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NEWSLETTER 122
 
VIRTUAL EVENTS GROUP
 

 

ChatGPT is like the AOL for this generation. — Ted Shilowitz, futurist at Paramount Pictures, at SXSW discussing the future of entertainment.

 
 
 
 
 
 
March 23 | 3PM EST | Zoom
 
Meet the Creators
 
50 million people contribute to the creator economy as of 2023. It’s a 104.2 billion-dollar-a-year industry. Don’t miss the chance to hear from the creators’ mouths today.  
 
RSVP NOW
 
 
SXSW Recap
 
 
 

NFTs fell a bit into the background noise at this year’s SXSW. The grandiosity of the metaverse was walked back a bit. The banking debacle loomed large. But, in between the music and film, the SXSW crowd's mixed feelings of jubilance and terror about the emergence of generative AI were palpable. Amy Webb, CEO of the Future Today Institute, gave a top-notch trends report, the bulk of which focused on large-scale learning models that are changing the world, or at least killing the Internet as we know it, one prompt at a time. 


Our panel “The End of Events, The Birth of Engagements” experimented with what could happen inside a traditional panel session if you focused on making connections and memories while making our point. 


We flipped the idea of being on stage around by having our panelists greet each attendee personally, asking them what brought them into the room. And we kept an empty chair on stage for those who knew way more about a subject than we did to come up and share. Our attendees were greeted by the wonderful Philip Nelson, musician and broadcaster, who welcomed the audience with his dulcet tunes. You can watch a handheld rough version of the presentations, but in a nutshell, here are a few takeaways:


Sherry Huss
, Head of Community at Freeman, noted that there's a new generation of conference attendees looking for greater connection to their colleagues and industry, more hands-on learning experiences and a clear value proposition that aligns with work/life priorities. Sherry had a twinge of remorse that in our rush to return to in-person meetings, we haven’t changed things all that much. 


Michael Casey
, Chief Content Editor at Coindesk, took a moment away from tracking the inner workings of decentralized finance and crypto to paint a picture of his upcoming event. Consensus is where the token economy and gamification is baked into every facet of the event. You’ll be earning Desk, the conference’s social token, as you interact with exhibits, speakers, merch, and other attendees.


Sophie Ahmed
, the GM at Hubilo Onsite, showed us that an “event” is an event and the words like hybrid and digital will disappear into the background. Given the new tools we have to provide 365 communities, demand generation, data and analytics, and more. We’re looking at new revenue streams and a more robust and inclusive community.


Robin Raskin
, yup, that’s me, brought it home showing how today’s conference and meeting planners can use Generative AI tools to help them cut the yeoman’s job to size. 


And Jim Louderback, well, he’s always in the picture and he’ll be your emcee at our March Virtual Events Group meetup. 

 
 
From left to right: Philip Nelson, Sophie Ahmed, Sherry Huss, Michael J. Casey, Robin Raskin and Jim Louderback. Image credit: Gigi Raskin
 
 
 
Harnessing Serendipity
 

David Adler, Chairman and Founder of BizBash, has been working on, observing, and leading the events industry for a long time. Along with his colleagues James Cornehlsen and Andrew Frothingham, Adler interviews 66 “conveners” about how collaborations can work magic. You can order a copy here

 
 
 
 
TikTok’s Secret Mission as a Cultural Weapon
 
 
 

Washington’s got its panties twisted in a knot, demanding that TikTok become an American-owned entity or be banished from the kingdom. There’s plenty of reason to distrust TikTok, but in my Techonomy column this week I argue that the company’s secret mission is to rot our brains, not steal our identities.


Look, I love girls in midriffs singing in their bathrooms, crazy dude skateboard tricks, and little babies dancing, as much as the next guy, but now that TikTok is a major source of news for teenagers, things get a bit disconcerting. (I’m guessing Colbert and Kimmel are too long-form?) TikTok may in fact be a cultural weapon of mass destruction.


Still, if you’re intent on being on TikTok you’ll want to know about CapCut, its coolest secret weapon. Capcut, a quick video-editing tool, was created by ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) and it offers an easy way to churn out TikTok or other social videos that don’t suck. Its fusion of right-sized templates, stock images and video, and easy import and editing tools is worth playing with. 

 
 
CapCut from Byte Dance makes video-first social media easy. Image credit: CapCut
 
 
Scuttlebutt
 

Event No-Nos
Victoria Matey studies the psychology of events and always has a good take on how to engage your audience. Her recent post on LinkedIn gives a list of things to avoid:

  • Sessions longer than 40 minutes
  • Surveys asking over 10 questions
  • Reg forms with more than 3 fields
  • Networking breaks with 0 facilitation

Best Event Tools? 
Friend of VEG Parker Shipp works in photonics, but took the time to pass on this list of Fast Company’s 10 Most Innovative Live Event Companies. A great list! Most are devoted to “fighting the man” through more egalitarian fandom and easier ticketing. The only one we’d argue with is Eventbrite. While functional, I feel like we’re forever hunting for the tickets we purchased from them. They seem to have stagnated, and not taken the lead in ticketing. 


GPT-4
And just in case you’ve been living under a rock, there’s a new GPT in town. OpenAI just released GPT-4, claiming it has a “40% more likely chance” to produce factual answers. They also claim that GPT-4 is more creative and collaborative than the previous version. The sizzle feature is called “multimodal technology,” which allows iit to handle pictures and words in a discussion. Video is said to be next. (It will cost you $20 a month to upgrade to a paid version to use GPT-4, though it’ll also be free as part of Bing’s new version.)

 
 
 
UPCOMING
 
VEG Events
 
 
NAB Show Meets the Creator Economy
April 15-17 | Las Vegas
 

NAB explores the world of Web3 with a series of podcasts by VEG member Lori Schwartz. VEG will also be producing a slice of the NAB Show devoted to the Creator Economy. Let us know if you’ll be attending and want to be involved. 

Contact Gigi@virtualeventsgroup.org.
 
 
 
Earth Day Roundtable: Did the Pandemic Move Us Closer or Further from Sustainable Events
April 20 | 3PM EDT | ZOOM
 

Earth Day gives us a chance to take stock of how the events industry is doing on combating climate change. Did the pandemic help or hurt?
RSVP NOW!

 
 
 
 
 
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Robin Raskin | Founder
917.215.3160 | robin@virtualeventsgroup.org

Gigi Raskin | Sales/Marketing

917.608.7542 | gigi@virtualeventsgroup.org