Using AI to Create and Update Activities in Bulk

When you have a long agenda to enter, or a revised schedule arrives the week before your event, you don't have to change every activity by hand. You can give a general-purpose AI assistant, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Microsoft Copilot, two things: an export of your activities from Eventene and your agenda. The assistant works out the changes and prepares a file that you bring back in with Import Activities.

This is a companion to Using AI to Create Better Event Pages, which uses the same approach for the information pages attendees read.

How this works with Eventene. The AI assistant is a separate tool that you use in your own browser or app. It is not connected to Eventene and cannot see or change your event. Export Activities gives the assistant a copy of your activities, and Import Activities is how its suggestions get back into Eventene. You review everything in between.

The approach: Analyze, Review, Generate, Import

Bulk changes are quick to make and just as quick to get wrong, so work in four steps:

Analyze. The assistant reads your export and your agenda and tells you, in plain language, what it plans to create or change.
Review. You check that list against your agenda and correct anything that's off.
Generate. Only once the list is right do you ask for the import file.
Import. You import the file into Eventene and look over the result.

Splitting the analysis from the file is the most useful safeguard here. A short list such as "Keynote moves from 9:00 to 9:30" takes a minute to check. A spreadsheet with dozens of columns does not. If the assistant has misread something, you catch it in the list before it reaches your event.

Why start with an export

Even when you're creating a brand-new schedule, start by exporting your current activities. On the Activities tab, open the Actions menu and choose Export Activities (see Export Activities).

The export shows the assistant exactly what Eventene expects:

The real column names, such as Name, Activity Type, Start, End, Time Zone, Location Name and Description
The formatting Eventene uses for dates, times and other values
Examples from your own event, such as how you name sessions, which time zone you use and how you write locations, so new activities match the ones you already have
The Activity ID for every existing activity, which is how an import updates the right one

If your event has no activities yet, create one or two Schedule activities by hand first so the export has examples to follow. You can also use Download Activity Template from the same menu to get the column headers.

Creating activities from an agenda

Use this when you have a conference agenda, retreat itinerary, training plan, camp schedule or multi-day trip and want it in Eventene as Schedule activities.

Export Activities from your event.
Open your AI assistant and attach the export and your agenda. The agenda can be a document, a PDF, an email or text you paste in.
Send the starter prompt below.
Review the list of proposed activities against your agenda. Ask for corrections in plain language until it's right.
Ask for the import file.
Import Activities in Eventene, check the preview and run the import (see Bringing the file into Eventene).
Look over the new schedule in Eventene.

Starter prompt: create activities

I've attached an Activities export from Eventene, our event management system, and the agenda for my event. Using the existing Schedule activities in the export as examples, plan the Schedule activities needed to represent this agenda.

Rules:

Use the exact column names and value formats from the export.

Every new activity needs a Name, an Activity Type of Schedule, a Start, and an End. Leave the Activity ID blank on every new row, because Eventene assigns it.

Keep all times in the event's local time, as they appear in the agenda. Do not convert time zones.

Do not change or include any existing activities, especially Registration activities.

Do not invent details. If something is unclear or missing, such as an end time or a room, ask me.

First, show me a simple table of the activities you propose to create, with the name, date, start time, end time and location of each. Do not create the import file yet.

When the table looks right, reply:

That's correct. Now create the import file as a CSV, using only the columns you need and leaving the Activity ID blank on every row.

Updating a schedule that has changed

This is where the approach saves the most time. A revised agenda arrives shortly before the event, and you need to know what actually changed and then change only that.

Export Activities from your event. Save an untouched copy of this file somewhere safe.
Open your AI assistant and attach the export and the revised agenda.
Send the starter prompt below.
Review the list of changes. Check each one against the revised agenda.
Ask for an import file containing only the activities that need to change.
Import Activities in Eventene, check that the preview shows updates and no unexpected creates, and run the import.
Look over the updated schedule in Eventene.

Starter prompt: update activities

I've attached an Activities export from Eventene, our event management system, and a revised agenda for the event. Compare them and find every difference between the existing Schedule activities and the revised agenda.

Rules:

Do not change Registration activities, or any activity type.

Keep every Activity ID exactly as it is in the export. The Activity ID is how Eventene knows which activity to update.

Keep column names and existing values unless the revised agenda requires a change.

Keep all times in the event's local time. Do not convert time zones.

First, show me a short list of the changes you found, grouped as:

Activities that change (show the old and new value for each change)

New activities in the revised agenda that aren't in the export

Activities in the export that are no longer in the revised agenda

Do not create the import file yet.

Read the list carefully. You might reply:

The lunch change is right, but the workshop is still in Room B, so leave its location alone. Everything else is correct.

Then, once the list is right:

Now create the import file as a CSV containing only the activities that need to change. Include the Activity ID column, plus only the columns that are changing. Leave the Activity ID blank for any new activities, and include their Name, Activity Type, Start and End.

Why only the changed rows and columns

Eventene matches each row to an activity by its Activity ID and only changes the columns in your file. A file holding just the changed activities, and just the changed columns, is easy to check and can't accidentally alter anything else. A blank cell in an import keeps the existing value, so a column left out or left empty never erases anything. See Import Activities for the details.

Activities that were dropped

Import creates and updates activities, but it doesn't remove them. If the revised agenda drops a session, the assistant lists it under "no longer in the agenda". Decide what to do with each of those and make the change yourself in Eventene. See Manage Activities.

Bringing the file into Eventene

On the Activities tab, open the Actions menu and choose Import Activities.
Upload the CSV file from your assistant. If your assistant can't produce a downloadable file, ask it for the rows as a table, paste them into a spreadsheet such as Google Sheets or Excel, and copy and paste the cells into the import panel.
On the Review step, check that each row shows as Create or Update as you expect. An update showing as a create usually means the Activity ID was dropped or changed.
On the Validate step, fix any errors. You can paste an error message back into the assistant and ask it to correct the file. See Common Activity Import Errors.
Run the import, then open the Activities tab and check the result.

If you're trying this for the first time, import a few rows first and confirm they come out the way you expect.

Other things you can do this way

Shift a day's sessions later by 30 minutes
Update locations after a room change
Add or improve descriptions for every session
Standardize activity names, for example "Session 1: …" across a track
Turn a multi-day itinerary into Schedule activities
Bring a conference agenda into Eventene
Compare two versions of an agenda and see what changed
Identify which activities actually changed, and prepare only those rows for import

For example:

"Using the attached export, move every Saturday Schedule activity 30 minutes later. Show me the old and new times first. Then create an import file with only the Activity ID, Start and End columns."
"Rewrite the descriptions of all Schedule activities so each is one or two friendly sentences for attendees. Show me the new descriptions first. Then create an import file with only the Activity ID and Description columns."

Using AI responsibly

The assistant does the tedious part, but you're still the one deciding what changes in your event. A few habits help:

Review the proposed changes before you import. Ask for the list first, every time.
Keep an untouched copy of your original export. If an import doesn't go as planned, you have a record of how things were. You can also import that file again to put the changed values back.
Preserve Activity IDs when updating. A missing or altered ID turns an update into a new activity, or fails validation.
Change only what you asked for. Tell the assistant not to change activity types or unrelated columns, and check that it didn't.
Import only the rows that need to change when you can.
Check the result in Eventene after importing.
Verify the details that matter most: dates, times, time zones, locations, names, links and descriptions.
Think before you share personal information. Your AI assistant is a service run by another company. An activity export doesn't include participants, so keep it that way: leave out attendee lists, contact details and anything confidential, and follow your organization's policies on AI tools.