Large conferences are awesome and exhausting.

Before you even step into the venue, you’re already drowning in:

• Overlapping sessions: which ones actually matter?
• Networking chaos: who should you meet, and when?
• Proving ROI: how do you make sure the time spent is worth it?

Planning for a conference like MAPS Americas 2025 is no small task. If you don’t go in with a strategy, it’s way too easy to wander aimlessly, miss important sessions, and leave feeling like you didn’t maximize your time.

I’ve been there before. Many times.

That’s why I’ve been experimenting with AI to take the headache out of conference planning. I previously used ChatGPT to create a high-impact conference strategy, and the results were solid.

But most of the Medical Affairs teams I train on AI aren’t using ChatGPT.

They’re using Copilot.

So, I decided to put it to the test. Could Copilot build me a strategic conference plan like ChatGPT did?

I ran into some serious struggles but also learned a lot in the process. 

My AI Conference Planning Prompt

Getting useful AI output requires a strong prompt. Here are a few different prompts for various MSL applications for you to try out:

• Pre-meeting planning
• Uncovering what KOLs value 
• Automating research
• Building KOL profile
• Turning papers into podcasts
• Analyzing insights
• KOL Profile Templates

Here is the prompt I optimized for high-impact conferences:

“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 tried plugging in this exact prompt into Copilot and quickly ran into this huge hurdle:

After some experimentation and tweaking, I finally got it to work.

These are exactly the types of skills and workarounds I teach in my AI Excellence Training. Knowing how to adjust your approach is what makes the difference between frustrating AI output and a powerful, time-saving tool.

Save some time with the great prompt-engineering tips on page 4 of my AI guide for MSLs 👇 or reach out about my training.

My Copilot-Generated Conference Plan

After a bunch of gymnastics to get the MAPS program into Copilot so that it could run my prompt, I got a pretty ok conference plan out. It’s comparable with the output from ChatGPT. It identified a lot of the same people but there are some errors. For example, Vanessa Johnson is at Gilead, not Daiichi Sankyo. The input didn’t have a company included for Vanessa, so it looks like Copilot invented this or read the input wrong.  

Key People to Connect With

I’m satisfied with this output but not completely wowed. 

What are your thoughts? 

My AI-Generated Session Schedule 

Compared to the output from ChatGPT, I like how this one feels more comprehensive. There aren’t big gaps in the schedule. 

Pre, During, and Post-Conference Strategy

The engagement plan it generated is generic and high-level. Like the ChatGPT output, nothing groundbreaking, but it has a couple of good nuggets. 

Key Learnings: AI Isn’t Just a Tool. It’s a Skillset

After working through Copilot’s limitations, I realized something bigger than just how to make AI work for conference planning:

AI isn’t about the tool. It’s about how you use it.

1. Not All AI Tools Are the Same

This experiment reinforced that different AI models have different capabilities (here’s a comparison chart for MSL pre-meeting planning), and to get the best results, you need to know what yours can (and can’t) do.

• My version of Copilot had a strict character limit, but maybe yours doesn’t.
• Some AI models retain context across prompts, while others reset each time.
• Certain tools excel at formatting and structure, while others require more manual cleanup.

If AI isn’t giving you what you need, it’s not necessarily broken. You may just need to adjust your approach. 

Maybe asking which AI tool is best is the wrong question. Maybe we should be asking how do I optimize the one I have?

2. AI Forces You to Get Clear on What You Want

One unexpected benefit? Using AI made me think more critically about my own goals.

To get good output, I had to:

• Define exactly what success looks like for my conference experience
• Think deeply about which sessions and networking opportunities mattered most
• Break down my planning process into steps

Even without AI, this is something we should be doing when prepping for conferences. When you are trying to tell AI what you want, it forces you to be more intentional.

3. AI Isn’t a Magic Fix: Strategic Thinking Skills Set You Apart

There’s a misconception that AI is just a magic button. Type in a request, and out comes a perfect answer. That’s not how it works.

Instead, using AI effectively requires:

• Creativity: finding ways to work around limitations
• Iteration: adjusting your approach based on what works (and what doesn’t)
• Strategic Thinking: understanding when AI can help and when you need to step in

But here’s the bigger takeaway: AI is evolving fast, and individual AI tools will keep changing.

The real differentiator is knowing how to think strategically about AI, regardless of which tool you’re using.

So how do you make yourself stick out and get ahead?

By using AI strategically, not just as a time-saver, but as a way to think differently, solve problems faster, and drive more impactful outcomes.

This is exactly what I teach in my AI Excellence Training:

✅ How to develop AI problem-solving skills so you can adapt to any tool
✅ How to structure prompts and workflows for the best results
✅ How to spot AI hallucinations and refine output
✅ How to use AI to think more strategically not just automate tasks

AI is a force multiplier but only for those who know how to use it well.

Conclusions: I Made Copilot Plan My Conference

AI is evolving fast. Tools will come and go, but the people who get ahead won’t be the ones using the “best” AI tool. They’ll be the ones who know how to adapt, troubleshoot, and get the most out of whatever AI they have access to.

That’s exactly what this experiment to use Copilot to plan my conference showed me. The ability to problem-solve with AI is what separates frustration from real impact.

If you are thinking about AI just in terms of time savings, you are limiting yourself. The real opportunity isn’t just saving time. It’s learning how to use AI in a way that amplifies your thinking, decision-making, and strategy.

What’s one area in your work where AI has (or could) make a real impact? Share with me on LinkedIn.