Conferences: Because AI doesn’t shake hands

The term ‘paperless office’ was coined in 1978, when the worldwide production of pulp for paper was 120 million metric tons. Nearly 50 years later, global production reached a staggering 198 million metric tons. The paperless office was a seductive promise. And complete bollix.

And for more than a decade, digital platforms have promised businesses that all communications will be micro-targeted to exactly the consumers they are trying to reach. Big data: laser-focused. Another fantastically seductive idea. And utter bollix. A recent report from AdAge demonstrates the comical inaccuracy of targeting - for example, 67% of ‘parents’ don’t actually have kids.

Now we are told that AI is will replace everyone and everything, everywhere. Do I sense more bollix?

Every year, the movers and shakers of the tech industry will still congregate at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Insurers will go en masse to Monte Carlo. Members of the World Economic Forum will jet into Davos. And the defence industry will still go to Washington DC to meet at Spook Stock (I kid you not). Even the providers of AI platforms will be present - in person - at the Cannes jamboree for the marketing and advertising industry.

The value of the conference industry is projected to reach $2.1 trillion by 2032. Why? Because people like to catch up with each other and make new connections; share the latest gossip and the familiar jokes, and look each other in the eye. Pressing the flesh matters when you’re engaged in big, complex, long-term negotiations. Trust matters. The rest is total bollix.

Written by Simon Case

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