Chatbots Are the Future of Meeting and Event Communication and Networking
Photo Credit: Attendees at the 2017 edition of IMEX Frankfurt, an annual convention for the meetings industry, had access to a chatbot, Frank, via the show's mobile app and other messaging platforms. IMEX Frankfurt / IMEX Frankfurt
Skift Take
The increased acceptance and use of chatbots and AI is changing the way event and meeting professionals connect with attendees and making events more efficient for the planners and the attendees.
When any of the IMEX Frankfurt attendees at this year's annual event for the global meetings industry needed to know the start time for a session, or where a particular exhibitor's booth was located, they simply reached for their phones and asked Frank.
Frank, a feature in the event's app, is an experimental chatbot that used artificial intelligence (AI) to interact with event attendees over messaging apps, and was capable of answering basic event questions via the event website and Facebook page. Armed with the goal of using "IMEX as a test bed for piloting new ideas under controlled and managed conditions and in a real-life environment," IMEXlabs partnered with messaging platform Scen.sio to develop Frank.
Frank passed his debut with flying colors, according to Miguel Neves, digital content and community manager at IMEX Group. Frank was "
