Alongside Gurney, there were four other winners from South America and Europe for the 2024 iteration of the annual Next Generation Leadership Grant program from UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibitions Industry.
With support and mentorship from exhibition sector leaders, the group of five have been set the task of assessing the strategic and operational potentials for AI in the industry over a seven-month timeframe. Part of the submission to be considered for the program was to outline an approach to evaluating the promise of AI.
The group will meet in person at the UFI European Conference next month for a workshop.
Gurney says she applied for the grant for the networking opportunities and due to a personal and professional interest in AI.
“[At ICC Sydney] I’m part of an internal business group that focuses on our clients’ journeys and identifying gaps for improvement and thought this would be a great opportunity to bring back learnings to our business,” she says.
“As a society we’ve all been watching the AI space for years, but it’s finally consumerised and available to the masses – mainly through automation, machine learning and content generative AI.
“Many of us use some type of AI in our daily activities and don’t even know it, such as household gadgets that turn [on] our lights, facial recognition on our phones and watching Netflix suggestions based on your viewing history.
“I love the speed at which technology is advancing and the efficiencies it presents if done well.”
Gurney believes AI will have a positive impact across all parts of the business events sector.
“AI presents a myriad of opportunities to better anticipate customer behaviour, to generate content, to streamline and enhance event management processes and to increase foresight and growth with predictive analysis allowing the industry to deliver more meaningful experiences at every step of the customer journey,” she says.
“Our industry needs to be at the forefront of understanding and implementing what AI, GenAI [generative AI] and machine learning can do for our businesses and clients.
“Maximising the return on our investments is critical in these challenging economic times,” she says.
“It would be remiss of me not to focus on the marketing and sales aspects of AI – incorporating AI into our marketing campaigns to unlock optimisation opportunities and boost team efficiencies to revolutionise the customer experience will be key.
“Leveraging AI-powered automation to streamline tasks, enhance personalisation, and implementing predictive analytics will support our industry to anticipate market changes, make proactive decisions and optimise resource allocation.
“Additionally AI-assisted content curation is a huge advancement – supporting our budgets and resources to generate realistic, tailored copy, video and graphics in a matter of minutes.
“Robotic Process Automation can support our event management team with administrative tasks using machine learning algorithms to streamline time-consuming tasks like data entry, event schedules, reports and logistics coordination, allowing more time for strategy,” she says.
As explored in micenet’s latest magazine, ICC Sydney is already starting to leverage the power of robotics in its operations.
Gurney and her fellow grant recipients were selected by a panel of exhibition industry leaders, headed by UFI president and CEO of dmg events, Geoff Dickinson.
The next generation leadership group will present the findings of their AI assessment at UFI’s global congress in Cologne, Germany, in November.
