The First Conversational AI Mini Summit in London: An Initial Update

I wanted to quickly write to give you all an update on the Conversational AI Mini Summit this evening.

I'm writing this on the train back to deepest Hampshire after a fantastic evening filled with Conversational AI energy and discussion.

I will write a proper update shortly to cover the talking points and activities.

Here are some initial observations in no particular order:

• Just before we began the speaking section, I asked everyone to sit down and then we went around the room doing super-brief introductions. I asked each attendee to briefly stand, say their name/company and perhaps a brief focus.
• I liked the fact we had a dedicated bar – right there, serving the room. It was super to be able to welcome everyone and point them to the drinks ready and waiting.
• I had to work so hard on numbers to make sure we didn't go over the 40ish limit too much. I capped it explicitly at 40 – as I wanted it to be intimate. We had 35 chairs set out and then some sofa-couch things on the side that meant everyone got a seat, more or less. Thank you to those who couldn't make it for emailing me to say so – that meant I was able to swiftly squeeze a few others in!
• It was a bit difficult at the start to connect with people – simply because we had the chairs set out in the room, ready for the event. So I'm very appreciative of everyone for working around that at the start.
• I was actually looking forward to sitting down for the fireside chats until I and the keynote speaker ("Mr Anonymous" as he was quickly christened!) realised that no one would be able to see us. So we stood instead. Standing was good though, I think.
• We did the keynote fireside (standing) chat for 20ish minutes – it was a testament to the topic covered by Mr Anonymous that he had lots of questions being fired at him from the audience. We took some, but I deliberately wanted to ensure there was plenty of further discussion to be had in the networking section later on.
• Mr Anonymous, by the way, is the executive in charge of rolling out Conversational AI internally at his super-huge-massive global bank. He had asked that we don't disclose his name or the company publicly so that he was able to speak candidly - so that's why there's no mention on the site.
• Each industry talk – Tom's Koios talk and Neil's Qualyfi talk – were very well received. We squeezed in a few questions as we went, but again, the focus was to highlight further talking points for the networking later on.
• We closed the speaking part of the event with a chat with Ed who gave a seamless overview of his recent exit in the Conversational AI space. As with the others, I discouraged questions: I knew he was going to get a lot in the next section – and he did!
• I have to say very well done to every attendee – after we finished the presentation section of the event, the chairs were folded and put away in about 45 seconds. Nice work everyone.
• My chief role was making sure everyone had a glass of something in their hands – and where possible, make some introductions.
• I have to compliment everyone's networking 'skillz': You were simply brilliant. The conversation flowed from the start.
• Thank you to those internationally who asked that we stream the next event. It turns out the venue has that capability upstairs. I'll need to look into this in a bit more depth in the future.
• One of the dis/advantages of having the event in the basement was that the mobile signal was limited. This wasn't on purpose but it did enable us to focus a little. It also made it difficult to quickly 'bump' phones or do LinkedIn swaps for networking.
• It was wonderful watching so much conversation going on throughout the evening. There is so much potential with the Conversational AI ecosystem and having so many different aspects of the ecosystem represented really helped keep the ideas and energy flowing throughout the evening.
• It was suggested that I distribute a list of attendees to help facilitate networking. I've modified that idea: I emailed all the attendees earlier to ask if they would send me their LinkedIn profile URL (with the option not to bother replying) and I will then circulate these in a Google Sheet to all attendees.

I'll do a more comprehensive overview but I wanted to get something up here on the same day.

Thank you to everyone for making the time to come along and participate so actively.

Thank you to Tom from Koios and Neil from Qualyfi for sponsoring the event and making it possible.