We need to have an honest conversation about “Cognitive Dissonance.”
In psychology, it describes the mental discomfort of holding two conflicting beliefs. In our industry right now, it describes the gap between the polished fantasy of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the sweaty, chaotic reality of a tradeshow floor.
Let’s be real: Most people claiming to be AI experts are lying. They are lazy. They write a simple prompt into Midjourney, get a cool image, and pat themselves on the back. That isn’t design; that is a slot machine.
I am not an AI expert. I am a CEO. I am a producer. Like most high-level leaders, I don’t have the time to sit in a dark room and master 50 new tools every week. I have a business to run.
To truly leverage this technology, we probably need to hire someone whose sole existence is to play with it—someone who studies the algorithms while the rest of us are on a plane. However, there is a massive problem with that strategy, and it is the source of our industry’s coming dissonance.
The person who has the time to master AI is usually stuck behind a screen. They aren’t on the show floor. They don’t know that the beautiful, seamless graphic they generated is going to be blocked by a rental sofa. They don’t understand that the “perfect” door they rendered actually opens inward and will smash the reception desk.
AI doesn’t experience gravity, union labor schedules, or human flow. It creates a vacuum-sealed fantasy. Real humans, however, have to move through these spaces. We have to walk, sit, and talk. When we rely too heavily on the “antisocial nerd” approach to design—where data dictates the visual—we lose the practical magic that makes face-to-face marketing work.
We risk building booths that look great on Instagram but feel dead in person.
Furthermore, AI has zero social capital. You cannot prompt an algorithm to close a deal. You cannot ask ChatGPT to ask a favor of a show organizer when your freight is late. You cannot automate the charm required to get a union laborer to help you out of a jam five minutes before the doors open.
Business is still closed by humans. It happens in the handshake, the shared joke, and the favor asked in a moment of panic.
So, here is the challenge: hire the experts. Use the tools. Let’s not be Luddites, but never let the algorithm drive the bus. The future of our industry isn’t about who writes the best prompt; it is about who can take that digital fantasy and actually build it in a convention center, where the doors stick, the coffee is lukewarm, and the connections are real.
Paco Collazo is the CEO of Happy Projects. For more info, visit www.happyprojects.com.
