AI is eating the world. Or at least it’s eating our inboxes.
We can personalize email at scale. We can send personalized videos at scale. We can comment on LinkedIn posts, reply to tweets (or X’s?), write blog posts, schedule and record meetings… without doing much work.
And that’s causing all sorts of strange new human behaviors.
Have you become a top-notch spam detector? I have. I can skim my inbox and find human emails without thinking now. The rest are deleted with keyboard shortcuts before I know what my fingers are doing.
So what are we really looking for?
You. Me. Your colleagues and friends and family. We want to meet people.
I recently spoke with a friend who shared that his recent tour of Australian cities saw a lot of people come out to meet up. In-person events, no matter the scale, are back.
AI is making it happen.
Conferences may be smaller, but they’re high impact
The Accoil Team did a lot of travel this year. Each event was different. But all of them had one thing in common:
There was a joy in shaking hands, giving a hug, and making real-life connections with people. Many of whom we only knew through an avatar or profile pic.
We will all meet again
As more and more AI-generated content floods the scene, I think we’re going to fight for the chance to meet people in person.
Communities like Generate and ExitFive went from Slack community to unique, boutique events. The people raved about their events.
Companies like Wynter put on events like Spryng and they seem to get bigger and bigger. YouTube personalities like Simply Cyber put on events like Simply CyberCon and have late-night karaoke jams that may end at sunrise, but live forever as community memes.
People want to sit across a table. And they will.
What does this mean for us?
It means that no matter how small, events matter. I’d bet that no matter what business you run, there’s an opportunity to host an event.
An intimate dinner. A marquee in a field. It doesn’t matter so long as like-minded people have a chance to gather.
My business partner Kate and I talk a lot about getting on the plane to meet people. The next step for us is to turn those flights into events on the other end.
I encourage you to do the same. Get on a plane, host an event. Or bring people to you, and host an event.
We will all meet again.
Peter
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