AI for Event Planning: Three Ways to Take the Stress Out of Your Next Event

September 01, 2026•10 min read

A Practical Guide for Business Owners and Communicators

Running events is not our favourite thing to do. It takes a lot of work to do it well, and it is not for the faint-hearted. What we find is that the more planning you do ahead of time, and the more contingencies you put in place in case things go wrong, the better the event is.

We like to feel well prepared and calm throughout an event, rather than running around freaking out in case something goes wrong. That feeling comes down to the work we do beforehand, and this is exactly where AI earns its place.

We have run a webinar on this topic before and it was a popular one, although there is so much to event planning that we could not fit everything in. This session covered three more of the tips and tricks we use when running events.

So Many Little Decisions

Once you get a handle on the process it becomes easier, because you have your processes in place and you become comfortable with it. If you are new to running events, there are so many little decisions to make and so many things to think about to make sure it comes across the way you want it on the day. Three of them cause more grief than the rest.

The date

You want to be sure the date you select, particularly for a public event, is actually a good date. You do not want to be running an event when there is another big event taking the attention of your target audience, or when it clashes with the speakers who want to come, or when the venue is not even available.

Information scattered everywhere

Events become a very messy affair when you have multiple spreadsheets in all different places. One for the budget, one for the RSVPs, a work in progress document, all these different things going on. Things get confusing and you can easily forget something.

Explaining what the room will look like

Mood boards used to be the answer here. Sticking things down, pinning things on Pinterest, anything to give yourself an idea of what the room was going to look like. Now you can get a very realistic view of the themes well before the night, and change it until it is right.

All of these little decisions make up the overall event experience. AI can help you do them in a much easier way than the hours they would have taken before.

The Golden Rule

Before we get into the tools, this is the part that matters most. AI can do the legwork, but you still make the final decision.

The tool speeds things up, and you need that human element overseeing what is going on. You are responsible for what AI does on your behalf. It may come back to you with multiple decisions already made, and the quality control is still yours.

None of the three tools in this session require a new subscription. Free versions will get you there, with limits of course.

Step One: Picking a Date That Works

The tool for this one is Manus, which is an AI agent. You send it off to do a task, and it goes away and does it.

Doing this manually would take you hours, because you would need to check all the event calendars online just to be sure your date is not going to clash with something major. The hardest part of any event, we think, is getting people to actually turn up. With the wrong date, they will cancel you out immediately.

The approach is to give Manus a set window, so a timeframe and a location, and then give it constraints to work around. School holidays, public holidays, whatever else matters for your audience. Manus can miss some of the local industry events, which comes down to the way you prompt it, so name those in the prompt too.

The prompt

I'm planning a [event type] for approximately [number] attendees in [location]. I'm looking at [month or timeframe] and I need [a weekday, evening, full day or half day]. Research and identify dates that avoid school holidays, public holidays in [state] and the days either side, major events in [city] that would compete for attention or accommodation, and known industry events in [sector]. Give me your top five options ranked, with a short explanation of why each one works and any risks to it. Flag anything you're uncertain about.

What came back

Our example on the day was a karaoke high tea fundraiser for 100 attendees in Coolum, on a weekend afternoon in late October, in the charity sector. Manus came back with the 24th of October as the strongest available date and the 17th of October as the backup, along with the full assessment behind both.

It picked up that the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show begins the following Wednesday, so no clash there. It flagged the other big local events around that time, listed the school holidays, and gave the rationale for each option. Every source was included too, so you can click straight through and check that it is all legitimate.

You would still want to double-check, because AI can get it wrong. Even so, that took minutes. Imagine doing that on your own.

Watch the demonstrations

Watch the full webinar recording below where Dr Karen runs all three demonstrations live, including the one that decided not to work on the day:

Now that you have seen them in action, here is what the other two tools do for you.

Step Two: Building an Event Day Dashboard

Claude is great at writing and all sorts of other things, and it can also build things for you. Here we used it to bring the important information onto one screen, so you can watch the day unfold rather than flicking between documents and tabs.

It takes four steps.

Name the event and the venue. Give it the who, what, where, when, how and why.
Ask for the dashboard you want. Tell it what you want on there.
Let it build. It can pull live information from some websites like the weather, and potentially things like traffic.
Iterate. Change the colours, brand it, add whatever else you need.

Whether live weather information comes through depends on the API and whether the website allows the AI tool to access its data. Many websites do. For example, we built a dashboard for strategic communicators working in disaster management in India that brought weather information from across the country together in one place.

Worth knowing: if you are relying on internet data and something happens with the feed, you will lose it. Include other information as well so the dashboard still earns its spot on the screen.

The prompt

Build me an event day dashboard for my [event type] at [venue name] on [date]. Include the rundown [bump in at 4pm, and so on], a slider showing the catering numbers needed, the time, the sunset time and the weather forecast. It will run on a screen at the venue for people to look at, so make it clear enough to read, and style it in [brand colours].

What it looks like

The one we built the day before was an open day dashboard for UniSC. A countdown to the doors opening, the time feeding straight through, the weather forecast, and the run sheet showing which phase we were in at that moment. Sunset was on there. The catering order sat at three serves per person with a slider, so you can see exactly how much you need as the numbers move.

On the day of the webinar, the new one refused to load. Such is the joy of live AI demonstrations. Sometimes they simply do not work, but the version from the day before did the job beautifully.

Step Three: Seeing the Room Before You Dress It

The third one uses ChatGPT to dress your venue without touching a single tablecloth. This is useful when you are working with a client, or showing a venue you are paying for exactly what you would like. Getting what you want is so much easier when you can really show it to people.

Start with a photo of the venue, then describe what you want in it. Everything from the lighting to the colours, the linen, the flowers and any feature items. Generate it, have a look, then go back and forth to refine it.

The prompt

Here is a photo of my event venue. Restyle the space with the following dressing, keeping the room's actual architecture, windows and so on. Colour palette: [colours]. Table settings: [round tables of eight]. Linen and styling: [white tablecloths with red and gold napkins, tiered high tea plates and tea sets]. Florals and centrepieces: [red roses]. Lighting and mood: [candlelight, elegant]. Make it photorealistic.

What came back

The karaoke high tea came back looking lovely in red, black, white and gold, with the tiered plates and the candlelight in place. The karaoke was not especially obvious, although there were definitely speakers in the room. You can go back and refine it, and you can always edit the image afterwards.

ChatGPT is what we used here. Gemini is really good for images too. We chose the tools most people already have open.

What Still Needs You

AI does the legwork. You bring the judgement. Here is what still needs a human eye:

Dates that look clear until you check them against a local calendar
Live data feeds that drop out without warning
Room designs that look beautiful and ignore what the venue will actually allow
Anything a supplier or a client is going to act on

Expect to go back and forth a bit. With the dashboard you can make it as detailed as you like, and with the dates you do want to cross-check. What you get back is a lot of time in the planning stages.

Key Takeaways

Use an AI agent like Manus to shortlist event dates, then verify the sources it gives you
Ask for the top five ranked options with risks flagged, not one recommendation
Build a single event day dashboard in Claude instead of running four spreadsheets
Include static information alongside live feeds so the dashboard survives a dropout
Restyle a real photo of your venue in ChatGPT before you commit to a theme
Be specific about colours, linen, florals, lighting and mood, and ask for photorealistic
The final call on every one of these is yours

If you were going to try one of these before your next event, which would it be? Start with one step. That is all it takes to see the difference.

If you want support integrating AI strategically into your business, here are some ways we can help:

Join Dr Karen's AI Integration Sprint - helping senior leaders do the strategy work to integrate AI into their teams, certified by the AI Centre of Excellence.
Come along to the Stop Sounding Like a Robot workshop - two hours on using AI in a way that captures your own voice, for $99, including a copy of the book.
Come along to our next free webinar, AI for Lead Generation, where we look at the more accessible AI agents and how to put them to work.
Join our free Facebook community - where we share different AI tools and articles, and go live every Friday afternoon talking about what has happened in AI this week.
Book a chat with Dr Karen - let's talk about how AI can work for your specific situation.