Why AI Technology Will Make Me Double Down On Live Events

Why AI Technology Will Make Me Double Down On Live Events

Why AI Technology Will Make Me Double Down On Live Events 

You would think that the requirement to meet face-to-face would decline in a technology-dominated world where we can just about communicate with anyone in real-time anywhere in the world. During the mad COVID years, much of the data and evidence pointed to this as happening because it was forced and will continue. 

So why would I spend my time doing many face-to-face, in-person meetings and events in a world where time is your most valuable asset? You know where you can see, touch, smell, eat and drink with other lumps of human biology. 

First, this quote is super relevant to where we are today.

“A new medium becomes invisible during the period of its innovation, that only artists can see today and sense that the future is already here while everyone else lives in the past” Marshal McLuhan

I am far from being an artist, but I was talking, presenting and attending events about AI long before 30 Nov 2022. Some deep feelings were ringing bells that were louder than those I heard in the '90s about the internet and those that rang about social media in the early 2000s.


When talking about AI in tourism in 2018, most of the audience thought I was a bit insane.

Those who read my ramblings will know I am a huge advocate of what I foresee as the level of change that AI will bring to the travel and tourism industries over the short, medium and long term. I could not be more excited about that if you poked me with a hot poker.

However, I also see the inevitable direction of what will happen to information which masquerades as content in today's world. 

It is easy to see a world soon where 99% of information/content, including written, photography, video, and podcasts, will be produced by AI and, in many cases, delivered by AI. So what does this mean?

Humans have evolved over millions of years, and where our current ideas of what is reality and the consensus will collapse. Even if this happens over a 10-20-year period, it will still be extremely disturbing, and simple terms mess with our heads. I am not discounting the 1-5 year window on this, just hoping it does not happen, but at 50/50 on it doing so. 

When you mess with people's heads at the scale and frequency that this can be delivered, you get global society change, which usually shapes itself into chaos that no one predicts.

Now the captain obvious is going to chime in with us. “We will devise a way of marking AI content to see what is true human-produced and what is not”. We may well do, and I think we will,  but the scale of the production and the consumption level will make that more or less irrelevant. 

So what is left if 9 billion heads will be filled with a content flow 1000000 X more than what flows today and is being produced by AI, not people?

Yes, that old-fashioned thing of meeting in person, pressing the flesh and looking people in the eye and getting a sense of connection or bullshit. This is way outside my addiction to travel, tourism and technology. This is at the societal level, where the majority of people's daily interactions will be with an AI or many different AIs. Many people today already live a lonely, isolated life, and this is already sucking them in, and it will do for many millions more. There is $ to be made at off-the-scale levels if you just park your morals for five or ten years and create the systems to double down on this lonely people trend and give them AI ” friends”. There are some cases where this is a good thing for people with medical conditions I have seen it in action and it is inspiring. However, for the majority, it may make you smarter, but that is irrelevant if you forget how to interact with other humans to experience the ups and downs of a life well lived.

The Opportunity To Grasp With Both Hands 

Do not ignore AI, whether your thoughts about it are good, bad or do not care. It will change your life and everyone else's on the planet. This will be the most significant period in human history regarding health, science, and productivity. I still have huge questions about where the wealth flows to, who holds the power, and what it does to people who will be living very different social and people interaction lives from what we have done in history so far. 

Step forward the largest industry in the World—travel, tourism and hospitality. The industry has been built on connecting people with people. First locally, then regionally, then internationally. This purpose of “connecting: is now more critical than at any time in history.

The industry is uniquely positioned not just to ride the raging ocean of waves of technology change that will improve every business in the sector and, most importantly, give all guests a much better experience of dealing with all the nuts and bolts of the industry, which let be honest, many are a pain in the backside. He says as he is sitting in Gatwick eating crap airport food after having to come out of the terminal after arriving to then re-check in for another flight. Connected travel my backside! Yes, I know it is a first-world problem, but come on, we do not need AI to fix so much of the basics.

Anyway, ignore my grumpiness and focus on the opportunity. So many different parts of our industry can

  1. Improve service levels to customers on a significant scale due to AI
  2. Give guests a break from living in an AI world and create unique places and experiences focused on keeping people mixing with people

That is a win-win. This is a concept I have matured to nurture rather than constantly trying to win everything, from walking up stairs to beating my dogs at running. The last one stopped years ago!

So, in our small way, we will do our part to help the travel industry transition to an AI future and, at the same time, create as much space and places with design for people to spend time with people because that is when true magic happens.

This list below will grow to over 50 destinations in the next couple of weeks for, 2025. There is no way I will be in attendance at all, as my dogs already think I am a lodger.

If you want to host a small early evening Shindig event for tour operators and any connected travel industry professionals in any destination in the world, drop me a line. They are all 100% free to attend and can be 100% just social, or those with the ability can do a 1hr pre-training/education session on any relevant subjects that tour operators need.

The future will crash into you and the rest of humanity like a tatsumi wave. It is best to learn to swim in advance. 

Pete

PS Here are the first ten events for 2025. Since putting the message out this morning, we already have another 26 to add, so we are confident we will be at 50 by next week. "2 Dec update: we now have events happening in 50 cities."

https://lu.ma/tourpreneur


Laura Rieveley

Leading Growth Through Creativity, Technology, and Purpose

1mo

I love your obsession with AI, Pete. There is so much out there currently that allows tourism operators to level up, whether that is pre-visit or in-destination. But what resonates most with me in your post is the emphasis on human connection. AI is undoubtedly reshaping the industry—streamlining operations, personalising experiences, and automating the mundane. Yet, it’s precisely because of this digital shift that the value of face-to-face, in-the-moment experiences will skyrocket. Tourism has always been about creating moments that transcend screens—moments that linger in the memory because of the people we share them with. Leveraging AI to handle the background noise enables us to double down on crafting those interactions, ensuring the “human touch” remains at the heart of travel. It’s not AI vs. humanity; it’s AI and humanity working together to build something extraordinary. Smartvisit would love to host a Shindig event in 2025 to show what's possible. Let’s keep pushing boundaries!

🌏 Peter Syme 🌍

Strategic Travel & Tourism Advisor | Speaker | Travel Tech Advisor | Podcast Host | Adventure Specialist | Community Building

1mo

If anyone wonders about the power of community combined with one of today's most critical strategic tools "speed" since posting this yesterday here and in our community FB group in less than 24 hrs, we are now at 45 global destinations launching and hosting events in 2025. I suspect our target of 50 will be blown by the end of today.

airport lounges truly serve as remarkable incubators for innovative thinking about ai's impact on our travel industry. 💡 #futuretravel

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