Events & Conferences | Attendee Engagement

Stellar, ASAE’s AI Concierge That Gets Attendees to Say Yes

371

Personalized attendee conversations

234

Attendees engaged, not just registered

95%

Content coverage, zero dead ends

108

Conversations on opening day alone

The Challenge

Getting someone to register is only half the job. MMC+Tech, ASAE’s Marketing, Membership, Communications + Technology Conference, draws hundreds of association marketing, membership, communications, and technology professionals, and each one needs a personal reason to justify the trip, then a way to actually get the most out of it once they arrive. A session catalog and an exhibit hall map do not answer “why should I go” or “how do I get my boss to approve this."

ASAE had tested a conference chatbot as early as 2024, but it only handled fixed question and answer pairs. It could not build a personalized case for attending, match someone’s goals to specific sessions, or help them navigate hundreds of exhibitors on the show floor.

The Solution

ASAE worked with Betty to grow Stellar from that early static assistant into a dynamic AI concierge, live in MMC+Tech’s main navigation for anyone considering or attending the conference, not gated behind a member login. For 2026, session and exhibitor content sync automatically from the conference website, so Stellar stays current without manual staff work.

Tell Stellar a goal like improving communication skills, and it recommends sessions and explains why they fit. Say you need to justify the trip to your boss, and it narrows the catalog to the best sessions for your project and drafts a justification letter to make the case. It matches attendees to exhibitors by need, builds an expo visit plan, and answers on-site questions like which lunch options are vegetarian, all without attendees searching for anything.

Key Elements of Success

Sells the value of attending. Personalized session matches and generated justification letters help attendees prove the trip is worth it before they book.
Prompts that grow with registration. ASAE rotates Stellar’s sample prompts through the registration cycle, turning the assistant into an ongoing marketing touchpoint.
Always current, no manual lift. Session and exhibitor content sync automatically from the conference site, so Stellar never falls behind what’s published.
Open to everyone, not just members. Lives in MMC+Tech’s main navigation, so prospective and registered attendees get the same experience with no login wall.

The Results

Stellar met attendees at every stage of the decision to attend and the event itself, from weighing whether to register to navigating the show floor, and held steady on quality even as volume spiked around the live event.

Engagement Across the Full Attendee Journey

211 conversations before the event (57% of activity). Attendees weighed sessions, built personalized agendas, and pulled justification letters before ever booking travel.
145 conversations during the event (39% of activity). That includes 108 conversations in a single day, May 28, the day MMC+Tech opened.
15 conversations after the event. Attendees came back for CAE credits and recordings, some already asking about 2027.

Attendees Wanted More Than a Schedule

Beyond registration and hotel questions, attendees asked Stellar to match them with exhibitors by need, plan an expo visit around walking distance, and turn session picks into a justification letter for their boss, the kind of personal, persuasive engagement a static session list or exhibit directory cannot deliver.