There is no replacement for human connection.
Engaging AI developers at industry events and community meetups is one of the most effective ways to showcase cutting-edge software and hardware, while also leaving a lasting, meaningful impression.
Events are often…
- noisy
- busy
- chaotic
- time constrained
How can a brand or product sand out?
1, 2 Punch
Many companies show up in force at industry events, but how memorable is their booth or demo? A quick look at Meetup.com shows there’s no shortage of community gatherings.
Truly connecting with an audience means going the extra mile to create an experience that’s actually worth attending.
Here are a few examples where I added the “extra” to what could have been ordinary.
1. Meetups that Matter
Meetups are everywhere, yet getting people to show up is often the hardest part.
To solve this, I led a team to design a series of live events focused on connection. We tapped into major industry conferences where our audience would be gathered and hosted casual, fun networking meetups with food, drinks, and hands-on demos.
Our measurable goal was to gather opt-in contacts. To achieve that, I created events designed with the audience in mind.
AI Summit: Developer Series
Live Events
–
35
Cities
–
10
Hands-on
Demos
20
Partners
Engaged
10+
Live events are not easy to pull off. With lots of testing, I landed on three guiding principles for hosting a successful live event.
- KISS – it’s easy to target too many metrics or too many audiences. I work really hard to cut the fat and focus on creating an event with clear goals for a hyper-targeted audience.
- Valuable – people can get food and drinks nearly anywhere. What’s valuable is providing interactive demos and peer-to-peer networking. Smart people want smart experiences.
- Fun – I always ask myself “would I want to attend this event?” It seems simple, but so many meetups are created with a stiff, branded feel that isn’t inviting or enjoyable.
Unsurprisingly, focusing on our audience often meant exceeding our marketing goals by 50 to 100 percent. I know I’ve done my job when I’m asked if we’re doing another event or when I bump into someone at the airport wearing one of our t-shirts who tells me how much they enjoyed it.
Meetups deliver more than a headcount metric; they create an emotional connection.
2. Booths that are “outside the box”
Booths come in all shapes and sizes—but most end up feeling the same.
So how do you stand out in a sea of sameness?
Be unique. Be unexpected. Be fun.
Here’s just one recent example.
At a computer vision conference, I created a Dungeons & Dragons–themed booth. Our audience tends to appreciate games, creativity and I always want our technical demos to be showcase our products in an interactive way.
We created three interactive demos:
- “Build a Dungeon” – Every adventure needs a setting. We invited our visitors to create a fantasy environment using LLMs and text-to-image tools. This world-building fun demonstrated the limitlessness to human imagination and the capability of AI to bring it to life.
- “Sidekick Synthesizer” – We asked visitors to roll a large foam D20 (20-sided dice for the uninitiated). Based on their number, they could create a fantasy character (elf, gnome, goblin, etc.) using generative AI. This blended the chance of a dice roll with the control of writing their own prompt.
- “Be the Hero” – Everyone wants to be the protagonist in their own adventure so we showed how AI could help them become the knights, wizards and lute-playing bards of their dreams.
