.

• I'm Building Software Live at CHS Manchester. I Don't Know What It Is Yet. Field Notes, 16 September 2026
  On 30 September I'm doing three sessions on the show floor at CHS Manchester. By the end of the day I'll have built a piece of working software, live, and the room decides what it is.
• The Phone Is About to Be Answered by AI, and That Cuts Both Ways Applied AI, 9 September 2026
  Realtime voice models and a half billion dollar raise for ElevenLabs have made convincing AI phone agents ordinary this year. That is useful for your enquiry line and dangerous for your finance team.
• Most Event Businesses Are Using AI at the Surface, and That's Fine for Now Industry Signals, 2 September 2026
  New enterprise research shows most organisations are still drafting and summarising with AI, not redesigning how work actually happens. For events businesses that is a reasonable place to be, as long as you know it.
• Three Minutes, One Card, and a Question We've Wanted Answered for a Year Field Notes, 26 August 2026
  Everyone in events says they use AI. Almost nobody can tell you how. So we built a three-minute challenge that shows you, gives you a card at the end, and tells us something the industry has only ever guessed at.
• The EU AI Act Deadline That Didn't Happen, and What Still Applies to Your Events Infrastructure Briefings, 12 August 2026
  2 August was meant to be the date high-risk AI rules in the EU AI Act kicked in. They were deferred to December 2027 back in July. The timetable moved. The direction did not.
• Summer Is When You Fix the Plumbing Structural Advantage, 29 July 2026
  The quiet weeks between the summer season and the autumn conference run are the only time you can change how your business works without breaking a live event. Here is what to do with them.
• The Post-Event Debrief Prompt That Actually Gets Used Applied AI, 15 July 2026
  Debriefs get skipped because they are a meeting nobody has time for. Here is a prompt that turns the voice notes, run sheet and invoices you already have into a one-page debrief in minutes.
• Claude Fable 5 Is Back. Here's What It Actually Means for Events. Applied AI, 2 July 2026
  If you blinked over the last three weeks, you missed one of the stranger episodes in AI's short history: Anthropic released its most powerful model, the US government shut it down, and now it's back. Here's the story, and more importantly, what it means for anyone running events, venues, or agencies.
• Three Things I Heard at The Meetings Show Field Notes, 30 June 2026
  Two days at ExCeL, six thousand people, one debate that split the room in half, and one question I heard more than any other at the coffee stands. Here is what actually stuck.
• Your CRM Now Wants to Hire Agents. Here's How to Interview One. Infrastructure Briefings, 17 June 2026
  Salesforce and HubSpot have both pushed hard into AI agents this year, priced by outcome rather than by seat. Before your sales office switches one on, here are the five questions worth asking first.
• IMEX, Consolidation, and the Question Nobody on the Panel Answered Industry Signals, 27 May 2026
  IMEX Frankfurt was full of AI panels. The bigger story this month was who is buying whom. Nobody stood up and answered what an agency is actually being paid for once AI drafts the proposal.
• Make the AI Show Its Working: A Fact-Check Prompt for Supplier Research Applied AI, 13 May 2026
  AI assistants will hand you a confident supplier shortlist with lead times, fees and minimum numbers that do not exist. The fix is not trusting it less, it is a prompt that separates what it knows from what it is guessing.
• Your CRM Is a Graveyard, and That Is a Data Problem, Not a People Problem Structural Advantage, 29 April 2026
  Fields that mean different things to different people, duplicate venues, notes buried in WhatsApp. AI built on top of a messy CRM just gives you confident nonsense faster. Here is how to fix the structure, not buy a new system.
• The Friction Audit: Let AI Interview You For Once Applied AI, 20 April 2026
  A prompt that flips the conversation. Instead of you interrogating AI, it interviews you and finds the work quietly costing you the most time. Free, no signup.
• A Third of People Don't Check What AI Gives Them. In Events, That Ends Up in a Proposal. Applied AI, 9 April 2026
  A US survey out this week found over a third of workers rarely check AI output before using it. Events is a copy-paste industry under deadline, which makes this a proposal problem, not an abstract one.
• What Confex Told Me About Where the Industry Actually Is with AI Industry Signals, 25 March 2026
  I spent two days walking the floor at International Confex. Half the stands had AI written on them. Almost none of the interesting conversations were about AI at all, they were about data.
• The Brief Interrogator: A Prompt That Stress-Tests a Client Brief Applied AI, 12 March 2026
  Before you cost a brief, find its gaps. This prompt makes your AI assistant hunt for missing numbers, contradictions and scope creep, then drafts the clarifying questions in the client's own tone.
• The Risk of Unchecked Innovation: Navigating the New Reality of AI Regulation Applied AI, 2 March 2026
  The prevailing narrative surrounding Artificial Intelligence often focuses on the 'arms race' for adoption. In the events and hospitality industry, the pressure to modernise operations is intense. However, a critical oversight is emerging: the belief that AI regulation is a future problem rather than a present reality.
• Mega-Events: A True Catalyst for Lasting Operational Advantage in Hospitality? Industry Signals, 28 February 2026
  The spotlight on mega-events often illuminating economic impact and guest experiences. However, a recent study, exploring how these large-scale gatherings can drive greener and more resilient hotel operations, shifts our focus to a deeper implication: the potential for temporary demands to leave a lasting legacy of modernized practice. This presents a critical question for leadership in hospitality: are we truly leveraging mega-events to build lasting operational resilience, or are we simply reacting to short-term demands?
• The £2 Trillion Question: Is Your Events Business Designed for the Future? Industry Signals, 26 February 2026
  The global events industry is on an undeniable trajectory. A recent report projects its market value will reach an astonishing £2 trillion by 2035. This isn't merely an increase, it's a profound redefinition of economic power and a clear signal of an evolving landscape for events and hospitality worldwide.
• The 2028 Horizon: Is Your Events & Hospitality Business Ready for the AI Shift? Industry Signals, 26 February 2026
  Could a provocative research paper about an impending AI-induced Great Depression actually be the spark your events and hospitality business needs to accelerate strategic digital modernisation and secure a future-proof structural advantage?
• The UK Quietly Changed the Rules on Automated Decisions. Here's What It Means for Events. Infrastructure Briefings, 12 February 2026
  New UK GDPR rules on automated decision making took effect this month. Most events businesses already have more of these decisions running than anyone has written down.
• What Twenty One-to-One Conversations Inside an Agency Taught Us Field Notes, 4 February 2026
  Discovery Lab conversations follow a pattern. Leadership thinks AI use is near zero. It is not. Here is what people actually say when the boss is not in the room, and why that gap matters more than any survey.
• The AI Already Inside Your Events Business That Nobody Signed Off Applied AI, 21 January 2026
  Your account manager is already using ChatGPT on a personal login. Your producer is feeding client calls into a free note taker. This is not a discipline problem, and here is what to do about it this week.
• Start 2026 with a Systems Audit, Not a Software Purchase Structural Advantage, 7 January 2026
  January is when event businesses buy new software to feel like they are modernising. The fix is rarely the tool, it is the workflow underneath it that nobody has written down. Run this four-step audit first.