TEXA 2025 tips on how event professionals can stay ahead with tech

The 4th edition of The Event Experience Africa (TEXA) annually hosted by the Zapphaire Events Group was packed with talks and panels that addressed critical issues to growth and scale as it directly affects event professionals in the fast-evolving local and global economy. One such critical conversation was about how tech and the much-talked-about Artificial Intelligence can become a tool for growth in the industry, especially for every event professional looking to stay ahead.

The two-person panel had Boluwatife Omoniyi, Senior Events Associate at Big Cabal Media and Victor Fatanmi, CEO at Fullgap and FourthCanvas was an enriching conversation and for everyone who didn’t make it or didn’t take notes, here are the most important things you need to know from what was a truly enriching conversation.

1. Excellence goes beyond passion

You love your work but there is only so much you can do with just that passion. To really achieve your goals, which can range from the impact of serving people to earning a living for yourself and your employees/partners, you will need to think about systems. That’s the only way to build sustainable value.

So, you have to think beyond whether you are naturally inclined towards tech tools or not and rather focus on their inevitability on the path to achieving your goals. Whether you are forcing yourself to adopt tech, hiring someone or bringing a partner on board who can own that, you want to find a way around it. Also, keep in mind — it’s not as hard a change (to your old, less-tech self) as you might think. Just begin somewhere.

2. Remain focused on people and experience

Yes, tech is the future but a better way to look at that as a service provider in the event industry is “the future is for those who serve their users best thanks to the assistance of tech”. As critical as the emerging technologies are, the focus should remain on the people you are serving — from the client that pays you to the people they are trying to serve.

It’s never about tech per se but more about what you can make it do for you to fulfil your objectives. You want to look at all the critical points of interaction, from start to finish, and consider what tech can come in to simplify or improve. One thing to look out for and avoid is getting caught up with too many new tools. Yes, always explore and test to find better tools but always keep the focus on improving the experience of everyone involved — your clients as well as their own ‘clients’, which for an event planner, would mean the event guests.

For attendees, which would be a good example of the “client’s clients” for an event planner, tech can be the difference between a seamless experience and an absolute nightmare. The best events make tech invisible, it works so smoothly that you don’t even notice it’s there.

Take cashless payments, for example. Instead of attendees fumbling with cash or waiting for change, they just tap a wristband or scan a QR code, and they’re done. Or even something as simple as live event updates, attendees appreciate getting a push notification when a session is about to start, rather than running around looking for schedules.

3. Increase efficiency with tech

One of the best ways to bring tech into your work is in the clarity of planning. Great if you already do the most with your pen and paper but you can take it to the next level when you break down big projects into small timelines, assign collaborators to it and be able to track progress across the board and keep clients updated in a collaborative manner that is only possible with a digital tool. There is a lot of time to be saved on so many necessary administrative processes if you will simply use some help from tech. You can break down phases and define small components for clarity by getting some help from ChatGPT (or any of the AI alternatives) or layout to-dos with a task-tracking tool.

“We now have tools that handle everything; finance, ticketing, attendee engagement, project management. For example, I can automate guest lists, send out mass communication, track attendance in real-time, and collect post-event data without manually crunching numbers. Project management tools like Asana and Notion help keep teams aligned.”

From a tool’s perspective, they exist to make our jobs easier. They don’t replace human creativity, but they do all the heavy lifting in the background. The question is; are we using them well enough?”

— Boluwatife Omoniyi

4. Improve reputation with tech

One other big value to gain with tech is the reputation you earn when clients see how well you use it to organize the work. Because tech is rightly associated with efficiency, onboarding and engaging your clients with a tool that keeps everything simple for all involved improves their perception of the service. And this is not unfounded. Adopting tech tools will truly improve your work. And the bonus? Clients will believe it, and it may be the reason they come back or refer you.

5. Prime for growth with tech

One other huge point of value for adopting tech is the storage, analysis and shareability of data. While your jotter can’t add up numbers themselves, tech tools like Excel can easily crunch numbers on the go, and some others like Fullgap will additionally give you a chart of growth over time, which enables you to analyze and make better decisions. Many tech tools will help you track performance not only on projects but also on finance and clients. How much are you making? Who owes what? And so on. And whenever you want to access investment or credit to scale, you can easily access data if you have integrated tech into your work.

6. Mastering the basics —tech that works for You

At the end of the day, tech is only as useful as how well we integrate it. And that means different things for different professionals. You don’t need every shining tech out there. You just need the one that works great for your service. For event professionals, the focus may be on making work easier and improving attendee experiences. For another service provider, you may simply be trying to organize the chaos of tracking milestones over a timeline. Sometimes the thought of adopting tech can feel overwhelming because change can be disruptive. The answer is to focus on the basics.

So if you’re here, and tech tools wear you out, so you don’t really bother with them, or maybe you’ve tried, but you dove right into the more complex tools like AI, automation, or Notion, and it just felt overwhelming… I get it. But let’s step back for a second. Tech isn’t just about the latest, most high-rated tools. Sometimes, it’s the simplest ones that make the biggest difference. Google Docs is tech. A spreadsheet is tech. The Notes app on your phone? That’s tech too. The question is; are you using these simple tools to their full potential? Are you tracking vendor payments in a structured sheet? Are you using shared docs to collaborate in real time? Are you setting calendar reminders to keep you on track? Mastering these small things builds the foundation for tackling the more advanced tools later on.

— Boluwatife Omoniyi

Tech is meant to work for you, not overwhelm you. So start small, get comfortable, and then scale up. Because even the biggest innovations are built on the simplest habits.

“As an event planner, I see tech as my co-pilot. Before, we had to rely on physical lists, manual RSVP confirmations, and a lot of running around. Even production is smoother with cloud-based collaboration, where I can instantly share stage designs with vendors or adjust schedules on the fly.

But I’ll be honest, adoption can be a challenge. A lot of event professionals still hesitate because they think technology is complicated. But once you get past that learning curve, you realize it’s actually freeing you up to focus on what really matters; creating unforgettable experiences.”*

— Boluwatife Omoniyi

7. Stay actively open — don’t get used to difficulty

The hardest part is change. This is because we ‘fall in love’ with problems we have lived with over time. It is important to be aware of this and then focus on the additional value that our business can benefit from when we actively seek tools that can improve our work. Convenient or not, start exploring today. Type in Google “What tool can I use to automate________” or go to chatgpt.com and ask it just any question you may have asked Victor and Boluwatife at the event.

Also, don’t hesitate to invite younger people in your field who you may notice are adopting tech better for lunch. Ask questions. Keep the curiosity of a child. Search for new tools, watch quick demo videos to see what they are like (most product websites have this) and decide which ones to try out.

To get started, below are 10 tools the speakers would have you check out, based on their own experience.

Appendix — 10 tech tools to try and for what

1. Microsoft Excel — for financial tracking, data analysis, and organizing budgets.
2. Notion — to organize multiple documents that link well with one another and can be shared with other people.
3. ChatGPT (AI) — to research answers quickly on how to do just anything, and to get faster help writing drafts. PS. With AI tools, always review output with your own experience and preferences.
4. Fullgap — to quickly generate invoices and legal contracts that also kick off a progress tracking flow as you execute your projects and assign tasks. Also records data on clients and finance.
5. Loom — to reduce meeting times with partners by reviewing scripts, floor plans, and designs with a recording of your screen while you describe in detail.
6. Unboxd — to create event pages for guests to register, get updated and sign in at events.
7. Calendly — To schedule meetings efficiently without back-and-forth emails. Ideal for booking vendor calls, team check-ins, and partner meetings.
8. Slack — For quick team communication, project updates, and reducing email overload. Perfect for coordinating with multiple stakeholders in real-time.
9. Canva — For creating quick, professional-looking designs for event banners, social media posts, and presentations.
10. Zapier — To automate repetitive tasks by connecting different apps (e.g., auto-saving email attachments to Google Drive or syncing event registrations with a database).

Start from somewhere. Pick one of the tools above, watch a demo on YouTube or on their website, and play with it first like a child, then like a pro. It’s never as difficult as you think. And even if it is, the growth you want lies on the other side of it.

If you’re ready to take the next step, book a free demo with Fullgap and see how it can streamline your planning, track tasks, and collaborate easily.

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