PCMA
Flying in a new world with AI as co-pilot
WE ’ RE NOT THE SAME AS WE WERE BEFORE THE PANDEMIC – WE ’ RE BETTER EQUIPPED TO HANDLE THE CHALLENGES WE ’ RE FACING , SAYS PCMA AND CEMA PRESIDENT & CEO SHERRIF KARAMAT , CAE
W hen the global business events community gathered at the San Diego Convention Center , California , in January for PCMA Convening Leaders , bringing together 5,000 participants from 47 countries , we broke our previous attendance record , set at our prepandemic meeting in 2020 . Among the many lessons the pandemic brought the world is that face-to-face connection is irreplaceable .
But I ’ m not looking backwards .
We ’ re not the same industry that we were before the pandemic , and we are not living in the same world .
We face many problems , including the fact that society is divided and polarised around the globe .
The effects of the climate crisis can ’ t be consigned to some far-off future but are on our doorsteps , demanding urgent action . A workforce that is quickly redefining the future of work . And the widespread adoption of generative AI tools , which has many benefits and at
Above : Sherrif Karamat
“ What we are about to witness in the next two years is beyond science fiction .” the same time , can contribute to the spread of disinformation , brings new meaning to the term ‘ disruption ’. AI is “ the biggest disruption in the history of humanity by a very large margin ,” Mo Gawdat , the former CEO of Google X , told us in San Diego . “ What we are about to witness – some people will say in the next 20 years , I will say in the next two years – is beyond science fiction .”
These are enormous challenges that ask us to expand our thinking and act in new ways . And one of the reasons that I have great confidence that we are up to the task is that we are not the same organisation or community that we were when the pandemic began four years ago . PCMA ’ s footprint now spans five continents , a sign not only of an expanding global influence , but our increased capacity to join with others who bring new ideas and approaches to solving problems .
We believe in the power of technology combined with our humanity to bring about positive change . Last year , PCMA , in collaboration with Singapore-based Gevme , funded the tech start-up , SPARK , which uses AI tools to automate business events tasks and processes along with many other enterprise productivity gains . SPARK continues to evolve rapidly as the space is changing so quickly and so has been the adoption by our industry . And later this year , we ’ ll launch the industry ’ s first climate tech conference .
A community of 5,000 business event professionals in more than 40 countries is now engaged with SPARK , stepping ahead of the technology revolution that is coming at us and coming at us quickly . Please join us if you haven ’ t already , by visiting sparkit . ai . As we navigate a new world , AI truly can be our co-pilot . n
ISSUE 129 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 15