AI & Innovation Stage Solo Session
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Modern events are vast ecosystems, yet most attendees experience only a tiny fraction of what organizers build. The problem is not a lack of choice; it is a lack of guidance. While the industry has chased "personalization," most attempts result in cosmetic homepages that fail to drive meaningful behavior.
Moving beyond reactive chatbots, this session introduces the AI Concierge model. Grounded in twenty years of enterprise agency leadership and four years as Head of Global Event Technology & Innovation at Atlassian, this methodology stems from supporting boutique activations to Tier 1 global events for Google, Nvidia, and Dell. The AI Concierge approach treats AI as fundamental infrastructure shaping the attendee journey, rather than just another tool in the stack.
- Through real-world stories—including a 100x increase in session survey responses and honest post-mortems of tech that failed—we will explore:
- The Event Technology Pyramid: A framework for placing intelligence across every layer, from data foundations to moments of impact.
- Decisions Over Features: Why successful AI identifies which attendee decisions need guidance, rather than which tools to buy.
- Scaling Impact: Applying these frameworks across the spectrum from boutique gatherings to global Tier 1 programs.
Attendees will leave with a practical framework to design intelligent, guided journeys that ensure their audience never has to ask, "What should I do next?" again.
Speaker
Josh Shepherd is a global event technology leader with over 25 years of experience spanning agency leadership, enterprise operations, and technology innovation. During his years as Head of Global Event Technology & Innovation at Atlassian, he oversaw the digital infrastructure and strategy for a diverse portfolio of hundreds of events, ranging from intimate regional programs to Tier 1 global conferences.
Today, Josh focuses on the intersection of event infrastructure and AI, helping organizations move beyond reactive tools toward proactive guidance systems. Having supported technical elements of programs for organizations such as Google, Nvidia, and Dell Technologies, he is known for a "practitioner-led" approach that balances high-level strategy with the reality of event execution. Josh is a leading advocate for the AI Concierge model, a framework designed to bridge the attendee discovery gap and maximize event value through intelligent, push-based delivery.