Insights

AI Visibility Starts With the Fundamentals of PR

By Julie Franks, director, PR

A question we’re hearing more often from trade show organizers goes something like this: “When I ask AI what the best event is in my industry, why doesn’t my show come up?”

It’s easy to understand why that question is becoming more urgent. People are using AI tools to research industries, compare options and decide what belongs on their radar. If your event isn’t part of that answer, you want to know what you can do about it.

PR has an important role in an event’s AI visibility. AI-generated answers can draw from information well beyond an organization’s own website, including journalism and other third-party sources. Muck Rack’s May 2026 research analyzed more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini and found that journalism accounted for 27% of citations overall.

The research confirms something PR has always recognized: Earned coverage and credible third-party information help shape how an organization or event is understood. Press releases, media coverage, interviews, research, expert commentary and the broader industry conversation all contribute.

The rush to understand AI visibility makes sense. The question is where to start. 

When Technology Changes, Start at the Very Beginning

I can’t help but think about “The Sound of Music” whenever this conversation comes up, specifically the song “Do-Re-Mi,” which opens with a simple lesson: When you’re learning something new, begin with the basics. When you learn to read, you start with A-B-C. When you learn to sing, you start with do-re-mi.

Apply that same idea to AI visibility, and you start with messaging — before you get to PR.

Every time technology jumps forward, there is a rush to learn the new terminology, master the new tactics and find the people who understand the new tools. Some of that work may be necessary, but before getting too far into acronyms, platforms and optimization, there is still a more basic question to answer: What are we trying to communicate?

If the answer isn’t clear, mastering every AI visibility tactic available isn’t going to solve the problem.

You can’t optimize your way out of an unclear story.

PR Is Built on Messaging 

Messaging is the foundation of PR. It comes before the press release, the media pitch or the executive interview because it guides what they are trying to communicate.

And messaging doesn’t mean the same thing as copy. It isn’t a tagline, boilerplate or a paragraph of approved language that gets pasted into every piece of content. Good messaging starts with a couple questions: What do we want people to understand about this event? What do we want them to associate with it?

How To Answer Those Questions

For trade shows, that decision can be harder than it sounds. Most events have a lot of features and benefits they could legitimately talk about: education, networking, new products, innovation, industry experts, business opportunities, community, access to buyers and insight into the issues shaping the market.

But if everything is equally important, what are people supposed to remember? This is where messaging requires some focus.

You can’t be everything to everyone, but you can be something to someone.

Different audiences will have different reasons to care about an event, and your communications should reflect that. But there still needs to be a clear idea at the center. What does the event stand for, and why does it matter?

That becomes even more important when people are using AI to compare options and make recommendations.

It’s not just about being findable, but about showing up when someone is looking for the specific things your event does best.

That clarity has to come before the visibility work.

PR Builds Credibility Around the Message

Once you know what you want the event to stand for, PR has something specific to build on. The core idea should then pull through everything an event puts into the world, from its website and blog posts to press releases, interviews and earned media.

PR plays an important role in extending the message beyond the channels an event controls. That could mean pitching a reporter on an executive’s perspective about where the industry is heading, rather than only reaching out when there’s news about the show. Relevant earned coverage adds something owned content can’t: third-party perspective and credibility.

Media mentions matter, but not simply for the sake of having more of them. Earning that kind of attention requires finding stories and perspectives that are useful or interesting to the media (and audience) you want to reach. When that coverage also reinforces your message, it gives people another angle into the event.

Consistency also matters when AI tools are drawing from many sources. The more consistent your message is across channels — owned and earned — the clearer the public picture is of the event and what it stands for.

That doesn’t mean every pitch, interview, press release or story should repeat the same language. The angle and the words will change. The message underneath them shouldn’t.

Back to the Beginning

There will be technical considerations around AI search and visibility. There will be new tactics to test and new platforms to understand. None of that changes the importance of getting the basics right.

Organizers want their events to appear when people turn to AI for recommendations, but you can’t put the cart before the horse. Solidify your “why,” then let PR shape a broader conversation around it. And that, in turn, will help AI get the whole story so it can feed your event’s information to the right audience.

Start with the message. Be clear about what you want to be known for. Then use PR to build the body of information and credibility around it.