Workshops, travel and event logistics
Listen to this lesson
Nigerian voice narration
Fictional training case. Your department is hosting a 2-day stakeholder workshop in Abuja for 60 participants and you are the sole organiser against a tight deadline. This lesson covers building planning checklists, timed programmes and budget tables with AI. Work through the example, identify the evidence needed and practise the method with cleared or synthetic inputs. Any additional figures in the explanation are separate practice examples, not claimed rows in a downloadable file.
Worked example
With the workshop date three weeks away, Yusuf asks AI for a full planning checklist — venue, invitations, accommodation, feeding, materials, media — working backwards from the event date, which reveals that invitation letters must go out in 9 days, not 'soon'. He then requests a timed 2-day programme draft and a budget table with columns Item, Unit, Quantity, Estimated Cost in Naira. Pricing 60 participants' feeding at ₦8,500 per person per day across 2 days, he calculates 60 × 8,500 × 2 = ₦1,020,000 for feeding alone, and uses that same table structure to price venue hire and materials before sending the full budget for approval.
The method
Ask AI to plan backwards from the fixed event date so hidden deadlines (invitation lead time, procurement approvals) surface early rather than being discovered late. Request budget items as a table (Item, Unit, Quantity, Estimated Cost) so you can price and total it directly in Excel. Route all invitation letters and budgets through the normal approval chain before sending or committing funds.
Worked practice and common mistakes
Check the unit of each estimate: person, day, room or event. Sixty people at ₦8,500 each for two days cost ₦1,020,000, not ₦510,000. Not every participant necessarily needs accommodation. Keep supplier quotes distinct from planning estimates. Work backwards through approval, invitations and bookings rather than assuming the event date is the only deadline.
Review before using the result
Planning backwards from the event date turns a vague deadline into specific task dates you can hit. Budget tables generated by AI still need your own pricing and arithmetic check. Invitation letters and spending always go through proper sign-off.
Your workplace practice
Use the recommended free assistant with this lesson's fictional example. Create a planning checklist and a timed 2-day programme for a stakeholder workshop on [topic] for 60 participants in Abuja. Then produce a budget table (item, unit, quantity, estimated cost in Naira). Keep a copy of the input and draft. Compare the result with the verification steps above, record any correction, and retain placeholders where evidence is missing. The expected result is a checked draft for human review, not an automatically approved decision. Course examples and practice responses are fictional; amounts, dates, rules and thresholds are not official guidance or supplier quotations.
Open ChatGPT (free tier) and paste this prompt there. Strong at checklists, schedules and itineraries in one conversation.
Create a planning checklist and a timed 2-day programme for a stakeholder workshop on [topic] for 60 participants in Abuja. Then produce a budget table (item, unit, quantity, estimated cost in Naira).
Why this tool: Strong at checklists, schedules and itineraries in one conversation.
Hit a free limit? Switch to ChatGPT or Gemini and continue — the prompt works in any assistant.