A word from Jess Glass, MEA Board Director

This week we head north and hear from MEA Board Director Jess Glass, Manager, Events and Sponsorships at The University of Queensland with the state of things in the Sunshine state - home of this year's Evolve - and her thoughts on event technology like ChatGPT being used to help make event managers' jobs easier. 

I can’t believe it’s only March, it feels like we should be halfway through the year with the amount of activity going on at the moment. This week I had the pleasure of attending the partner’s welcome ahead of the Queensland Firebirds kicking off their netball season with a home game this week at Nissan Arena. On the same day I was fortunate to attend the opening of the incredible new exhibit at the Queensland Museum – Dinosaurs of Patagonia, to see the world’s biggest dinosaur (it was amazing, and I highly recommend it to anyone in Brisbane over the next 6 months!). Next week is the World Science Festival Brisbane where science will come alive for a week all across the city and throw in the hotly anticipated and almost sold-out battle of Brisbane with the brand-new Dolphins taking on the Brisbane Broncos. So far this year I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing Elton John and Ed Sheeran in the most amazing stage set ups at Suncorp Stadium and after a very long covid delay saw the Backstreet Boys at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Brisbane is well and truly alive and pumping.

And it’s only going to continue. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know we’re on the green and gold runway to Brisbane 2032. The excitement levels are already high and for some in Brisbane it’s already a daily topic of conversation, even with 9 years to go.

Brisbane really is going to be transformed in the lead up to 2032 and the benefits of hosting one of the biggest events in the world will be felt for decades to come. It was announced in recent weeks that we will be getting a brand new 18,000 seat arena in the heart of the CBD, Brisbane Live, which is set to transform events in Brisbane. It will be amazing to have a venue of that size right in the city. The Gabba, our AFL and cricket stadium, not far out of the city, is also getting a total redevelopment which will improve accessibility for all levels of mobility and link it to a number of transport options including a green bridge, pedestrian bridge, rail and the new Brisbane Metro. It will finally be easy to get public transport to an event there, something that has not always been easy in the past.

As I think about the next 9 years my mind wanders to event technology, I wonder how much tech will change in the next decade and what the experience will be like in 2032. Will we be able to overhaul the ticketing process so that each person doesn’t need to stop and scan a ticket to enter a venue, often resulting in long lines and being very dependant on internet and ticketing providers? I wonder how different the experience might be in stadiums, how we might be able to use technology to change the process for purchasing food, drinks or merchandise. And the really big one that has popped up recently is how can we use technology to make our lives easier in the lead up to an event. How can we harness the power of ChatGPT, and the other iterations surely to come, to automate things we do every day? While I was thinking about this I decided to go straight to the source. I asked ChatGPT to write a thought leadership article on the use of ChatGPT in the event management industry and how it can make jobs easier for event managers. It gave me a 400-word response that was right on brief. A snippet of what it gave me was:

With the help of ChatGPT, event managers can automate tasks that would otherwise require a significant amount of time and effort. For example, they can use the technology to manage attendee queries and provide personalised recommendations based on their preferences. ChatGPT can also be used to automate the registration process, sending confirmation emails and answering frequently asked questions.

Furthermore, ChatGPT can assist event managers in making data-driven decisions by providing insights into attendee behaviour and preferences. By analysing data from previous events, ChatGPT can help event managers identify patterns and trends, allowing them to tailor future events to better meet attendees' needs and expectations.

I love the sound that as both an attendee and an event manager tech should make our lives easier over the coming years. I know plenty of people will say tech is expensive, it can take longer to learn and implement sometimes, and many other reasons why it might not revolutionise our work, but as everyone who knows me well knows, I am an optimist and I love to try new things that might make life a little easier!

I hope to see many of you at Evolve on the Gold Coast this coming June, so you can enjoy the optimism and the sunshine!

- Jess