How to Use ChatGPT in Event Planning
EVENT PLANNING GUIDE
How to Use ChatGPT in Event Planning
Updated on September 26, 2026 | Written by Rachella Thomas
When this guide was first written back in 2021, it was called ‘13 Ways to Use ChatGPT in Event Planning’ because we were just learning about the extent of its usefulness. At that time, 13 ways seemed like a lot, and people were surprised I’d found that many.
Today, ChatGPT is a huge part of many event planners’ daily work life. We are regularly flicking over content to proofread and refine.
But it’s easy to forget that many people are still learning how to use ChatGPT in their event planning.
So I thought it was time to update it with the three main approaches I see in use today. This guide covers my three favourite ways you can use ChatGPT to save time and add some spice to your events.
ChatGPT as a Creative Collaborator
ChatGPT is more than just a copywriter. It can also be your creative collaborator.
This was one of the first things I tested back in 2021.
Could ChatGPT actually come up with an event concept that wasn't completely terrible?
This was the prompt:
Develop three creative concepts for a 500-person end-of-year gala for an IT company. The venue is a converted warehouse and the theme is “Innovation through Creativity”. For each concept, suggest an event format, styling direction and guest experience.
And you know what? The results were pretty good.
Was I willing to copy and paste the concept into a client proposal on the first prompt? No. But ChatGPT offered good ideas that got me thinking. And that's where it's useful.
Ask it for three different approaches to a brief. Tell it the first three are too predictable and ask for something stranger. Give it your audience and ask what they might actually enjoy. Take one idea you like and keep pushing it.
You can use it to explore event formats, themes, entertainment, programming, activations, names and guest experiences.
Think of it as another person in the brainstorm. You still decide which ideas are worth pursuing.
ChatGPT as a Marketing Assistant
This is the easy one, and probably the one you’re already using it for.
Give ChatGPT enough information about your event, and it can knock out a perfectly decent first draft of an email, social post, event listing, invitation, media release or attendee FAQ in seconds.
The key words are "enough information."
If you type “Write an Instagram caption for my conference”, don't be surprised if you get something painfully generic back.
Tell it what the event is, who's coming, why they should care, what you want the communication to achieve and how you want it to sound. Brief AI like you'd brief a person. - give it context and clear, detailed information.
We've also used it to help get proposals, supplier briefs and other working documents underway. Again, I wouldn't blindly use what it produces. But staring at something you can edit is often considerably easier than staring at a blank page.
And anything legal, contractual, financial or safety-related needs proper checking. ChatGPT can help you draft and think. It doesn't inherit your professional responsibility.
ChatGPT as an Event Planning Assistant
And finally, here’s where I think things get more interesting.
Don't just ask ChatGPT to create things. Give it some of your actual event-planning work and ask it to help you think it through. Here we start to move into AI Agent territory.
Here are a few examples:
Upload your Event Brief Template and ask:
What information is missing before I start building the project plan? Don't make assumptions. Give me the questions I still need to answer.
Upload your Run Sheet Template and ask it to look for gaps, strange timings or things that haven't been allocated to anyone.
Upload your Risk Assessment Template, along with a description of your event, and ask it to suggest a list of risks and ways to mitigate them.
That's when ChatGPT starts feeling less like a copywriter and more like an assistant.
Event Templates + AI
We see enormous potential in combining professional event planning templates with AI. So much so that we’ve now included AI prompts in every Event Kit template.
The template gives you the professional structure. AI helps you work through it.
Instead of asking ChatGPT something broad like “plan my event,” start with a proven template framework and use AI to help populate it, review your thinking, identify gaps, organise information or explore your options.
Of course, AI still gets things wrong. It makes assumptions if you let it, and it certainly doesn't know your event as well as you do. Never assume the information it gives you is 100% accurate.
But give it a clear job and good information to work with, and it can save you a surprising amount of thinking time.
The trick is knowing what to ask, what information to provide and when to question the answer. If you want to see how we use AI across different parts of event planning, read our 60+ AI Prompts for Event Planning, covering everything from budgets and run sheets to risk management, venues and supplier communications.
Pro Tip: Play with it. Give it more information. Tell it when you don't like the answer. Ask it to try again. The first response is rarely the interesting one.
Read 60+ AI Prompts for Event Planning
→ If you found this Event Kit Guide useful, feel free to share it with a fellow event planner or your event network. They’ll appreciate you passing it on.
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Meet Your Mentor
Rachella Thomas is an award-winning event producer with more than 26 years of experience delivering major events. Her work includes the Australian Open, Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay, Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, and other renowned large-scale events and festivals.
Rachella founded Event Kit, where she turns decades of professional event know-how into practical tools for event planners worldwide.
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