AI and Cake?...
/Hi there!
People loved last week when I shared how AI can assist with events. These GenAI tools offer basic event frameworks and templates for ROI, etc.
This is GREAT news as it democratizes playbooks for events so that more people/companies can leverage them to meet their goals. But it got me thinking…These frameworks are a lot like cooking recipes!
Hear me out…
Let’s say we want to bake a cake. Recipes now make these tasty treats accessible to all by providing a blueprint for how to create an outcome (aka cake). Similarly, you can now input what your goals are with an event into a GenAi and get a basic framework for how to go about planning..
But…just like these #nailedit cakes, following an AI-generated blueprint doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to end up with an effective event.
Just because you have a “recipe,” there are still many variables when it comes to how the finished product turns out (I mean, have you seen some of those #nailedit cakes?):
There’s the quality of the ingredients (and whether any fresh ingredients are in season).
The quantity of each ingredient that needs to be added (you wouldn’t want to add 2 cups sugar and 2 teaspoons salt), so cake recipe must be specific.
The order in which you follow the recipe and mix the ingredients together, the temperature in which you bake the cake, and finally, how you serve the cake and present it.
Would you enjoy a piece of cake served to you on a dirty plate, or without a nice plate and a fork?
And finally, if the goal of baking the cake was joy, who are you eating it with?
Happiness takes pleasure and adds people, so a cake eaten alone may have the opposite of a cake shared with others.
This week’s Gianna’s Gem is about why How you plan an event is as important as the framework that you use for your strategy in ensuring a positive outcome.
Let’s break it down using the cake metaphor:
Quality/Quantity of the Ingredients:
Quality is one of my favorite ways to ensure a successful event and should be considered in everything you’re planning: The quality of attendees, of your content and speakers, or your swag or gifting, your food and beverages, and your venue.
When planners try to do too much, invite too many people, produce too much content, etc. I often see quality sacrificed and as a result, the experience suffers. Worse, it could result in a negative brand perception, impact deal renewals or closures, or create low NPS and negative word of mouth.
Consider where you want to focus and make sure those areas really shine, that’s the blueprint for your budget. I had a friend who stopped giving away free food at his event because he didn’t have the budget to produce high quality food and so his event survey scores always tanked as a result. Instead, he started bringing in local vendors and letting attendees buy their own food.
He also let sponsors provide F&B experiences or hosted meals, which led to wins for the local economy and even with no “free meals”, the scores on surveys went up!
If you don’t have time or budget to hire and train high quality speakers, why not host Unconference-style sessions? Studies have shown that event planners can only predict what content attendees want to hear about 40% of the time!
By allowing attendees to share what they want to learn about IRL and then volunteer to lead community sessions, you are learning what your audience cares about and driving engagement by enabling them to be experts and forge bonds by sharing their knowledge with peers. It also saves a lot of planning time and budget for planners!
Rather than trying to get as many attendees as possible to your event, consider who you really want there and why and consider reducing your invite list, using the saved budget to provide higher quality accommodations or food/gifting.
These smaller events where attendees are highly curated often lead to excellent outcomes because attendees are carefully curated and form bonds that last beyond the event since they have more time to get to know each other, and the extra budget allows planners to create a more memorable experience for them.
Adding Ingredients in the Right Order and Understanding How to Serve and Savor it with Others.
Now you have the right people, and the right speakers… but that doesn’t guarantee a successful event.
Consider the attendee journey and the order in which you present activities, sessions, and meals at an event. There is not one “right” order, but you need to be clear on what your goals are and how the correct ordering will impact your results.
For example, when I used to produce Google Cloud Next, we would often plan the Hands on Demos and “Genius Bar” right outside the keynote and technical breakout rooms so that attendees would first hear about our product launches or watch a technical demo, and could then walk out the session right up to get a hands on demo of the product, or ask an expert a question after a demo.
Consider openings and closing and make sure you don’t open with a “pain point”. I remember attending a TED Women event where they hosted the opening keynote in the evening because they knew many women were mothers who had to travel that day and couldn’t get to a morning or afternoon session for Day 1.
To “set the scene” for the experience to come, they tray-passed champagne, chocolate and caviar to attendees as they entered the General Session room.
Have you ever attended a keynote that starts with champagne, chocolate and caviar? I hadn’t either, but it sure made my neurochemistry light up and go on high alert because this was unique and different and quite delightful, especially given it was the evening and the session would go right into dinner afterwards, so some light snacks and champagne were a perfect appetizer to the socializing to come!
Share the cake to get the most out of it!
Have you ever eaten a cake by yourself? It’s not nearly as fun as sharing it with friends and family.
Cakes by nature are meant to be shared, so be sure to share them properly.
When you serve a cake, consider all the details:
What will you use to slice it and serve it?
Do you need candles (is it a birthday), and does it pair well with ice cream?
If it’s a very sweet cake, does it need some salty icecream to offset the sweetness?
What temperature should the cake be at - does it taste better warm or cool (i..e cheesecakes are NOT good warm, but a molten lava cake sure is!)
These small details can make or break the enjoyment of a cake, just as thinking through every aspect of how you execute the details of an event can make an experience exceptional for an attendee, or fall flat.
Don’t underestimate the details! Poke holes at your plan and walk through the Run of Show several times to make sure you’ve thought through everything. Athletes do this with “mental rehearsal” so they can envision exactly how they will perform and nail it.
And remember - if you’ve gone through all the trouble to produce an excellent event, by all means, it’s better shared!
In this day and age, it’s easier than ever to automate content from events.
Leverage speaking sessions in podcast or audio format and share on your website, or newsletter.
Hire a photographer and share photo albums with attendees.
I once hired a famous professional photographer to take headshots of CEO’s at my Founder’s Summit and they had these as digital “gifts” after the event which were useful, unique, something they couldn’t have purchased themselves, and reminded them of the premium experience they had with us.
I also make sure my company’s branding is generic rather than “event-specific” so we can use the beautiful photos of our stage for marketing materials and our website. Even if you have a private, exclusive event, take notes and extract key learnings to share with attendees afterwards, or with your internal team, who often can also benefit.
And there you have it! The basic “recipes” for events. Be thoughtful, add a human touch, and by all means, make sure everything is high quality and well-executed!
Now…I think I will use the apples I just harvested from my garden to bake an apple cake with my son!
