MGME Vice President of Business Strategy Cindy D’Aoust
As former president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and chief operating officer of Meeting Professionals International (MPI), Cindy D’Aoust has a global perspective on where events are going with help from AI efficiency tools. She was recently named vice president of business strategy at MGME, a meeting management and event production solution company for the MICE industry.
We sat down to ask her what opportunities and challenges are on her radar.
What is on the horizon for event planning in 2026?
How we plan meetings and where we plan meetings will continue to evolve, as will the tools. What should not get lost is the value of meetings. I always ask, “Why is someone spending anywhere from $100,000 to millions of dollars to bring people together for an event?” We need a formal process around how to measure success. That is still a difficult equation. But I am optimistic, because I think the continuing trend is that companies are recognizing the value of meetings. For years, there have been studies that show the No. 1 driver for growth is face-to-face meetings. We will see a lot of work devoted to tracking, evaluating and measuring success.
Will AI be part of that drive to measure results?
I call the new collaboration equation AI-plus, and the plus is human expertise. Years ago, when event technology started supporting events, it made the process faster, but without human design, we found that bad input gets bad output. We’re going to continue to take advantage of AI tools for efficiency, but it will have to be driven by a focus on why we are producing the meeting and how we define success.
Read More: AI Is Here. Are Event Teams Ready?
We need to use technology to interact with attendees to get their input before, during and after the meeting. AI will empower us with real-time data to make changes while people are on site. If the speakers don’t resonate with the audience or the content isn’t clear, you can make adjustments, open breakout rooms, ask for questions. At the end of the meeting, you can assess the ROI for insight to plan next year’s meeting.
AI travel tools can even reduce friction around booking and managing flights. MGME’s Air Logic can alert you if a flight has a 60% chance of being cancelled or if weather looks like it might negatively impact the flight and offer to look for other options. This is particularly helpful for incentives where sitting in an airport with kids waiting for a delayed flight could be a challenging prospect.
What is the future for meetings at sea?
It depends on why you are hosting the meeting. If you’re conducting an intense all-day agenda with tough, technical discussions, things that require you to be in a room all day, you’re actually going to create a negative environment.
Read More: Royal Caribbean Launches “World’s Biggest Weekend” Cruise with New Mega-Ship Utopia of the Seas
A cruise facilitates interacting with people, experiencing new destinations together and creating memories with co-workers as part of an incentive or team building, even a sales or product launch meeting. And with all-inclusive, customizable packages, they are easier to manage. Start with the purpose, rather than the venue.
This article appears in the July 2026 issue. You can subscribe to the magazine here.
