Sign of the times: Using AI to support the planning of events

Many of us are naturally wary of using AI tools - but rather than taking away our jobs, if we can embrace some of the fantastic tools out there, we can hopefully use it to enhance our jobs…and make our lives a lot easier! Here are some ways that the Coveted team has been thinking about using AI in our everyday event planning:

1. By making predictions for your event needs: AI analyses historical event data to forecast venue size, catering quantities, and staffing needs, reducing waste and preventing overspending. All of our clients are charities and foundations, so we understand the pressure to keep costs low

2. By streamlining venue selection process: There are AI-powered platforms that use machine learning to predict venue options that match your event requirements, speeding up the selection process (try Hire Venue as a starting point)

3. By creating personalised attendee experiences: AI can suggest tailored content, sessions, and networking opportunities based on attendee profiles, enhancing engagement. You could try uploading audience profiles and demographical information to ChatGPT to provide you with content and entertainment ideas, for example

4. By maximising fundraising activities: You can use AI tools to produce and copy edit your prize/lot descriptions for Live and Silent Auctions, or even for doing prospect research and creating biogs for event guests, or making recommendations for prize ideas, based on our guestlist

5. By supporting with on-the-day event tools: You can use AI to helps schedule tasks, set up agendas, and delegate responsibilities for smoother on-the-day event management, even helping with elements such as organising video and photo shot lists.

6. By creating AI-Driven marketing and promotional materials: Many of us already use Canva’s AI-generated content which can help you to produce quick marketing collateral (sponsorship decks, invites, videos) and you could also try using ChatGPT and Jasper AI for similar outcomes. Meta’s AI functionality and analytics can also help you target certain audiences.

7. By enabling you to make strives towards sustainability: Aside from recommending eco-friendly practices, AI can predict exact catering needs and help you to optimise resources to reduce your waste and carbon footprint

The C word: how we're working with charities at this time

Our major events calendar has largely been postponed or placed on hold until the end of 2020 and as such, we’ve been considering how we support and work with charities during the Coronavirus crisis.

1. Managing virtual events: We can project manage events from concept to delivery; advise on the best technologies to meet your brief; support with forecasting budget scenarios and provide case studies and connections from organisations who may be delivering similar events.

2. Providing free consultations - As charities look to plan ahead, we are also offering free 3-hour consultation packages to support with any of the key challenges that they are facing, including:

   • Transitioning events online - It may be an easier move for conferences or smaller activity, but how do you take a gala dinner online and deliver the same experience that allows you to raise significant funds?

   • Replacing lost income - With major gaps in income as events are cancelled or see ticket sales decrease, many charities are seeking to run online appeals or campaigns to fundraise for their services. We can work with you to develop these plans, introducing you to partners who can produce something compelling to bring your work to life.

   • Developing new activity - As organisations anticipate that larger events may be on hold for the foreseeable and that restrictions may prevent us for hosting major activity, we’ve had lots of enquiries about developing smaller events - from more intimate leadership symposiums to high value private dinners.

3. Connecting clients and venues - Dates in Autumn/Winter 2020 and Spring 2021 are already in high demand as all pre-summer activity from this year shifts to later months. This is leading to challenges in finding appropriate venues and the Coveted team is working with venues to support them in offering available dates, and working with organisations to carry out thorough venue searches, at no cost, saving valuable time and resource.

If we can support with your activity during Covid-19 and beyond, please do get in touch.

Death of the Gala Ball: what we learnt from our annual conversation on the special events landscape

Back in 2016, the Special Events Forum and Hope Street Media started a discussion on whether the traditional gala dinner is no longer the best format for charities to raise money through events. In the past, these events have consistently raised six- or seven-figures for organisations, as well as providing an opportunity to engage both existing and new corporate, individual and celebrity supporters. However with complaints of event fatigue and a highly saturated market, coupled with budget cuts and the high cost ratio, has this type of charity event finally had its day? We picked up the conversation again, hosted at the offices of THRSXTY in Soho, with a panel of representatives from some of the UK's leading charities. 

In recent years, organisations such as Ark, the DEC, Save the Children, Unicef UK and The Prince's Trust have turned to immersive events to bring their work to life. Some have had success with raising significant income through this type of event, whilst others have mainly used the new format to reach other audiences and to present their work in a different way. So is the immersive event here to stay, or is this just a fad? 

Amanda Sinke, representing Right to Play UK, highlighted how doing something immersive didn't have to result in a dramatic shift in format. For Right to Play UK, this meant looking at storytelling and how they could bring to life their powerful and emotive stories from Africa at a ballroom in central London. Others echoed the sentiment and shared examples of how they had sought to bring something creative and interactive to their existing events, rather than change the event altogether. 

Hibba Al-Altrakchi, representing The Prince's Trust, shared the case study of the Trust's longest running gala event and how they took a risk to take the event out of the ballroom altogether and host it on the Belmond British Pullman. 

As well as reflecting the shift in focus, our audience observed that our guests should be at the heart of our plans and that our longterm supporters can help us to make these decisions and tell us what they want and expect from our events. For every organisation this will be different; when asked whether she thought that more charities should be doing something new, Hibba's response was a firm "Yes - but only if the time is right". 

As an agency, 40% of our work centres around the charity fundraising gala - our clients are still seeing great success with events of this nature - but much like those on the Forum, we continue to seek new ways of bringing our work to life at these events and doing more than just showing a charity film or delivering a speech. Just like other fundraising streams, the ever-changing sector demands that we challenge ourselves to do something different, take on our competitors and listen to the voices of our donors. 

We asked our audience to give us an idea of the future of their portfolios by a simple show of hands - it was clear that over half of the organisations represented still continue to grow their events calendars, with only a couple of organisations making a move to reduce theirs. That said, for those charities whose income is largely made up of event funds, new fundraising streams are being explored in an attempt to diversify and future-proof. 

The conversation continues and we look forward to seeing how it progresses.