AI in Live Event Production: Real Wins and Warnings from the Field. Rentman AI Series Session 3/3.

Two Rentman users who are actively using AI in their live event businesses sit down with Tim Grohmann to share what is actually working, what has caused headaches, and where they still trust a human over a tool. Phil Grimpo (Inspirmedia Productions, Lincoln, NE) and Michael Creviston (M3 Sound, Lighting and Staging, Wisconsin) have both been running Rentman for around a year and have spent the last months going deep on AI, from the Rentman MCP to agentic workflows that now handle project creation, invoicing, scheduling reports and client-facing rental shops. No slides, no demos. Just a straight conversation about real implementations, the guardrails they put in place, the mistakes they caught before they caused damage, and the use cases they are still figuring out. If you are wondering what AI looks like in a working event production company right now, this is it. What you’ll learn: How two event companies are using the Rentman MCP and Claude to automate project creation, invoicing, equipment audits, and weekly crew scheduling reports. How to build a client-facing rental shop powered by AI that pulls from your Rentman inventory, generates quotes automatically, and routes them for human approval before sending. Where human oversight is still non-negotiable: show-floor decisions, client communications, and anything that touches money before it goes out. How to start small: the first AI wins that convinced skeptical team members and built enough trust to widen access over time. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome and introductions: Phil Grimpo and Michael Creviston 04:59 How AI first showed up in their day-to-day work 10:25 Using AI to fill gaps in Rentman: inventory audits, ICS calendars and scheduling reports 13:47 Building a fully automated client-facing rental shop with AI and Rentman 17:06 Phil’s dashboard, catalog brochure and Zapier MCP integration 25:45 Agentic workflows running today: fleet maintenance, social media, invoicing and hotel routing 35:13 Guardrails: what they let AI do alone and where they always review first 45:56 The warnings: where AI falls short and where experience still wins 55:13 Where to start if you are new to AI in your event company Links: Rentman: https://rentman.io/ Session 1: Rentman MCP and What’s Next:    • Rentman MCP Explained: Live Demos, Use Cas...   Session 2: Rethinking AI’s Role in Operations and Capacity with Mark Wells:    • Expert Session: Rethinking AI’s Role in Li...   Rentman community: https://community.rentman.io/ Rentman is the operations management platform built to support event and media production teams. With best-in-class equipment and crew scheduling products, real-time planning insights, and hands-on customer support, Rentman is used globally by over 250,000 professionals to work more efficiently. #Rentman #AIinEvents #LiveEventProduction #EventTech #RentmanMCP #ClaudeAI #AIAutomation #AVIndustry #EventProduction #SmallBusiness