It emerges that the pressures to come up with ‘ diverse ’ platforms on the speaker lists in an area where women have been traditionally under represented drove this organiser , apparently , to ‘ create ’ fictitious female profiles .”
Leader
AI on the march for meetings , but beware the IDs of mischief
A t practically every industry forum and exhibition I have attended in the last quarter of 2023 , AI had knocked sustainability from the top of the conference and meetings agenda . Plenty of noise , but not a great deal of light , however , was the usual experience . Are we at the stage where event tech for virtual events was a decade ago , maybe ? The hype is all around , but very few seem to be practising what others preach . All meat and drink to the snake oil salesmen of course . And our cover story is about just that .
Great investigative reporting from technology influencer and writer Gergely Orosz who exposed an unscrupulous organiser caught forging fake speaker IDs
Managing editor , Paul Colston
using AI for his tech conferences . The waters get even murkier when it emerges that the pressures to come up with ‘ diverse ’ platforms on the speaker lists in an area where women have been traditionally under represented drove the organisers , apparently , to ‘ create ’ fictitious female profiles . Clearly the AI did a good job as one of the leading male speakers at the DevTernity conference in question claimed he had been fooled into agreeing to attend , having seen the ‘ fake ’ women in the speaker line up .
So , as the charge to bring AI into more benign areas of marketing and data gathers pace and will , no doubt , save a lot of time and effort , that old saying of ‘ You only get out what you put in ’ rings loud in my ear . Poor data in , poor data … you know the rest .
As we march into a New Year , I therefore ask for good examples of where the industry is using AI for tangible benefits in order to share real life studies for the greater good .
Meanwhile , enjoy this issue with its two mega supplements on Australia and New Zealand and plenty of other content that we hope enables you to do your job better .
Do let us know the topics you want to see covered in 2024 , too , and very best New Year wishes from all the CMW team to you all !
MANAGING EDITOR PAUL COLSTON pcolston @ mashmedia . net
PORTFOLIO DIRECTOR IAIN STIRLING istirling @ mashmedia . net
REPORTER CATIE OWEN Cowen @ mashmedia . net
PRODUCTION CONTROLLER SABRINA BOUCHER
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