Time management is the top skill Medical Affairs needs to develop (even more important than AI skills!). It’s something that I struggled with for years and felt 1000x better when I cracked the code on this. So naturally, I’m super excited about my session on time management at MAPS Americas 2025. But when I went to check the agenda, I couldn’t remember when it was.

No problem, right? I pulled up the program and couldn’t find it.

That moment reminded me of how tough it is to navigate a large conference. Between overlapping sessions, networking opportunities, and exhibitor visits, it’s easy to miss something important.

A few AI expert friends have mentioned that no one has really cracked the code on AI-powered conference planning. This is a huge gap for Medical Affairs and MSLs teams. 

The contrarian in me wanted to put that to the test. If AI can help with pre-meeting planning, uncovering what KOLs value, automate research, build KOL profiles, and turn papers into podcasts, why couldn’t it also help me build a high-impact conference plan?

So I let AI build a conference plan for MAPS Americas 2025. Here’s how it went.

I Used to Be Terrible at Conference Planning

Back when I was a field applications scientist, I had to attend a ton of major conferences. And every time, I’d walk in with the best intentions:

✔ Excited to learn
✔ Meet people
✔ Make the most of my time

But before the conference even started, I was already overwhelmed by the program. Trying to figure out which sessions to attend felt like a full-time job.

And by day two, the overwhelm only got worse.

Too many sessions. Too many people. No clear strategy.

I’d end up wandering around, bouncing between sessions that sounded interesting (but weren’t always useful), and missing out on key networking opportunities. By the end of the conference, I’d feel exhausted, wondering if I had actually gotten anything meaningful out of it.

MSLs live this reality all the time. Conferences are a huge part of the job, but planning for them can feel impossible.

So this time, when I felt overwhelmed by the MAPS program, I decided to let AI do the planning for me.

My AI Conference Planning Prompt

A key mistake people make when using AI is weak prompts. Great prompts = great output. My AI excellence training has a whole module on prompt engineering frameworks to help optimize your output. It’s key! So instead of asking something vague like “Plan my conference,” I wrote a detailed prompt:

“You are an expert Medical Affairs conference planner, and your task is to create a high-impact strategy for my upcoming event. My goals are to meet people who may be interested in MSL Mastery training programs, network with Medical Affairs professionals, learn about insights, Field Medical, and strategy, and build relationships that lead to future opportunities. I specialize in building innovative training programs to upskill MSLs, and I want to connect with MSL leads, Medical Excellence professionals, and anyone else I can potentially help. Identify key people I should talk to, which sessions I should attend, and how to maximize networking opportunities.

Provide a table of 20-40 people I should try to connect with, structured with their name, title, company, and reason to connect.

Additionally, create a structured session schedule in a table format with the time, session title, speakers, and why I should attend each session.

Include engagement strategies before, during, and after the event to ensure I make the most of the networking and learning opportunities. Include anything else I should consider.

Here is the agenda: [Inserted MAPS program]”

I reverse prompt-engineered this prompt a little bit but didn’t have to do too many iterations to get the following output. Get some great prompt-engineering tips on page 4 of my AI guide for MSLs 👇. 

My AI-Generated Conference Plan

The AI’s output was solid. Not perfect, but good enough that I didn’t need to tweak much. Here’s what it gave me:

Key People to Connect With

What a fantastic start! If I were going to make a list of people to reach out to, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this far. It’s tedious to build a list like this (and I am lazy, ha!). 

What are your first impressions of this table?

My AI-Generated Session Schedule 

What I don’t like about this schedule are the gaps. To be fair, I didn’t specifically tell it to build a comprehensive schedule with suggestion for all time blocks. I do this in my conference planning prompt for MSLs. Stay tuned for that.

It’s great that it lays out my schedule for me. I can easily glance at it and see which session I should go to. Perhaps next time I would add in breaks to see when I could schedule meetings. What would you add here and what do you think? Curious to know your thoughts!

Pre, During, and Post-Conference Strategy

Nothing groundbreaking in this engagement plan. The follow-up webinar is an interesting idea though! What do you think?

What About My Own Session?

This whole AI conference planning adventure started because I couldn’t find my own session in the MAPS program. I didn’t include this in the prompt and AI isn’t going to magically know what is important unless I tell it. 

This was a good reminder that AI is a tool, not a mind reader. It can create a well-structured plan, but only if you give it the right information upfront.

So here’s what I did:

Nice! It found my session and then rebuilt the schedule around that. Having little checks like this is great for testing hallucinations as well. 

The Biggest Risk: Did AI Miss an Important Session?

The biggest concern with AI-powered conference planning isn’t that it creates a bad plan. It’s that it might leave out a session I really should be attending. How can I be confident that it didn’t miss anything important?

Before finalizing my plan, it’s critical to double-check the agenda to confirm:

✔ Are my must-attend sessions there?
✔ Are there any overlooked hidden gems?
✔ Is the AI’s plan aligned with my overall strategy?

My Takeaways from AI Conference Planning

Overall, using AI for conference planning is a huge time saver. Here are my key lessons along the way:

→ The Prompt is Everything: AI is only as good as the instructions you give it. If something isn’t included, it won’t magically show up.

→ Iterating is Good: The first output isn’t the final draft. A few small refinements made my plan significantly better. Don’t be afraid to ask the AI for more. 

→ Be Specific: If you want AI to prioritize certain topics, sessions, or meetings, you have to explicitly say so. AI thrives on context.

→ A Human Still Needs to Be in the Loop: AI handles the tedious parts, like making lists and structuring time, but final decisions still require human judgment.

Ultimately, AI has saved me hours of going through schedules, organizing lists, and manually creating a plan. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting me to a great starting point faster. For someone who is really bad a conference planning, that’s exactly what I needed.

Would you try AI for conference planning? Or do you still prefer to map things out manually?

Conclusions: I Let AI Plan My Conference

Now that I have this AI-generated plan, the big question is: Should I follow it exactly as is?

I’m seriously considering sticking to this strategy at MAPS Americas 2025, then writing a follow-up post on how well it worked.

→ Did AI make my conference experience more efficient?

→ Did it miss anything critical?

→ Did it actually help me maximize my time?

One thing is clear, AI is a powerful tool, but getting great results depends on how well you write the prompt and iterate on the output (which is exactly what I teach in my AI training).

I’m curious: would you follow an AI-built conference plan? Or do you think nothing beats a human-built strategy?

Let me know your thoughts! And if you’re at MAPS Americas 2025, let’s connect. I’ll let you know in real time how it’s going.