AI Agents, the Joy Factor: Our 7 Takeaways From IMEX America 2026 – Event Marketer

The fifteenth annual IMEX America introduced collectively over 17,800 occasion professionals, venues, and locations to Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas Oct. 13-15. More than 96,000 scheduled conferences—an equal of 5 years—came about in the course of the occasion’s largest version to this point. Here’s what stood out to us in periods and on the busy showfloor.

Who’s your AI agent?

Love it or hate it, AI conversations dominated many discussions, and AI brokers have been firmly within the limelight. “Your next registrant may not be human,” mentioned Jeanne Sheehy, cmo at Bostrom, in her session. AI brokers are more and more taking motion on behalf of their people, from interacting with occasion web sites and registration platforms to reserving journey and compiling schedules. This has vast implications for occasion planners and AI customers.

On the one hand, web sites and different sources is probably not prepared for an interplay with an AI agent. On the opposite hand, agent know-how continues to be in its infancy, and the operational dangers of its errors are excessive. Sheehy says, “You have to treat them like an intern—would you let them run wild without training?”

Before granting them entry, Sheehy suggests organizations ought to map the place information lives, together with AI instruments and shared drives, clear outdated information, outline entry and opt-in guidelines, and assign clear accountability for information high quality and governance. Pilot one low-risk workflow, audit an end-to-end journey and measure outcomes earlier than scaling.

Give brokers solely the entry they want, check constantly and by no means grant administrative entry. Use spot-checking for low-risk actions, human checkpoints for moderate-risk modifications, and people-only management for high-risk choices.

Plan for ready attendees.

Attendees are more and more doing their analysis on particularly what they need to see after which come to the occasion to expertise it in actual life. For attendees within the 23- to 46-year-old vary, often known as the Now-Gen Event Goers (NGEG), 75% say skills-building is pivotal when in search of out occasions, a helpful perspective for exhibitors planning activations. These attendees are in search of readability about whether or not and the way they are going to obtain these targets earlier than making choices about registering, in keeping with Freeman’s newest traits report. “It’s not late registration. It’s late decision-making,” says Ken Holsinger, Freeman’s government vp of trade analysis and insights.

One of the essential elements holding them again is a lack of knowledge throughout that analysis section. AI comes into play right here, with 82% claiming to make use of it to establish a brief listing {of professional} occasions. Organizers ought to make their occasion data AI-friendly. Exhibitors may also use this chance to ship related information with pre-show communications.

Talking is traumatic. Let’s play.

With hundreds of conferences occurring round IMEX, it was fascinating to see what number of exhibitors lowered the strain by giving attendees one thing to do with their palms whereas speaking. Less eye contact, a pleasant memento, a extra constructive interplay. From taking part in with Legos to constructing bracelets with nuts and making clicky keychains, artistic hands-on pursuits stored conversations going or helped fill gaps between conferences. Our favourite, after all, was big slime vats and mini-slime tubs (Partner: Sloomoo) that may very well be personalised and performed with throughout periods a lot to the shock of the audio system. 

AI instruments trade.

Back to that dialog—it was arduous to disregard the overflowing periods specializing in tried and examined AI instruments. Beyond Claude and Copilot, right here’re only a few that acquired the nod:

—> Gamma.app: Presentations and proposals.
—> ElevenLabs: Speaker introductions, skilled audio.
—> Suno: Makes songs from textual content. Think occasion anthems and walk-up music.
—> Riverside: Record and edit podcasts and video interviews.
—> Voxo: Session summaries, occasion reviews.
—> NotebookLM: Google’s choice instrument for analyzing suggestions, connecting insights.
—> Lovable: Websites and occasion apps with out coding. 

Immersive sponsorship activations, measured. 

More activations than ever turned up the enjoyable within the foyer in entrance of the doorway. Among them: Newport Beach’s lifeguards and a jeep scene, Scottsdale’s 360-degree LED tunnel with dreamy Sonoran desert, Major League Baseball’s personalised bobbleheads and baseball playing cards, Disney’s picture experiences, and Destination Canada’s bright-red hydration station with flavored water. Behind the scenes, sponsors have been in a position to measure impressions, dwell time and what number of attendees made it from the off-floor activation to the sales space, amongst different KPIs, with know-how from Zenus and Crowd Connected. 

Bonus supplies are cash.

Arguably, probably the most useful a part of many displays was extra supplies obtainable on the conclusion. From promo codes to a particularly detailed measurement information, sources shared strengthened the connection and introduced lasting energy. 

Is pleasure actually a brand new KPI?

A stunning variety of periods targeted on what would possibly seem to be the softest, but in addition a particularly coveted, metric. Jenn Whitmer, ceo of Joysity Works, cited a 31% enhance in productiveness and a 25% enhance in group efficiency when individuals expertise pleasure at work. She advised figuring out what makes you’re feeling lucky, linked and purposeful in addition to figuring out toil, the other of pleasure, and taking company.

New know-how, together with facial sentiment monitoring, are making it potential to assign a quantity to an emotion. Tahira Endean’s new ebook, aptly titled “Our KPI is Joy,” argues that occasions anchored by pleasure can increase studying, create connection, and in the end create a greater world. We agree.

Have a narrative concept? Reach out to EM’s editor-at-large Anna Huddleston.