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NEWSLETTER 143
 
VIRTUAL EVENTS GROUP
 

According to the World Economic Forum anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of current business tasks will be automated by 2027. And the people who aren't replaced outright will have their work augmented by "Intelligent Digital Workers" — AI routines that handle low-level tasks formerly performed by humans.

 
 
 
 
 
 

We hope you’re chasing the last few weeks of whatever summer dreams you have. One of my favorite songs this time of year comes from Jonathan Richman. Called That Summer Feeling, it evokes memories you didn’t even know you had.


Meanwhile, our hearts go out to anyone living through the hardships caused by extreme weather and climate incidents across the globe. We’ve been following a great newsletter, HeatMap, that keeps you up to date on every aspect of how climate affects your lives. May your days be temperate. For event creators, weather is not a new factor, but it is one to take increasingly seriously. We hear that Burning Man tickets for this week’s annual desert gathering are going cheap, in part because last year’s weather was so uncomfortable and no one knows what to expect this year. 


Virtual Events Group Fall Season

In addition to creating a meeting space to learn and share information about how to make better meetings, we get asked to do quite a bit of consulting about making great events. Here’s what’s on tap for the remainder of the year. We’d love for you to join us if it’s a good fit for your product, service, or thought leadership.

 
 
 
Alibaba CoCreate
September 7
Resorts World, Las Vegas
 
Alibaba CoCreate: Amazon may be the 800-pound gorilla in B2C retail, but Alibaba has a super-cost-effective, AI-powered way of linking buyers and sellers in a B2B world. I’ll be speaking about the beauty and retail industries at CoCreate, Alibaba’s first industry show. (It’s sold out.)
 
 
 
Toyfair
September 30 - October 3
Javits Center, NYC
 
The summer of Barbie and extreme licensing as a sport, is coming to an end. That means it's Toy Fair time. Virtual Events Group is moderating two great panels, one on how AI is being used in the toy industry and the second on how the toy industry can take advantage of the creator economy. Full schedule here. 
 
 
 
IMEX
October 17 - 19
Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
 
IMEX is the leading trade show for the meetings, incentives, conferences, events and business travel industry. The Virtual Events Group (VEG) and DAHLIA+Agency are focused on the tech-forward part of events. We’ll be exhibiting, answering questions and podcasting live from the show. Our thesis? Tech-forward destinations are shaping the future of meetings and events. Contact us if you’d like to be involved.
 
 
 
Communications Week
November 6-10
Hyatt Regency, Austin, Texas
 
Communications and PR have changed, especially because of social media, AI tools, and community-building tools. At CommsWeek we have an opportunity to showcase products that free communications professionals from the grind and let them focus on creating winning strategies. Our Virtual Events discount to exhibit at Comms Week is your discount, too. From Video to AI — if it helps communicators do it better then we want to hear from you. You’ll reach more than 150,000 business professionals.
 
 
 
 
Auld Lang Syne
That’s calendar overload enough for this week, but come January we’re building our acclaimed conference areas at CES, a new video-first look at events at Silicon Valley Video, and then heading into the all-important Creator Squared destination at the NAB show. Our busy new year should be your busy new year too. Together, it means good business for all of us. We’re looking for panel speakers, sponsorship opportunities, networking, thought leadership and media partnerships.
 
 
AI and the Events Business
IMEX ran a nice piece on how AI is changing up the events business. The article called out PCMA and Gevme (omnichannel event management) for having launched Project Spark, an AI productivity tool designed to jumpstart event planning tasks, such as writing session descriptions, speaker bios, video transcriptions and agendas. It could be a game-changer for events. The team claims there could be a 70 percent time savings on the blood, sweat, and tears that go into event planning.
 
 
Scuttlebutt
 
 
 

LinkedIn Alert
LinkedIn may be one of the few acquisitions that Microsoft didn’t screw up. It continues to be the best place to use social media to drive business relationships. But there’s trouble in River City. LinkedIn has suffered a number of security breaches recently, and it’s not the first time.

Cyberint, a digital risk company, advises LinkedIn users to log in to their accounts and confirm access ASAP. Users should check that the content and contact information in their accounts belong to them. LinkedIn users also should check their email inboxes for messages from LinkedIn indicating the addition of an extra email to their accounts, which could mean they were hacked.

 
 

ARHT Brings Lifesize Telepresence to Meetings 
I’m not totally convinced that I want audiences to watch a lifesize hologram of me deliver a speech, but it’s happening. ARHT is at the head of its class for this technology, though it comes with a hefty price tag and a lot of motion capture. Some larger companies and big keynotes are starting to use the tech to make a splash and/or increase engagement.

 
 
DHL uses ARHT telepresence to drive its meetings. Image Credit: ARHT
 
 

The Very Grey Area of Copyright and Generative AI
Andy Warhol painted Cambell’s soup cans. That has become the gold standard to help determine copyright infringement. Ultimately, it was deemed that Warhol’s soup cans did not infringe on Cambell’s soup copyright (in fact, they loved the free marketing) because it was a derivative work with a unique artistic value of its own. How does that translate to the world of generative AI, where it’s ridiculously easy to take the work of a famous artist (say, a DC comic book artist) and make a minor change in Midjourney to call it your art? 


Last week in DC, the courts ruled that artwork created by artificial intelligence isn’t eligible for copyright protection because it lacks human authorship. Huh, isn’t it humans that are pressing the buttons that create the images? We’re entering uncharted territory under copyright law, which was always dicey territory to begin with. For users of Generative AI, the best advice we can give you is to disclose, disclose, disclose! Your image credit should include the prompt you used to create your artwork and cross your fingers that you do not become the test case.

 
 
 
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Robin Raskin | Founder
917.215.3160 | robin@virtualeventsgroup.org

Gigi Raskin | Sales/Marketing

917.608.7542 | gigi@virtualeventsgroup.org