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Using ChatGPT to reformat and analyze a conference schedule
Tired of copying conference schedules by hand? AI can handle it in minutes.
This article is part of the eBook: Everyday AI guide: Practical genAI life hacks from real users, a free download from We Love Open Source.
I enjoy finding practical ways to put generative AI to the test. For this experiment, my goal was simple: Take multi-column data from a conference schedule and turn it into something more useful. I copied the information straight from the event website and asked ChatGPT to help me reformat it into a clean list. Once I had that list, I pushed things further to see if ChatGPT could help me analyze and organize the data.
Data gathering and initial results
I started by gathering the list of lightning talks from the conference schedule, copying information for day one and day two into ChatGPT, after the following prompt.
Prompt:
I need help reformatting some data from a conference schedule...
let me share the two parts, then I'll follow-up with instructions.Response:
Got it! I see both parts of the conference schedule.
Go ahead and share your instructions for how you want this data reformatted.Prompt:
1) Remove this information: Ignite Talks - Fletcher Hall -- it is redundant and not needed
2) Reformat the data from
Ignite Talks - Fletcher Hall [Talk title] [Speaker]
to be on one line each, with this format: [Talk title] by [Speaker]Results:
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Asking ChatGPT to organize the results
That was pretty straightforward, but I wanted to test how ChatGPT could help group the information into a table by popular topic. So I just asked.
Prompt:
Can you sort the lightning talks by popular topic,
categorize them into groups, and display them in a table?Results:
Conclusion
What started as a simple formatting task turned into a quick experiment in how AI can help analyze event data. In just a few prompts, ChatGPT transformed clunky conference text into a clean speaker list and even organized it by topic in an easy-to-read table.
This experiment shows how quickly raw information can become more useful with the right prompts. You could even take it further by asking ChatGPT to generate a personalized schedule based on your interests. With a few tweaks, a basic agenda becomes a dataset worth analyzing or a ready-to-use schedule.
So the next time you’re staring at a wall of text from a conference site, drop it into your favorite AI tool. With a little fine-tuning, you’ll always stay on schedule.
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