AI, Applied: A Practical Business Workshop with Christopher Penn

Christopher S. Penn

Co-Founder & Chief Data Scientist, Trust Insights Inc.

This exclusive, full-day intensive workshop, presented by the Tourism Industry Association of Alberta (TIAA), is designed for senior marketing leaders who need to see a tangible return on investment from artificial intelligence.

We will cut through the noise and focus entirely on practical, hands-on applications that solve the real challenges B2B marketers face every day.

Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Location: JW Marriott Hotel (Jari Kurri Ballroom)
Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm

This workshop will follow our TOURISM ADVOCACY SUMMIT 

This isn’t another theoretical lecture. The market is saturated with those.

This is a hands-on, intensive training day designed to move beyond the hype and deliver tangible business value. You will leave with a repeatable system and practical tools you can implement immediately, justifying the investment with measurable outcomes.

What Will You Learn?

• The basics of effective AI prompting — how to talk to AI so it actually delivers what you need
• The seven major use-case categories of generative AI in tourism, with Alberta-specific examples, including itinerary automation, workforce planning, and marketing personalization
• Hands-on practice with synthetic data (provided) so you can experiment confidently without privacy concerns
• An introduction to AI agents, workflows, and automations, and how tourism operators are already using them to reduce friction and workload
• What’s coming next in AI and how Alberta’s tourism community can stay ahead of the curve

Workshop Agenda:

The day’s curriculum is built around solving problems, not just demonstrating tools. In each module, we will tackle a common marketing challenge and build a hands-on, AI-powered solution together.

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Welcome & The Strategic Imperative

• Networking & Coffee

A brief, informal welcome

• The state of play: why 90% of marketing teams are using AI incorrectly and what the top 10% are doing differently
• Setting the stage for moving beyond hype to ROI

9:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Module 1: A Leader’s Guide to AI Mechanics & Prompting

• Core concepts, not code
• A jargon-free breakdown of how large language models work, framed for strategic decision-making. Learn enough to lead confidently without needing to be a developer.

The prompting framework

• Introduction to a powerful, repeatable prompting framework (e.g., RACE: Role, Action, Context, Execute) that your entire team can adopt for consistent, high-quality results.

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Module 2: The AI-Powered Market Intelligence Engine (Hands-On Lab)

• This module is pure practical application.
• Use cases covered: summarization, classification, extraction, and question-answering.

Hands-on problems we will solve:

• Analyze 100 customer reviews to identify key themes in minutes
• Generate a deep competitive analysis from a rival’s website or annual report
• Create detailed buyer personas from raw interview transcripts

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
Lunch

1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Module 3: The AI-Powered Content & Campaign Accelerator (Hands-On Lab)

• This module focuses on using AI to increase the speed and quality of marketing execution.
• Use cases covered: generation, rewriting, and synthesis.
• Hands-on problems we will solve:
  • Ideate a full year of marketing strategy, tactics, and execution
  • Repurpose a single piece of pillar content into a complete multi-channel campaign
  • Draft and refine personalized sales enablement and outreach sequences

3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Module 4: From Workshop to Workplace: Your AI Implementation Roadmap

• This capstone module focuses on leadership, governance, and execution.
  • AI governance and risk mitigation: practical frameworks for responsible use, data privacy, and brand protection
  • Building your center of excellence: identifying AI champions, structuring pilot teams, and measuring ROI
  • The AI-adjusted marketing plan: how generative AI impacts SEO, content, email, and budget planning over the next 12–18 months

4:30 PM – 5:00 PM
The Road Ahead & Open Q&A

• What’s next in AI, including agents and multi-modality, and what it means for marketers
• Positioning yourself as an AI-powered leader
• Open Q&A