AI in Marketing & Communications

Presenters: J Norness, Sloane Bayley, Murray Irvine, Nelson AI Sandbox.

Overview:

This workshop is designed for professionals in marketing, communications, and customer-facing roles who want to achieve greater marketing impact.

In four hours, you’ll learn to create audience-focused content, improve visibility in AI-driven search and recommendations, and build momentum in your local market, while always focusing on maintaining quality, brand consistency, and responsible use of business data.

Attendees will learn how to:

• Optimise content and website for AI discovery
• Build a reusable “brand voice” pack.
• Develop a Custom GPT workflow that reflects a consistent tone of voice and writing structure
• Generate on-brand audience-focused marketing content variations (social, email and article drafts)
• Build a content calendar using AI tools, incorporating themes, hooks, repurposing ideas, and strategies for local visibility
• Explore how to map customer journeys and tailor messaging to each stage (Segmentation)
• Gain hands-on experience with AI-powered metrics dashboards that turn data into decisions
• Draft a basic chatbot knowledge base and conversion flow
• Apply momentum-building hyper-local marketing actions

Learning Outcomes:

• Implement repeatable AI workflows (prompts, templates, and a content calendar) to reduce time spent drafting and planning for marketing and communications tasks.
• Align messaging to objectives, customer stages and channel fit using practical strategy frameworks
• Use AI to produce content variants tailored to different customer segments and personalisation ideas without compromising brand consistency
• Track and interpret marketing metrics to turn performance into decisions and next actions.

Bio: Kenneth (J) Norness Jr
Founder, ENDEVO | Fractional CMO & AI Strategy Consultant
Chief Marketing & AI Officer, Vortex Leisure & Spa World

J operates at the confluence where brand and business strategy meet marketing stacks, product design, operations, and AI innovation. With 25+ years of hands-on experience across industries and continents, he helps businesses harness the power of marketing and emerging tech, especially generative AI, to drive real commercial outcomes.

Originally from the US, J has proudly called Nelson home for over two decades. He’s built and scaled businesses across seafood, giftware, and tech, including eight years in the Bering Sea as an automation engineer (yes, really). His current consulting practice, ENDEVO, focuses on helping SMEs build marketing systems and AI capabilities that scale, without the fluff.

He’s also the long-time Chief Marketing and AI Officer at Vortex Leisure, which owns Spa World, Australasia’s most awarded spa retailer. Under his leadership, Vortex has grown into a 19-country operation, with strong brand equity, robust digital infrastructure, and a market-leading customer experience.

At the core of J’s work is a simple idea: technology should serve people, not replace them. He’s passionate about helping teams work smarter, think creatively, and stay human in an AI-driven world.

When he’s not buried in a funnel or an AI prototype, you’ll find him somewhere on a mountain bike trail, preferably with mud on his shins and a big grin on his face.

Cost Support

The Generative AI for Business Course is registered with the Regional Business Partnership Network (RBPN) and participants may therefore qualify for support for this programme.
For more information, please contact Sandra Crone sandra.crone@nelsontasman.nz prior to Thursday 19 February.

To attend/be eligible for co-funding the customer must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Has less than 50 full time employees
• Have an NZBN
• Must be the business owner or person in a key management role, i.e senior managers, in the business.
• Must register on the RBP Platform and have a discovery meeting with the region’s Growth Advisor.

 

Standard cancellation policy applies to paid events/workshops/courses (unless otherwise stated on event listing). Cancellations must be received 7 working days prior to the event. Cancellations after this time and ‘no shows’ on the day will be charged the full invoice amount. Substitutions are permitted if you can no longer attend.