Case study — product development
Clarion Events: AI Assistant product development
How a small-scale matchmaking experiment became a multi-event, multi-channel AI product — developed across seven iterations, deployed at live events in Europe and the US, and recognised by Trade Show News Network as the Best Innovation on a B2C show in 2025.
The project in brief
From Proof of Concept to Award-Winning Product
Clarion Events had an early-stage matchmaking prototype and needed to turn it into a fully-fledged product. Ade brought in a product development approach — scoping use cases, mapping the target customer journey, and running a structured programme of iterations. On Ade's guidance, Clarion engaged Visual Hive as the delivery partner, with Bogdan Maran's team reporting into Ade across seven live-event iterations.
Get in touch about a similar projectThe challenge
Clarion had proved in a mid-2024 test that event content and exhibitor data could power AI matchmaking recommendations for visitors. The challenge was turning that proof of concept into a product: identifying the use cases that would deliver real value, designing a customer journey around them, and validating performance at scale across commercially live events.
What Ade did
Brought in a product development approach — defining use cases, mapping the target customer journey, and identifying Visual Hive as the right delivery partner. Clarion engaged Visual Hive directly on Ade's recommendation, with Bogdan Maran's team reporting into Ade through the programme. Each of seven successive iterations was deployed at a live event, each with a specific test objective — from internal evaluation, through controlled customer testing, to full production deployment at scale.
The results
The AI Assistant now operates across seven access channels — including website, native app, WhatsApp, SMS and email — with proven scale at up to ten calls per minute and over 9,000 interactions at a single event. Personalised recommendation emails hit a 57%+ open rate with 11%+ click-through. TSNN recognised the Rose City Comic Con deployment with the 2025 Best Innovation on a B2C show award.
The Full Story
In mid 2024, Clarion Events had undertaken a small scale test with a development agency to demonstrate the ability to use event content and data from exhibitor and session listings to provide matchmaking recommendations to visitors.
Ade Allenby was brought in to apply a product development approach to taking this forward into a fully-fledged product. Initially reviewing use cases and mapping a target customer journey, under Ade's guidance, Clarion partnered with Bogdan Maran and his team at Visual Hive to support the scoping and delivery of a programme to test and validate the product. Visual Hive were working on AI agent technology and had extensive domain knowledge of the events industry.
Using the latest in AI development tools to allow for rapid prototyping and allow for customisation across Clarion tech stack and individual events (Langflow, DataStax, N8N) and leveraging the latest LLMs (Open AI Azure, Anthropic, Grok) they supported Clarion in evolving the capabilities of an AI Assistant built to Clarion's specifications.
| Iteration | Event | Test outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DTX/UCX 2023 (historical data) | Internal evaluation. Session recommendation comparisons. |
| 2 | Enlit Europe 2024 (historical data) | Customer interviews on product value and user interface. Successful addition of speaker data. |
| 3 | ICE Gaming 2025 (live data) | Matchmaking and event help capability. Controlled customer testing. Proven live usage. |
| 4 | MAU Las Vegas 2025 (live data) | Available to all attendees (live production systems). Simple app integration. Login and user profile functionality. |
| 5 | Coffee Fest LA 2025 (live data) | Multi-channel: WhatsApp, SMS, email + website/web app. Assistant outbound matchmaking campaign (52.7% open rate). Scaled to 5,000 recommendations. |
| 6 | Rose City Comiccon (live data) | Proven at scale with up to 10 calls per minute and 9,000 interactions. Application to B2C format including paid tickets and multi-track content. AI augmented vendor profiles. |
| 7 | ICE/iGB Live 2026 (live data) | Co-located events, dual answer capability based on badge. "Anonymous" and logged-in version to improve adoption. Built-in floorplan and directory. |
Through a rigorous approach to understanding customer value and how to drive engagement at key touchpoints of the customer journey, Clarion's partnership with Allenby Advisory and Visual Hive was able to deliver successive leaps in functionality and quality of customer experience. A low-touch content ingestion and testing process was developed to ensure limited impact on event team resources.
Clarion now stands out amongst its peers in its preparedness to deploy AI agents across its business across different touchpoint in the customer journey.
Validation of the product strategy and implementation came from Trade Show News Network in the US who honoured the Rose City Comiccon team with Best Innovation on a B2C show 2025.
"Rose City Comic Con reimagined fan engagement through 'Rosy,' an AI-powered virtual assistant that served as a 24/7 concierge for attendees. Integrated into the event website and optimized for mobile, Rosy handled thousands of inquiries — from celebrity schedules to badge pickup — while personalizing responses and offering empathetic communication. Beyond improving the attendee experience, Rosy provided actionable insights for organizers, revealing trends and opportunities for future engagement. This innovative approach reduced customer service volume, enhanced operational efficiency, and positioned Rose City Comic Con as a leader in leveraging AI to create smarter, more connected fan experiences."Trade Show News Network — Best Innovation on a B2C show, 2025
Headline Outcomes
Ade's role: Product strategy, use case definition, customer journey mapping, selection and recommendation of Visual Hive as delivery partner, iteration planning across seven live events, and programme leadership with Bogdan Maran's team at Visual Hive reporting into Ade on delivery.
Working on Something Similar?
Whether you're scoping an AI product from scratch, looking to turn a prototype into a live deployment, or thinking through how AI agents might fit your customer journey — Ade would welcome the conversation.