When Mark Cuban speaks, the business world pays attention. But his recent tweet wasn’t just a hot take on AI—it was a forecast that should send a jolt through the entire event industry.
“Within the next 3 years, there will be so much AI, in particular AI video, people won’t know if what they see or hear is real. Which will lead to an explosion of f2f engagement, events and jobs.”
It’s not just a prediction. It’s a recalibration. In a world drowning in synthetic content, in-person experiences—raw, unfiltered, unmistakably human—are becoming the most trusted signal we have left.
Cuban’s forecast is clear: what can’t be faked will become most valuable. That includes handshakes, eye contact, body language, and the energy of physical presence, things you can’t deepfake or auto-generate. In that light, face-to-face engagement isn’t old-school. It’s future-proof.
“Those that were in the office will be in the field,” he adds. “Call it the Milli Vanilli effect.”
As audiences grow weary of pixel-perfect deception, we’ll crave truth. Truth you can verify and experience first-hand. And the event industry, once considered supplementary, is poised to become central to how we connect, build trust, and do business.
A world saturated with synthetic signals
We’re no longer inching toward a future where content can be faked—we’re already living in it.
AI can generate voices that mimic real people with eerie precision. Deepfake videos are getting harder to spot, even for seasoned analysts. And with tools now available to replicate facial expressions, tone, and even off-the-cuff human errors, we’re seeing the rise of what experts are calling “synthetic believability.”
The result? The audience are tuning out. They’re skeptical. They’re beginning to assume that what they’re seeing online—whether it’s a product demo, a glowing testimonial, or a CEO message—might not actually be real.
This isn’t just a tech issue. It’s a trust issue.
Marketing teams have long relied on digital to scale storytelling. But when the very medium starts feeling inauthentic, the message gets lost. Suddenly, your high-converting explainer video or well-polished webinar doesn’t build trust—it quietly erodes it.
That’s why Mark Cuban’s point hits so hard. If AI floods the ecosystem with hyperreal, too-perfect-to-trust digital content, then the channels that can’t be faked—like live, face-to-face interaction—don’t just hold nostalgic value. They become mission-critical.
In-person isn’t just about presence. It’s about proof.
Event teams: the first to get cut, but the last that should be
In the last 18 months, event professionals have quietly become an endangered species inside marketing orgs. Not because they weren’t delivering. Not because events weren’t working. But because someone higher up looked at a budget spreadsheet and mistook presence for cost.
Let’s not sugarcoat it. Here’s the reality on the ground:
Truth #1: Event roles are being slashed.
Field marketers. Event leads. On-site engagement managers. The people who actually meet your prospects face-to-face.
They’re getting cut. They’re getting “absorbed” into broader demand gen roles. They’re being told AI will help “scale” what they were doing manually.
But what the leadership at most organizations fails to understand is that you can’t scale a moment. The raised eyebrow of a skeptical lead, the impromptu 2-minute demo that turns a maybe into a yes, the hesitation, the excitement, the handshake, the unsaid, none of it can be replaced. That’s what makes this entire process human.
Those are intent signals. And when you remove the people trained to recognize and respond to those signals, you don’t just lose headcount. You lose context.
Truth #2: Automation isn’t killing these jobs—misunderstanding is
We keep saying AI will “replace” people. But AI isn’t the one firing event professionals. Management is.
This is happening because many leaders fail to understand that trust is actually felt, not measured. There’s a fine balance between human intelligence and artificial intelligence, and the elusive truth sits somewhere in between this ecosystem.
The field marketers and the event pros are the ones who are reading the room while the rest of the team is reading dashboards. They
Truth #3: Events aren’t soft plays anymore. They’re strategic infrastructure.
You don’t just “run” an event. You design an atmosphere where belief can happen.
Where people lean in. Where interest turns into intent. Where leads stop being cold data points and start being real conversations.
When done right, an event isn’t a cost center. It becomes your fastest path to profitability.
Truth #4: What’s getting cut isn’t overhead. It’s competitive advantage
In this rush to get AI-fied, companies are missing the point: when everything else becomes synthetic, real becomes rare. And rare is valuable.
The people who work the floor are not expendable. They’re the ones translating chaos into connection. And if you keep cutting them, you’ll keep wondering why your pipelines feel full, but your close rates keep falling.
Why events are the last trusted channel
Mark Cuban didn’t say in-person events are “coming back.” He said they’re about to explode.
“People won’t know if what they see or hear is real… which will lead to an explosion of f2f engagement, events, and jobs.”
He didn’t say this in a nostalgic sense. He said it as a practical truth: when audiences can’t trust what they watch, click, or stream… they’ll turn to what they can trust—presence.
And presence is what events do best.
Unlike digital campaigns or polished AI-generated content, events operate on a different frequency. One that’s harder to fake. One that trades in tension, timing, and tone. One where people actually feel something.
Here’s why in-person is positioned as the last real channel in the era of synthetic everything:
1. It’s unfiltered
At a booth, in a breakout room, or on a show floor, there’s no edit button. Buyers can read your tone, watch your reactions, ask tough questions—and see how your team handles uncertainty in real time.
That’s trust.
2. It’s multi-sensory
People remember what they feel, not just what they hear. The atmosphere. The eye contact. The slight hesitation before someone answers a question. No AI prompt can replicate that.
3. It’s relational, not transactional
Digital channels often reduce people to metrics: opens, clicks, conversions. In-person flips the script. It turns a cold lead into a conversation. A conversation into a connection. And a connection into an opportunity—not just to sell, but to be remembered.
4. It builds belief, not just awareness
You can generate awareness with a few paid campaigns and an AI-crafted webinar.
But belief? That needs friction. Texture. A real story told by a real person, to another real person. Belief is sticky. And belief converts.
In the trust recession Cuban warns about, events aren’t your backup plan. They’re your power move. The only channel where skepticism lowers its guard. The only format where brand, behavior, and buyer share the same space. And the only place where the moment still matters more than the medium.
The new event professional: architect of trust
Event professionals have always played a critical role in shaping the brand experience on the ground. But that role is changing—and fast.
As more aspects of the sales and marketing process become automated, the value of what can’t be automated is rising. Conversations. First impressions. Trust signals. Judgment. These are the areas where event professionals now need to double down—not because they’re new, but because they’re finally being recognized as irreplaceable.
Today, the most effective event pros are those who understand not just how to manage an event, but how to read people. They’re listening for what isn’t being said. They’re noticing how a lead engages, what content catches their eye, how long they linger, when they lean in, and when they disengage. This isn’t just interpersonal skill—it’s frontline intelligence.
That intelligence doesn’t stop at observation. It’s about knowing how to connect those observations to post-event behavior. What did the lead interact with after the booth visit? Did they open the follow-up email? Did they explore the product demo, share the content, or bounce after a few seconds? This isn’t vanity data—it’s signal. And when used right, it makes the difference between a cold follow-up and a meaningful one.
This is where platforms like momencio matter, not because they replace human connection, but because they preserve it, extend it, and turn it into something actionable. The real-time insights that come from booth conversations, microsite engagement, and lead activity allow event pros to not only hand off better leads, but also provide the kind of context that sales actually cares about.
At a time when everything can be faked—from video to voice—event professionals are the ones who deal in what’s real. That doesn’t mean doing more. It means doubling down on what they already do better than anyone else: understanding people, spotting genuine interest, and turning that into next steps that matter.
The future isn’t about redefining your role. It’s about recognizing the value of what you’ve always done—and learning to protect, prove, and scale it.
What to do now: An action playbook for event pros
Understanding the shift is one thing. Acting on it is another. The good news? You don’t need to reinvent your career to stay relevant, you just need to sharpen your edge in a few key areas.
You’re already skilled. Now let’s sharpen three core strengths needed in today’s evolving landscape—each with a free, reputable resource to help you grow on your own time.
1. Decoding human signals
Why it matters: Subtle body cues—posture, eye contact, gestures—reveal true interest in ways no badge scanner can.
What to sharpen: Nonverbal awareness, rapport-building, and micro-expression interpretation.
Recommended resource: The Science of Body Language
A short, self-paced course from a recognized microlearning platform that covers how to read posture and gestures effectively
2. Interpreting engagement behaviors
Why it matters: Not all leads are equal. How someone engages with your microsite, content, or follow-up email tells you far more than whether they scanned a badge.
What to develop: A mindset that values depth over volume, and the ability to connect digital interaction to actual interest.
Recommended resource: AI for Everyone – Coursera (Andrew Ng)
Taught by one of the most trusted names in the industry, this course helps you understand how AI systems read behavior patterns—so you can better collaborate with tools that use engagement data to qualify leads.
3. Automating follow-up workflows
Why it matters: To follow up at scale without sounding robotic, you need a system for automated—but personalized—outreach.
What to develop: Set up email sequences and workflows using no-code automation.
Recommended resource:
The official Make learning platform. It offers a “Make Foundation” self-paced learning path, showing you how to build your first scenarios (e.g., form to email workflows) using expert-created modules.
A step-by-step guide showing you how to integrate AI agents into automated email flows—completely free and reproducible.
4. Bringing empathy to follow-up
Why it matters: Scaling outreach won’t help if your messages lack empathy and context.
What to develop: Use emotional cues and behavioral data to craft messages that feel human.
Recommended resource: Empathy and Emotional Intelligence at Work – UC Berkeley via edX
A self-paced, highly regarded course that enhances empathic communication in professional settings.
| Skill | What you can do immediately |
| Human signal decoding | Adapt your Qualifying Questions and Flow based on real-time reading of prospects |
| Engagement behavior analysis | Prioritize follow-up for leads who deeply engaged—flagged by content metrics |
| Automation setup | Build workflows that send emails based on booth downloads or microsite interactions |
| Empathetic messaging | Write follow-ups that reference visitor actions and feel personally crafted |
Bottom line: This isn’t about fancy credentials. It’s about using free, proven tools to match your best human instincts with strategic follow-through. No fluff—just the essentials for staying not just relevant, but ahead.
Why this is exactly what momencio was built for
If you’ve been nodding through this article—recognizing the shifts in how trust is formed, how follow-ups need to evolve, and how your own role as an event professional is transforming—you’re not alone. The industry is changing fast. And the tools that support you need to do more than just collect leads. They need to help you respond to real behavior, in real time.
That’s what momencio was built for.
While most event platforms stop at lead capture, momencio stays with you through the full arc of the conversation. From the moment a visitor engages at your booth, to the moment they open your follow-up microsite, to the moment sales sees what content they actually cared about—the entire journey is tracked, contextualized, and ready for action.
But here’s the thing: we don’t just want to give you more data.
We want to give you better decisions.
- Know which leads showed real interest—not just who got scanned.
- Prioritize conversations based on post-event engagement—not guesswork.
- Send personalized follow-ups within minutes—not days.
- Show sales not just who’s “hot”—but why.
And perhaps most importantly: momencio does this without forcing you to change how you work. It enhances your judgment. It supports your intuition. It turns what you already do well—human connection—into something your entire revenue team can build on.
Because in an era where AI can replicate almost anything, the one thing that can’t be copied is trust.
And at momencio, we’re not here to automate trust.
We’re here to protect it.
In closing
Mark Cuban wasn’t just forecasting a rise in face-to-face events—he was calling out a deeper shift. When people no longer trust what they see on screen, they start seeking out what can’t be fabricated: presence, conversation, and real-time judgment.
What that means for event professionals is clear. The role isn’t disappearing—it’s evolving into something more vital. You’re no longer there just to manage moments. You’re there to observe, interpret, and act on signals that technology alone can’t fully understand.
And that’s where momencio fits—not as another tool, but as the system that supports your human edge. It captures what you observe, it surfaces what matters, and it gives you the clarity to follow through before the moment goes cold.
Because in a world where artificial impressions are everywhere, the professionals who can act on real ones will lead the future.
FAQs
- How does momencio help me personalize follow-ups without spending hours doing it manually?
- momencio automatically tracks which content each lead interacts with post-event—microsites, documents, videos—and gives you a prioritized, behavior-based view. That way, your follow-up isn’t just faster, it’s relevant without extra work.
- Can momencio integrate with the CRM or marketing automation tools we already use?
- Yes. momencio integrates with most major CRMs and marketing platforms, so all captured insights and engagement data can sync with your existing systems—no copy-pasting, no workarounds.
- What makes momencio different from a standard badge-scanning or lead capture app?
- momencio doesn’t stop at the scan. It follows each lead’s journey after the event—tracking engagement, surfacing intent signals, and helping your sales team understand not just who to contact, but how and why.
- Is momencio only useful for large events or can it work for smaller activations too?
- Whether it’s a 10×10 booth or a full trade show footprint, momencio scales with your event. Even small team activations benefit from automated follow-ups, behavioral scoring, and rich lead profiles.
- How can I prove momencio’s impact to leadership or sales?
- The platform provides a performance summary that shows exactly which leads engaged, what they did post-event, and how those behaviors correlated with pipeline. It’s built to turn anecdotal feedback into boardroom-ready data.
