How to Get Rid of The Repetitive Work Running Your Event Calendar

You already know your calendar is full. 

What you might not have counted is the hours living between the calendar items, the ones that never make it onto a project plan because they don’t feel like real work.

A speaker emails asking how to submit their bio. You reply.
They follow up with AV requirements.
You chase their session confirmation three days later.

Multiply that by twenty speakers.
Add your exhibitors running the same playbook.
Then factor in the registration confirmations you’re manually reviewing before every event.

None of it required your judgment, but all of it required your time.

This is where most event planners are bleeding hours. And the cost goes beyond time; it’s the energy you don’t have left for the work that actually matters.

So, how are the planners who scale hundreds of events dealing with this problem? 

Well, it’s two things: the right use of event tech, coupled with AI. When these two work together, all those repetitive tasks are taken care of. This issue breaks it down.

In This Issue, We Cover:

• Spotlight: The two buckets eating your calendar, and the tools built to empty them.
• Fresh From the Pod: Noah Cheyer on why most planners are getting AI wrong and how to fix it in one step.
• Reads Worth Your Time: Where to start with AI, what your platform should be doing, and the operational traps most planners keep falling into.

Spotlight: How to Get Your Time Back with AI & Event Technology

There’s no shortage of tools promising to fix your workload. But the ones that actually deliver do two very different things, and understanding the difference is what makes them useful.

AI Saves You Time by Doing the Work for You

There’s a new AI tool launching every other day, promising to take everything off your plate. 

While it may not be as simple as it sounds (it never is, though), AI tools can help take the load off if you have the right systems in place.

Here’s a realistic breakdown of what that can look like:

• Start with event outreach and email list building using Clay
• Draft event descriptions, bios, email campaigns, and social posts with Claude or ChatGPT
• Design event graphics using Canva AI
• Build sponsorship decks and presentations in minutes with Gamma
• Summarize speaker abstract submissions to speed up shortlisting through NotebookLM
• Turn a single webinar into clips, social posts, and recap content using Opus
• Generate a custom event soundtrack without briefing a vendor with Suno

Event Tech Saves You Time by Removing You from the Loop

Not everything on your plate is a creation problem. 

A big chunk of it is operational: the manual work of building, running, and reviewing every event, and then templatizing it so the next one takes less effort. That’s not AI’s job. That’s what event tech is built for.

Here’s what it handles across the full event lifecycle:

• Build branded event pages, clone past events, and set up registration forms, floor plans, and session schedules in one place
• Manage abstract submissions and reviewer workflows without a single email thread
• Keep speakers and exhibitors on track through dedicated portals where they self-serve, and you see progress at a glance
• Schedule your full marketing campaign and email sequences in advance so they run on autopilot
• Handle check-in, badge printing, onsite logistics, and engagement tools without manual processing
• Push data to your CRM and pull cross-event reports without manually compiling anything

But Here’s Where It Gets Really Good

When your event tech already has AI built in, you stop switching between tools because everything lives in one place. The AI works from your actual event data, which means it’s already in context and ready to go. Here’s what that looks like with vFairs:

• The AI writing assistant drafts landing page copy, email campaigns, social posts, and speaker bios inside the platform
• The AI event assistant in the mobile app answers attendee questions in real time, so your team isn’t fielding the same queries all day
• The AI matchmaking tool recommends the right attendee connections based on criteria you set, without manual curation
• The AI reporting chatbot lets you query your event data in plain language instead of digging through dashboards

One platform, both problems solved.

Here’s the full picture of what each one handles, and where they come together.

Fresh From the Pod: Why Most Planners Are Getting AI Wrong

Knowing which tasks to hand to AI is one thing. But, actually making it work is another. 

Noah Cheyer, Co-Founder of Speak About AI, joined us for our podcast to talk about this. 

He believes most planners are failing because they’re going too broad too fast, which means they end up with five subscriptions they barely touch instead of one tool they’ve actually gotten good at. 

People want AI for the practicality — saving two to three hours of manual work in a day so they can make their kid's soccer game or actually have an eight-hour workday.

Noah Cheyer

Co-Founder of Speak About AI

Start with your most painful repeatable task rather than the most impressive use case. 

And when you do find a tool that works, treat it as a first-draft partner rather than a decision-maker — it gets you to 50-70% faster, but you’re still the one bringing it home.

Reads Worth Your Time

Here are some reads that clarify how AI and event tech can streamline your everyday tasks.

• Still writing event content from scratch? Here are 23 ways AI can take the first pass.
• Not sure if your event tech platform is doing enough? Here are 24 features worth looking for.
• Same operational headaches every cycle? Here’s where most planners are still getting stuck.

The tasks that don’t need you shouldn’t have you. Hope this issue helps you find a few more hours where you least expected them.

See you next month.