The golden era is imminent ...
This year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity could not have passed without topics reflecting on artificial intelligence and its impact on advertising. As The Economist wrote in a resounding article, the industry that values creativity the most was the first to embrace the changes. In the article, Sam Altman, the Director of OpenAI, remarked that artificial intelligence will take over 95% of the tasks of advertising agencies in the future. He is certain that artificial intelligence will also create advertisements, thus replacing the need for such agencies.
The article also outlined that the global lust for advertisements is perpetually growing. According to WPP Media, our appetite for ads grows by 6% every year. The main challenge is the concentration of ads created by the four mammoth advertisement sellers: Google, Meta, ByteDance and Amazon, which control a whopping half of the global market. Eight out of the ten largest advertisement sellers come from the tech industry. The behavioural change the article mentions is worth remembering: if you wish to influence large language models, you must influence their sources. In other words, you must build a loyal online audience. That brings me to the core of my contemplation today: if the future is tailored to AI, is there even room for humans pushing the boundaries of creativity? As the website www.boosterobotics.com outlines, robots are already capable of playing football without human help. Truth be told, I am not one bit intrigued by robots playing our game. The old, authentic “Balkan-like” football has its charm.
The same applies to communication. Authentic exchange of ideas is only possible at in-person events where AI is part of the story, but the protagonist remains human creativity and all of our senses. Thus, I dare to predict that the golden era of events is imminent.
Events seem to counter marketing
In my book, I wrote this: “I often compare the meetings industry to the world of rock‘n’roll. To me, rock’n’roll is much more than just a musical genre. It’s passion, dedication and striving to be different. It’s showing the best of what you’ve got with all your heart and voice at just the right moment. It’s stirring your audience and leaving an impression. It’s establishing an authentic connection with every participant and listening to their wishes. It’s making sure that attendees become your fans.”
“The secret and essence of rock’n’roll is an original idea. The best ideas are simple, clear and unambiguous. Those that speak to the heart and soul. Just like music, events are a universal language that everyone understands. The idea of rock’n’roll is closely connected to the idea of freedom. Rock’n’roll is a way of life. Whoever can think with their mind, finds a meaning in the lyrics and thus understands and lives better.”
No further comment is needed. Factual numbers confirm my thinking. This week, Messe Frankfurt published an official financial report, outlining the record number of events they hosted. They blew their own trumpet about having the most successful financial year ever, recording sales of 775 million EUR.
Events seem to correct and counter marketing, which is increasingly being generated by artificial intelligence. Events are a space where you can check what is real and what is fake. You see who is in step with the time, and which brand makes people tick, and doesn’t just sell information. You can also see which tech trend is here because of the hype and which is here to stay.
Soulful events
The Cannes Festival is a prime example of what I wrote above. Consider all the apocalyptic, earth-shattering events the festival has lived through and survived. It succumbed neither to the internet revolution, nor the pandemic, nor ad blockers, nor AI. I believe it will stand the test of time in the future. It is not just another competition that AI could replace, but a reaffirmation of what technology cannot (yet) replace: intuition, relations and emotions.
Events that I idealise are spaces where technology ends and humanism starts. That is why events matter more than ever. They are future labs, not because they showcase technological novelties, but present what still has genuine charm in a world of constant upheaval. In a world where artificial intelligence will take over 75% of our tasks, authentic human presence remains the greatest competitive advantage.
The golden era of events is not imminent; it is here already. We just have to embrace it.
The advertising industry is well aware of this. Still, the question remains: are we aware of this in the events industry? The future remains bright for those who know how to create moments that count and those who believe that real connectivity is not dictated by algorithms but is created by human touch, face-to-face interactions, spontaneous grins and mesmerising audiences.
