ChatGPT for eventprofs, Meet Blackpool, Meet in Kent, footwear activation, & more

This Monday’s Insights (30 January 2023) feature brings you ChatGPT for eventprofs, Meet Blackpool, Meet in Kent, footwear activation, and more.

Headlines

Ever wondered what would happen if you interviewed a Chat Bot?

Neither had we, until we read a new feature from M&IT’s Editor, Paul Harvey, on what ChatGPT has in store for eventprofs – in its own words!

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT has generated tonnes of media coverage. And Paul’s feature is extremely useful for any event profs who wants to understand the tool capabilities and limitations in terms of managing events.

It’s also very amusing, so take a look, here.

Louisa Watson, Director of Marketing at Wyboston Lakes Resort and Sustainability Director of beam has been recognised as Sustainability Industry Champion.

Commenting on the win at the recent Greengage Sustainability Awards, Louisa told Conference News, “I’m completely overwhelmed. This was a marvellous surprise and a wonderful honour for me and for Wyboston Lakes Resort. I’d like to thank Greengage for the tremendous recognition and also all my colleagues and the beam action group who have helped and supported me in my work.”

Read more about the award here, including why Louise was crowned the winner.

Meet Blackpool, Blackpool’s conference and exhibition arm is investing in a campaign to raise awareness for the town’s business events sector.

The marketing initiative will see £450,000k invested in ‘Business in Blackpool, always a pleasure’ – designed to showcase Blackpool’s quality venues, technology, new infrastructure, and entertainment roots.

Michael Williams, managing director, Blackpool Entertainment Company Limited, told Conference News,: “Blackpool has long been synonymous with entertainment and this new campaign has been designed to capitalise on that heritage as a destination for exciting experiences, while promoting our new and significantly enhanced offer for business events.

Read more about the campaign and its goals in Conference News.

Visit Kent has launched a new campaign, titled ‘Meet in Kent’, a six-week campaign and part of the next stage of the EXPERIENCE Project.

The project, co-funded by the Interreg France (Channel) England Programme was created to help Kent develop “its experiential off-season economy”. The campaign is also part of a drive by Visit Kent, which strives to help business events suppliers in the county rebuild relationships with their local clients, as well as help them attract a new audience.

Deirdre Wells OBE, chief executive, Visit Kent, said: “With the Meet in Kent campaign, we want to deliver a project that helps to strengthen consumer confidence in business events and create off-peak business opportunities by encouraging local businesses to book their away days, corporate events and team building experiences with business events suppliers that they may not realise are located near to them – here in Kent.”

Skift Meetings has introduced readers to the joy an event activation that brings joy to delegates feet!

Skift’s Andrea Doyle has written a feature – ‘Comfortable Footwear Seduces Planners’ – which demonstrates that it’s not just event profs who are drawn to the idea of easy the burden on their toes during the ‘long days and nights navigating cavernous convention centers’.

M&IT has spoken to eventprofs on the industry challenges of venue response times and staffing levels.

Response times might still be lagging compared to pre-Covid, but M&IT reports that, anecdotally, service levels on site have remained fairly high.

Check out the snapshot of the state of play, including input from EDGE Venues’ CEO, Jacqui Kavanagh.