Why Templates Are the Secret to Powerful AI

EVENT PLANNING GUIDE

Why Templates Are the Secret to Powerful AI

Updated on September 30, 2026 | Written by Rachella Thomas

There's a lot of sophisticated event management software out there. But after 26+ years in events, I still believe some of the most useful planning tools are the simplest.

A well-built spreadsheet, a well-structured event brief, or an event run sheet that everyone can understand.

These documents keep information organised, help teams work together, and make it easier to see what needs to happen next.

It's why I built Event Kit around Word, Excel and PowerPoint. They're familiar, flexible and don't require everyone involved in an event to learn another software platform.

And now that you can easily integrate them with AI, there's yet another reason why I think these tools are the best!

AI Is Only as Useful as the Information You Give It

Try asking ChatGPT to create an event budget from scratch.

You'll probably get something that looks reasonably convincing. It'll include categories for catering, venue hire, marketing and production, perhaps even a contingency allowance. But does it include the costs that actually matter for your event? Does it account for your particular suppliers, venue requirements, staffing arrangements or delivery schedule?

Probably not, without much more information from you.

This is where a professional template becomes useful. Instead of asking AI to invent a planning document, you can give it one already structured around your work.

An Event Kit budget template, for example, provides the categories and framework. You can then ask AI to help populate sections, review calculations or suggest additional costs worth investigating.

You're giving it a much better starting point.

A Good Template Does Some of the Thinking Before You Start

This is something I think gets overlooked. A professional template isn't just a nicely formatted document with a few headings. The real value is in the structure itself.

Someone has already considered what information needs to be collected, how it should be organised and what the person using the document needs to think about.

That's particularly important if you're relatively new to event planning. You might not know every question to ask when developing an event brief, or all the information that belongs in a production schedule.

A well-designed template helps guide you through those decisions. And when you introduce AI, you can ask it to work within that framework rather than start from a blank page.

What Does That Look Like in Practice?

Here are a few examples of how you might combine Event Kit templates with AI:

• Event Run Sheet: Upload your draft and ask AI to identify potential timing conflicts, missing transitions or questions that need confirming with suppliers.

• Event Budget: Use AI to review the budget categories, check calculations and suggest possible expenses you haven't considered.

• Event Brief: Ask AI to interview you section by section, helping you turn your answers into a more complete brief.

• Project Timeline: Ask AI to examine task dependencies and identify activities that may need to happen earlier.

• Risk Assessment: Use AI to help identify potential hazards for further assessment, while keeping responsibility for risk evaluation and controls with the appropriate people.

None of these requires a custom-built event management platform. You're using the documents you already understand, with AI helping you work through them.

And importantly, you still need to check the results. AI doesn't know what your suppliers have agreed to, what your venue can accommodate or whether a proposed safety measure is appropriate.

Do You Really Need Another Software Platform?

I'm not suggesting sophisticated event management software doesn't have its place. For some events and organisations, specialist platforms are absolutely worth the investment.

But I've also seen how easily planning processes become unnecessarily complicated. Another subscription, another login, another system everyone needs to learn, and another place to store event information.

Sometimes, a well-structured Excel workbook or Word document does the job perfectly well. And with AI now able to help us analyse, organise, and develop information in those familiar formats, you can do even more without introducing another platform.

For independent planners, small teams and businesses managing their own events, that's worth considering.

Start With the Right Structure

The real advantage of Event Kit templates isn't that they're simple files. They're built around the practical systems and information you need to plan and deliver events.

AI can help you work faster within those systems, but the structure is what gives you a useful starting point.

You don't necessarily need more sophisticated software. Sometimes you just need better tools and a smarter way to use them.

If you'd like to put this into practice, I've written two companion guides:

• Using AI With Your Event Kit Templates explains practical ways to combine AI with your event planning templates.

• 60+ AI Prompts for Event Planners gives you a library of prompts for event planning tasks, from budgets and run sheets to marketing and supplier management.

You can also get the professional planning tools behind both approaches in the Event Kit Shop.

→ If you found this 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.

Learn More → ABOUT

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