If you feel like your to-do list grows faster than your ability to keep up, you’re not alone. In the last year alone, 68% of event marketers said their workload has increased without additional resource, and 57% admit they’re struggling to keep pace with technology change (Event Industry News, 2025).
At this year’s Event Tech Live, BBD Boom’s co-founder Adam Lewis tackled the question many in our industry quietly ask: how do we stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling in control again?
Because somewhere between new AI tools, multi-channel marketing, and the constant expectation for instant answers, the events world has found itself running faster just to stay still.
Today’s event and marketing leaders are caught between innovation overload and digital distraction. There’s relentless pressure to:
It’s no wonder 61% of marketers say they face “technology fatigue” (Salesforce State of Marketing 2024), while 44% of event organisers describe their tech stack as fragmented or under-used (EventMB).
The result? Decision paralysis. Leaders are spinning plates, chasing shiny tools, and losing focus on what really moves the needle.
Adam’s talk reframed this not as a failure of skill, but of system. “The brain isn’t built for multitasking,” he reminded the audience. “Overwhelm is a normal response to the volume of information we process every day — but staying overwhelmed is a choice.”
The first step from chaos to clarity is prioritisation. Adam introduced a GTM Prioritisation Matrix — a deceptively simple but powerful way to triage innovation.
Ask two questions about every new tool, channel, or idea:
Only those that score high on both deserve your immediate focus. Everything else either becomes a future opportunity or gets parked entirely.
For example, many event teams rush to adopt new AI assistants, CRM add-ons, or AR experiences — yet 40% of these pilots never reach implementation (Cvent Tech Adoption Report 2025). A clear framework prevents that scattergun approach and helps leaders invest effort where the impact will be felt.
Innovation doesn’t have to mean risk.
Boom’s Test–Invest–Scale model gives structure to experimentation:
This approach frees leaders from the “try everything” trap and replaces it with evidence-based growth.
At Boom, Adam demonstrated this with a real example: using ChatGPT and N8N to build a custom proposal-builder inside HubSpot. The tool now drafts initial proposals for the team, cutting prep time by hours and freeing space for creative and strategic work.
That’s the difference between chasing AI hype and applying it with purpose.
Even with good prioritisation, there are still only so many hours in the day.
Enter the Eisenhower Matrix — a simple but underrated productivity tool that separates the urgent from the important.
Event organisers know the feeling: deadlines, logistics, speakers, sponsors, marketing campaigns — everything screams for attention. But not everything deserves it.
Categorising work into four quadrants (Do, Schedule, Delegate, Eliminate) forces clarity and discipline. It’s how you protect the energy needed for meaningful progress rather than perpetual firefighting.
As Adam put it: “The goal isn’t to do everything. It’s to do the right things well.”
AI has been both a blessing and a source of overwhelm.
The latest Event Tech Forecast 2025 found that 73% of organisers are experimenting with AI tools, yet only 27% have a defined strategy for how AI supports their commercial goals.
The result is confusion: too many tools, not enough integration, and a creeping sense of being outpaced by competitors who seem to “get it.”
Boom’s advice: start small. Use AI to augment your thinking — not replace it. Automate repetitive processes (like proposals, data cleaning, or content drafting) but keep humans in control of creativity, empathy, and quality.
In other words: AI should empower, not overwhelm.
Ultimately, moving from overwhelm to empowerment isn’t just about tools — it’s about mindset.
Empowered leaders:
Because the reality is that the events industry has never moved faster. Hybrid formats, sustainability goals, personalisation demands, and data-driven marketing are reshaping what success looks like.
But amidst all the noise, the businesses thriving are those who pause long enough to choose direction before speed.
If there’s one takeaway from Adam’s session, it’s this: you can’t scale chaos.
But you can scale focus, clarity, and confidence.
So whether you’re a CMO, a marketing manager, or an event producer — the challenge isn’t to keep up with everything. It’s to build frameworks that help you decide what’s worth keeping up with at all.
And that’s how you shift from overwhelmed to empowered.