As AI-generated content floods the internet, one of Australia's largest speaker bureaus reports an unexpected side effect: a surge in demand for in-person business events. Anne Jamieson, CEO of Saxton Speakers Bureau, said the erosion of trust in digital content is driving people back into the same room, with the company placing speakers into around 2,500 events over the past financial year despite flat corporate budgets.
The trust deficit
"I think that there's a couple of things attached to that. The first one is, and I hate to say it, but COVID really completely changed the landscape - everybody is hungry for that connection and to actually meet and to actually be in the room together," Jamieson said. She pointed to research showing that "nobody ever made a friend on Zoom."
The proliferation of AI-generated material online is compounding that hunger. "With all these digital channels and everything filling the sort of the AI generated content, the whole credibility starts to decline, because people don't know what they can and cannot trust," Jamieson said. "Whereas if you're actually meeting somebody face to face, then you're actually looking at somebody in the eyes while they're delivering a keynote - and that is where you actually build trust."
Jamieson's observations are part of a broader conversation about AI for hospitality and events. Live formats still dominate her bureau's work: 95% of speaker placements are for in-person gatherings, with only a tiny fraction delivered virtually. Hybrid formats tend to be used pragmatically, such as livestreaming a Sydney conference to interstate delegates who can't travel, rather than as a replacement for the live experience.
Redesigning for connection, not just content
With budgets flat but appetite for events intact, Jamieson said organisers are redesigning programs rather than cutting costs. "The core to this is very much about redesigning. When you're actually looking at your event, redesigning sessions for connection or asking a better registration question - those things don't cost a lot of money."
Her bigger message: less is more. "Events really need to subtract over add. That's actually a really, really big challenge for the association market," she said. "If somebody's running an event and they're bringing in 700 people, the people that are actually organising a conference often think that they've just got to pack it - because people are paying all this money to be here, we've just got to jam it. Whereas if you look at it from a research perspective, less is actually going to be more."
Content remains important, but it is not the key driver. Connection is the main reason people attend, yet most conference programs still fail to build it in intentionally. "If you go to a conference now, there's morning tea and then there's afternoon tea. There's nothing intentional about that," Jamieson said. She urged organisers to identify who in the room should be talking to whom, and why. Left unaddressed, the format favours one type of delegate. "Events are organised by extroverts for extroverts. When you have a really large group of people, and you're not forming an intentional connection, then the introverts often get left out."
Speaker selection shifts
The bar for content has risen sharply now that information is freely available online. "If you can get it on a podcast, you can get it on YouTube, you can get it on Instagram, then the program that you've put together is not relevant to your audience," Jamieson said. Relevance to the audience is now the top factor, overtaking the old habit of booking a big name to draw a crowd. Saxton's research found that 87% of participants named relevance as one of the most important factors going forward.
One category has stubbornly resisted change. Saxton, now in its 61st year, tracks its most requested topics monthly. "For 60 years, inspirational stories has always been in the top five. It's never changed. Everything else around that changes," Jamieson said. "At the moment everybody wants an AI speaker, or mental health is really topical as well. But inspirational stories is always there at the top."
Future-proofing events
Looking toward 2030, Jamieson pointed to two forces that will reshape events: personalisation and intentional connection. The next generation of delegates, raised on algorithmically tailored content, will have little patience for rigid, one-size-fits-all programming. "If you look at how they actually process information now - Instagram, everything - it's 100 per cent tailored to them. If events stay in the current format, a really rigid program, the younger generation coming through are just going to find it so foreign that they're not going to be able to attend."
That means organisers must consult delegates on what matters to them before designing the program, not after. "It's almost like you've got to reverse everything now," she said. "There's no point in developing a programme without engagement with the people that you actually want to come." Associations that fail to adapt risk fading into irrelevance, and personalisation-including delegates picking and paying for only the sessions relevant to them-is likely to force a rethink of event pricing models entirely.
Jamieson said the trends are global, not just limited to Australia and New Zealand. Saxton's research, cross-referenced against global data from the Professional Conference Management Association's 2026 corporate sector outlook, showed the same shifts playing out worldwide.
Why this matters for hospitality and events professionals
The data shows live events are not losing ground to digital alternatives-they are being reinforced by the very technology that once threatened them. The priority for professionals is no longer just filling a room with a famous name, but designing programs that deliver intentional connection and demonstrable relevance. Measuring ROI remains difficult because the biggest wins-a business deal from a contact made two years earlier-often show up long after the final session. But Jamieson's advice is clear: redesign for connection, subtract over add, and engage delegates before you build the program. Those changes cost little but can separate a thriving event from one that fades into background noise.
Your membership also unlocks:
