Conference & Meetings World Issue 141 | Page 27

The Producers Room

Building agents to help lower CAC

CONSTANTINE BRIDGEMAN, CEO EVENT PRODUCER PRO, OFFERS A FRAMEWORK FOR OPERATIONALISING AI FOR CONFERENCING AND, SPECIFICALLY, LOWERING CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COSTS

W here can producers and

content managers actually build and deploy agents to solve domain-specific problems and win on visitor metrics?
Conference production agents for the outbound model- Complete framework Conference production agents for the outbound model are fundamentally research and curation agents rather than selection agents. This is a much more proactive, investigative workflow:
Topic discovery and trend analysis: These agents continuously scan industry publications, research papers, social platforms, patent filings, regulatory changes, and funding announcements to build ongoing industry knowledge and identify emerging trends and underserved topics. They distinguish between hype cycles and substantive developments, map topic adjacencies and intersections, and identify knowledge gaps in the current discourse.
Audience intelligence: They build detailed profiles of the target attendee base by analysing their current challenges and pain points, skill gaps and learning needs, business priorities and strategic initiatives, and competitive landscape pressures. This helps determine which topics will deliver genuine value versus what ' s merely trendy.
Expert identification and mapping: Rather than waiting for submissions, these agents actively hunt for subject matter experts through publication authorship and citation networks, speaking history at other events,
LinkedIn activity, GitHub contributions or technical work, podcast appearances and media mentions, and company role and project involvement. They also assess expert credibility, communication skills, perspective diversity, and audience appeal.
Primary research orchestration: The agent helps manage the interview process by generating discussion guides tailored to each expert, coordinating research calls, capturing and synthesising insights across multiple conversations, identifying consensus views versus contentious debates, and surfacing unexpected angles or contrarian perspectives.
Programme architecture: Based on research findings, the agent proposes narrative arcs across the conference( where should the conversation start and where should it end), session formats that match content needs( debate for contentious topics, workshops for skill-building, case studies for practical application), and session sequencing that builds knowledge progressively.
Content gap analysis: As the agenda develops, agents identify under-represented perspectives, topics that need more depth, potential panel compositions that would create productive tension, and opportunities to connect disparate topics in interesting ways.
Expert engagement and conversion: These agents help with outreach messaging personalised to each expert ' s interests, value proposition articulation( why this is worth their
Above: Constantine Bridgeman
time), negotiation of participation terms, and relationship nurturing through the production process.
Human-agent collaboration model: The outbound model requires more human judgment than inbound. Agents can surface candidates and topics, but experienced producers need to assess whether an expert will actually engage an audience, whether a topic has sufficient depth for a full session, and whether the overall narrative will resonate. Think of it as the agent doing the reconnaissance while humans make curatorial decisions.
Specific human-AI task division: AI-resistant tasks requiring human insight:
• Case study sourcing( requires relationship trust)
• Speaker reputation assessment( technical expertise ≠ engaging speaker)
• Emotional resonance( what will emotionally connect with audience)
• Controversy navigation( productive vs. destructive debate)
• Cultural nuance( unspoken audience expectations)
Workflow integration: These agents typically connect with CRM systems for expert relationship management, research repositories for interview notes, content management systems for session descriptions, and communication platforms for outreach and coordination.
Quantified efficiency gains:
• Overall time savings: 30-60 %+ depending on maturity level. But the real juice, is where and how you deploy this delicious time to reduce Customer Acquisition Cost( CAC) for your sales team. More on that next time! n
n We discuss this and more at MOAT Operationalising AI for Conference Production. London Museum, Docklands, 13 May, 2026.
ISSUE 141 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 27