Last week, a comment thread stopped me in my tracks.
It began with a post from Noah Cheyer, whose business connects organizations with speakers leading the conversation on AI. And how does he market to event planners? By solving their pain points. His strategy is simple but smart: reach his buyers with tangible value. I was impressed enough to reach out and meet him.
In his latest post, Noah introduced a custom GPT designed to give planners their time back. You enter a few parameters, and it generates a complete, automated workback schedule. I tried it, and I’m a fan. The response was instant: planners flooded the comments. It hit a nerve because it solved a real problem.
Then a CEO, Jonathan, chimed in with this perspective:
“How about training the EAs and junior event planners to push back and shadow an experienced event planner to get some experience? All the time events are reduced to checklists and have zero strategy behind them, no thought on what the audience wants from the event and therefore how they should be designed, and no definition of how they will be measured. The harder it is to justify the investment in them.”
My language. My ideal client.
This is the tension many of us live in every day: efficiency vs. intention.
Tools like Noah’s are brilliant because they strip away the repetitive, mechanical parts of our jobs, giving us back time for strategy, creativity, and connection. Technology can accelerate how we do things. But there’s always a deeper why.
The best planners don’t just manage logistics; they design meaning. They ask:
✨ What’s the purpose?
💬 How should the audience feel?
🎯 What transformation should this experience create?
When events are built around empathy and measurable impact, they become more than line items...they become moments that justify every dollar spent.
So yes, AI and.
Yes to automation, and yes to the strategic minds who use it, just differently. Less tactical. More insightful.
If this tension feels familiar, let’s talk. I’d love to help you bridge that gap.
Keep thinking, keep winking,
— Denise
P.S. After 15 weeks in a row, I'm going to transition to bi-weekly (ish) winks. They will still come to you, just not every week.
Twofold Story: Helping you build journeys, not agendas.
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