How AI will change the MICE?

Three futures of the MICE industry that AI will change

Why did the cyber exhibition fail?

MICE basically presupposes meeting in reality. A collection of things that don’t happen if they don’t meet, whether it’s an exhibition, conference, or a concert or a festival, is MICE. As a result, most of the cyber exhibitions and virtual reality conventions tried 10 years ago failed. It is because they tried to replace the encounter itself with technology, ignoring the nature of the MICE business. Technology succeeds only in harmony with humans. Time has proven that if technology attempts to overthrow human beings, most of them faced fierce resistance. AI will also shine when applied to the before and after MICE process to ensure that the encounter event is successful.

Three futures of the MICE industry that AI will change

AI is a system that recognizes, infers, and predicts patterns by mimicking the process of the human brain. The core of this process, called deep learning, is the amount and quality of data required for learning. The reason why so-called big data is the core of AI is to reduce the error of inference and prediction. We already realized this through the gap between AlphaGo and Han Dol, where professional Baduk player Lee Se-dol competed against in Korea.

How will AI change the MICE industry? In conclusion, AI will change the future of the MICE industry in the heart of MICE, the three areas that support meetings.

(1) Personalization: AI will analyze visitors’ pre-registration information and recommend booths to visit.

Up to now, visitors to the exhibition have pre-registered to provide the organizer with information on the purpose of the visit and the companies of interest. In reality, however, the information provided by the visitors did not return to any benefit to the visitors (except for free entrance when pre-registered). No one visits every booth they need. In particular, busy business customers such as buyers and journalists are bound to want more efficient viewing.

AI will analyze the personal data of pre-registrants and personally recommend booths they should visit. It is not an invitation letter that is unilaterally delivered to all visitors as it is now, but it will personally inform the location and information of the booth to be visited by individual. The so-called Booth Curation System, which, when introduced, no longer requires a large booth layout in front of the exhibition hall. The booth curation system provides benefits for visitors with efficient exhibition viewing, exhibitors secure DB of interested customers in advance. Also the organizer grasps key data such as moving routes and major visiting companies of the exhibition visitors so that it can be utilized for additional advertising revenue or exhibition planning. I’m currently working on an early AI-based booth curation system. Once this system is developed, visitors will no longer have to wander around the vast exhibition hall.

AI-based Booth Curation System

(2) Hyper-connection: AI will help the meeting in-between convention participants.

The second change in the MICE industry that AI will change is the expansion of meetings between convention participants. Convention registrants or seminar registrants attend the event through pre-registration, but it is difficult to know who other than you are attending the event and who is the speaker to listen to. The AI-based convention system can not only provide speakers who need to understand and listen to the information of pre-registrants, but also provide information to the visitors who participated in the event. This solution is already in development. UK startup Grip has been selected as the event tech company of the year by UFI and IMEX to develop a solution that supports networking among visitors and speakers.

Grip's event matchmaking solution

(3) Scalability: The computer vision system will expand the horizon of safety and security of events.

Of our five senses, vision is the most developed and studied sensory organ. As the proverb says, “Nothing is invisible.” It was this visual learning structure that inspired AI’s most successful deep learning network. The vision system is what AI learns by mimicking the human visual learning process, which brings the expandability of human vision. Already, the Singapore government is analyzing CCTV video installed during the event to predict public behavior so that is can respond quickly to security incidents. Casino consulting firm GGH Morrowitz has developed a solution to continuously monitor all gaming tables in the casino with this vision system. It mimics the human visual learning process, monitoring and patterning the whole scene to detect unusual behaviors and thoughts.

Singapore government has developed a Red Rhino Robot working with AI vision system

Casino dealer robots

It is time to decide what is creative and what is not

As in all other industries, AI will replace humans from the repetitive, labor-intensive part of the MICE industry. Some functions are already implemented to replace humans. After all, the areas that AI is hard to reach, and the areas where humans can demonstrate their skills, are inherently creative. But what is a creative domain of man? I want to say this to the question above. “This is our creative area as big as our brain thinks.”