AI expert to speak at major visitor attraction conference in Kilkenny

The upcoming AVEA (Association of Visitor Experiences and Attractions) Conference from October 13-15 in Kilkenny will see the founder of ProfileTree and AI expert Ciaran Connolly take to the stage to showcase how to effectively use AI on a shoestring to maximise marketing efforts.

Mr Connolly has grown ProfileTree from a small team of two into a strong team of 24. Online he creates videos and training, which are delivered through YouTube and various websites. He continues to drive innovation in the digital marketing landscape through the adoption of AI tools in business practices and designs, develops and supports optimised websites and e-commerce sites for a large number of companies from the USA to Australia.

“We are very excited to welcome Ciaran to the conference,” says CEO of AVEA Catherine Flanagan. “He works at the cutting edge of AI and is up to speed on what technology is evolving daily. He will demystify AI and share insights into some of the best tools for the best results. Tourism and hospitality are all about the personal touch, and AI can be a powerful and positive behind-the-scenes tool that enables us to spend more time connecting and engaging with the visitor.”

Over 200 delegates will gather in Kilkenny at the Ormonde Hotel for the seventh annual AVEA conference. In a bid to tackle tourism visitor numbers and issues head-on and work towards providing the best experience for visitors, the industry will come together.

Mr Connolly says it is clear AI is the future, no matter what happens next — it will be a bigger part of everyone’s life.

“One of the biggest challenges I see is getting staff onboard with using AI,” he says. “We are all naturally resistant to changing how we work; for example, when you ask a team of writers to adopt ChatGPT, they initially think that they are sacrificing part of their creativity but AI is a tool for facilitating creativity and content writing, instead of staring at a blank screen or putting hours into research for an article, there is a tool that could help do all of that a lot quicker.

“My delivery at the upcoming conference is to arm the visitor attraction industry with some key knowledge and tools to focus their marketing efforts and reap the most reward by doing so.”

For more, see avea.ie.