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The More AI Creates, the More Live Events Matter | Part 2
Published 3 weeks, 1 day ago
Description
AI can generate content at extraordinary speed. It cannot recreate the trust, spontaneity, and shared memory of a live room.
In Part 2 of this Event Planner Confessions conversation, Ashley Currin continues her discussion with Jimmy Knowles, Global Head of Experiential at Canva, about artificial intelligence, human connection, experiential marketing, and the future of live events.
Jimmy explains why he is not afraid of AI and how his team uses it to reduce administrative work, improve planning, generate meeting agendas and recap emails, and create more time for creative thinking.
His goal is not to make AI the center of the experience. When the technology is being used effectively, Jimmy believes it should almost disappear into the background.
As AI becomes integrated into every tool and digital content becomes harder to verify, Jimmy believes live experiences may become one of the last trusted platforms available to audiences and brands. A physical event provides something generated content cannot: a moment people know happened directly in front of them.
The conversation also explores Jimmy’s push for greater experiential recognition at Cannes Lions. Although experiential marketers create the environments and activations that power the festival, the discipline continues to receive limited recognition through its stages and awards program. Jimmy shares the progress being made and why formal recognition could help experiential teams become part of the strategy instead of another budget line.
Ashley and Jimmy then discuss how Canva’s experiential team grew from a team of one into a group of ten marketers with complementary strengths across strategy, production, and agency work.
Finally, Jimmy shares two unforgettable Event Planner Confessions. He recounts the crisis that unfolded during Airbnb Open when thousands of attendees were spread across Paris during the terror attacks and explains why event insurance and crisis communication are now among the first things he considers.
He also takes listeners behind Canva’s polarizing Enterprise rap battle and explains how the criticism unexpectedly revealed the strength of Canva’s community and gave the company permission to become even more unapologetically itself.
In this episode, you will learn:
In Part 2 of this Event Planner Confessions conversation, Ashley Currin continues her discussion with Jimmy Knowles, Global Head of Experiential at Canva, about artificial intelligence, human connection, experiential marketing, and the future of live events.
Jimmy explains why he is not afraid of AI and how his team uses it to reduce administrative work, improve planning, generate meeting agendas and recap emails, and create more time for creative thinking.
His goal is not to make AI the center of the experience. When the technology is being used effectively, Jimmy believes it should almost disappear into the background.
As AI becomes integrated into every tool and digital content becomes harder to verify, Jimmy believes live experiences may become one of the last trusted platforms available to audiences and brands. A physical event provides something generated content cannot: a moment people know happened directly in front of them.
The conversation also explores Jimmy’s push for greater experiential recognition at Cannes Lions. Although experiential marketers create the environments and activations that power the festival, the discipline continues to receive limited recognition through its stages and awards program. Jimmy shares the progress being made and why formal recognition could help experiential teams become part of the strategy instead of another budget line.
Ashley and Jimmy then discuss how Canva’s experiential team grew from a team of one into a group of ten marketers with complementary strengths across strategy, production, and agency work.
Finally, Jimmy shares two unforgettable Event Planner Confessions. He recounts the crisis that unfolded during Airbnb Open when thousands of attendees were spread across Paris during the terror attacks and explains why event insurance and crisis communication are now among the first things he considers.
He also takes listeners behind Canva’s polarizing Enterprise rap battle and explains how the criticism unexpectedly revealed the strength of Canva’s community and gave the company permission to become even more unapologetically itself.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How Canva’s experiential team uses AI behind the scenes
- Why effective AI should almost disappear into the background
- Why live experiences may become more valuable as digital trust declines
- What “Less URL, more IRL” means for the future of events
- Why Jimmy is advocating for experiential recognition at Cannes Lions
- How experiential can move from a budget line into the strategy
- How Jimmy built Canva’s experiential team from one person to ten
- Why crisis communication and event insurance must be established early
- What Canva learned when its rap battle divided the internet