How to Run Webinars More Efficiently with AI: Crawl, Walk, Run Approach

AI workflows can significantly improve the efficiency of your event planning and execution. This guide will break down the three stages of implementing AI into your event processes: Crawl, Walk, and Run.

By following these phases, you'll be able to gradually adopt AI tools, reduce bottlenecks, and ensure consistency across all event-related content.

Phase 1: Crawl

Introduction to AI Tools and Basic Implementation

At the crawl stage, the goal is to explore how AI can assist with small tasks in your event workflow. This phase involves minimal automation while keeping most processes manual but enhanced with basic AI support.

What It Looks Like:

• You have an existing process for planning webinars or events.
• Your team collaborates to brainstorm ideas, outlines, and content manually.
• AI is introduced as a support tool for minor tasks, such as:
  • Generating webinar title ideas using a free AI title generator.
  • Assisting with the final bits of copy for invites or promotional posts.

Benefits:

• Eases your team into AI usage.
• Enhances brainstorming with creative input.
• Helps with small, repetitive tasks without changing core workflows.

Key Takeaway: Use AI as a helper for minor tasks while keeping manual collaboration at the center. This is a good starting point, but not the place to stop and set up basecamp. Some potential problems with the "Crawl" phase in the current approach include:

1. Limited Impact: The minimal use of AI for tasks like title generation and copy refinement doesn't significantly reduce the workload. The manual collaboration still dominates, limiting efficiency gains.
2. Inconsistency: Since most of the work is still manual, there’s a risk of inconsistencies in messaging and tone across different event assets.
3. Dependence on Individual Efforts: Manual processes can still lead to bottlenecks if key team members are unavailable or overloaded with tasks.
4. Lack of Process Standardization: Without a structured workflow, the approach may vary from event to event, making it harder to scale or replicate success.
5. Underutilization of AI: Relying on AI for only minor tasks might prevent the team from recognizing its full potential in automation and productivity enhancement.

You'll really want to make sure you're working toward a more cross-functional webinar approach.

Want to give AI Tools a try? Check out our suite of Free AI Tools.

Phase 2: Walk

Reducing Manual Bottlenecks with AI Workflows

In the walk phase, you begin moving away from time-consuming manual tasks and introduce more structured AI workflows to streamline content creation and collaboration.

What It Looks Like:

• A structured workflow is created to automate key steps.
• Your team uses AI to generate a formal webinar brief from a meeting transcript or notes.
• The brief outlines all the necessary event assets, including:
  • LinkedIn posts
  • Tweets
  • Executive social posts
  • Email copy

Challenges Solved:

• Reduces the need for manual writing of each asset.
• Ensures all necessary assets are clearly outlined upfront.
• Speeds up initial content drafting by centralizing key information.

Benefits:

• Saves time on initial content creation.
• Reduces bottlenecks from manual typing.
• Aligns all assets around a consistent message.

Key Takeaway: AI begins handling content structuring and drafting, freeing your team to focus on strategy and refinement. Want to give it a shot? Try the Webinar Campaign Brief Tool for free.

How "Walk" is Better than "Crawl":

• Structured Automation: The Walk phase introduces a structured workflow where AI begins automating critical steps, like turning transcripts into detailed briefs, whereas Crawl only used AI for minor tasks like title generation and basic copy assistance.
• Centralization: Information becomes more centralized with a formalized campaign brief that outlines all necessary assets, reducing fragmented manual collaboration seen in Crawl.
• Time Efficiency: By automating the creation of a campaign brief, Walk reduces the need for repetitive content creation tasks, speeding up the initial phases of content planning compared to the more manual Crawl phase.

Why It's Not Quite "Run" Yet:

• Partial Automation: The Walk phase still requires manual intervention for the creation of final content assets like LinkedIn posts, tweets, and emails. AI helps outline and structure, but doesn't generate the content fully.
• Human-Heavy Workflows: While content drafting has improved, there is still a reliance on team members manually executing key tasks after the initial brief is created.
• Limited Consistency Control: Although assets are outlined, the content itself still requires manual input, making brand consistency harder to maintain compared to full automation in the Run phase.

Phase 3: Run

Full Automation with Human Oversight

The run phase involves full automation of your event content creation, with human oversight ensuring quality and brand consistency.

What It Looks Like:

• The campaign brief generated in the Walk phase is used as direct input for content creation.
• AI generates the first draft of all event assets, including:
  • LinkedIn posts
  • Tweets
  • Emails
  • Web banners and copy
• A human editor reviews the AI-generated drafts for final adjustments and customization.

Key Benefits:

• Consistency: Every draft maintains your brand voice across all channels.
• Efficiency: Content creation happens faster, with less manual effort.
• Scalability: Event planning becomes repeatable, allowing your team to generate assets for multiple events in a single day.
• Customization: Tailor content by platform (e.g., more professional on LinkedIn, more casual on Twitter).

Key Takeaway: AI handles bulk content creation, while humans ensure strategic alignment and polish the final output.

Final Thoughts: Why AI Workflows Matter

Implementing an AI-driven workflow using the Crawl, Walk, Run approach allows your team to:

• Save significant time during event planning and execution.
• Ensure consistent messaging and brand voice across all content.
• Reduce manual work, freeing your team for strategic and creative tasks.
• Build a scalable, repeatable process for content creation.

Through gradually introducing AI workflows, your team can confidently scale event marketing efforts while maintaining a high standard of quality and efficiency.