Dealing with an untrusted stranger
Verify identity, authority, provenance, and good faith before one agent treats another as a trusted counterpart.
A living charter for trustworthy AI in events · v2
The Agent Manifesto for Events.
Technology should strengthen the room, protect human connection, and make every agent’s value, limits, and accountability visible.
The Passport is one part of the manifesto.
It turns principles into evidence, boundaries, ownership, and earned permission for one agent.
It turns principles into evidence, boundaries, ownership, and earned permission for one agent.
Ratified operating recordMANIFESTO
EDITION 02
EDITION 02
Matchmaker / Atlas
Purpose: make relevant attendee connections with the reason for each recommendation visible.
Add ValueBenefit made visible
Be TransparentBehaviour understood
Be SafeLimits enforced
Build TrustPermission earned
01 · Purpose
Strengthen the room. Never replace it.
Face-to-face connection is becoming more valuable, not less. Live events are the industry’s greatest asset in an era of AI-generated content and deepfakes. The measure of success is the value of human connection, not the amount of technology deployed.
A working charter for the events industry
As agents enter registration, matchmaking, sales, content, operations, and attendee experience, this manifesto helps the industry harness them responsibly so events become bigger, better, and more effective.
Who this is for
C-suite and PE-level executives; event organisers; technology and service providers; attendees, visitors, and exhibitors; event partners, venues, suppliers, and public-interest voices affected by event decisions.
02 · Principles
Three principles. Trust as the outcome.
Add Value, Be Safe, and Be Transparent remain constant as capability advances. Trust is earned incrementally by applying them consistently—not a fourth principle.
Manifesto principle / 01
Add Value
Value is the room getting smarter in ways people can feel. Providing benefit to customers is value; everything else is waste. Every action should trace to a specific customer benefit, reduce waste, be measured, and create value before it is captured.
Named beneficiaryValue metricEvidence of impact
03 · Human-to-Agent · Agent-to-Agent
When agents meet, trust must travel.
The manifesto covers the wider spectrum of application: H–A and A–A. When agents encounter an untrusted stranger, identity, authority, consent, and accountability must travel across the boundary.
Proof of authority, not approval
Neither agent accepts a commitment beyond what the other can prove, especially in data-sensitive cases. A claim of approval is not enough.
Consent crosses a boundary
Consent limits travel with the data and bind the receiving agent. A hand-off cannot silently widen purpose, retention, or sharing scope.
Split accountability
Each side stays accountable for its own agent. Unresolved issues escalate to both human owners rather than one agent forcing the outcome.
04 · The Passport
Trust, made examinable.
The Passport is not a principle and not a marketing badge. It is the visible operating record for one agent: a decision that can be understood, challenged, ratified, and kept current.
Passport record / operating model
Identity + purpose
The Passport starts with a clear owner, use case, intended beneficiaries, and boundaries. It records why the agent exists and what it is not allowed to do.
Accountable ownerNamed human responsibility
Current statusRatified / scoped
Next reviewEvidence and risk dependent
05 · Earning permission
Permission is incremental.
A developer or accountable owner submits the Passport before an agent enters an event environment. The multidisciplinary Accountability Council reviews it against the principles and the evidence of Build Trust.
01
Submit
Complete the Passport before deployment.
02
Review
Test value, safety, transparency, and evidence.
03
Ratify
Confirm the scope, safeguards, and autonomy earned.
04
Deploy
Operate only within recorded permissions.
05
Renew
Keep the Passport current through evidence and feedback.
06
Expand or stop
Earn more autonomy—or reduce, suspend, or stop.
06 · From principle to practice
The Passport travels with the agent.
Every approved Passport is a living record. It must be updated when the agent, data, context, or risk changes. More autonomy is a new permission decision.
A trustworthy agent might
- Recommend relevant connections and explain why the match was made.
- Help an attendee find useful sessions without quietly exploiting their data.
- Qualify a sponsor lead while showing what contributed to the score.
- Keep a named human responsible for consequential decisions.
A Passport prevents
- Hiding commercial influence behind a neutral-looking recommendation.
- Treating auto-opt-in as consent or retaining data “just in case.”
- Impersonating a person or concealing that an AI agent is involved.
- Expanding authority because automation is convenient.
07 · The Pledge
A shared promise behind every agent.
The Pledge is for anyone who creates, commissions, deploys, operates, governs, or benefits from an event agent.
We pledge to strengthen the room and add value that can be explained and evidenced.
We pledge to be transparent about the agent, its data, its decisions, its limits, and the people accountable for it.
We pledge to be safe by designing safeguards, escalation routes, human control, provenance checks, and a hard stop before deployment.
We pledge to verify identity and authority across agent boundaries, carry consent with data, and escalate unresolved issues to accountable humans.
We pledge to earn trust progressively, listen to affected people, and expand permission only when evidence supports it.
We pledge to keep the Passport current, accept review, and stop or limit an agent when its behaviour no longer meets the standard.
08 · Contributors
Built by many. Stewarded in the open.
The standard is living because no single discipline sees the whole impact of an event agent. The single multidisciplinary Accountability Council maintains the standard, reviews evidence, ratifies Passports, records decisions, and keeps the public edition current.
Adam Parry
Alistair Roylance
Caitlin Reed
Daniel Pitchford
Danielle Puceta
Marco Giberti
Max Gabriel
Narisa Wild
Neil Patel
Neil Preddy
Tamar Beck
Tanya Pinchuk
OPEN
BY
DESIGN
BY
DESIGN
Reuse and licensing
Let the ideas travel. Steward the signal.
The ideas and text are open for reuse with attribution. Organisations may translate the standard, adapt it to local contexts, and build tools, training, or derivatives around it. The official name, mark, and ratification process remain stewarded so derivatives are clear about what is locally adapted and what has been formally ratified.
“The ideas should travel freely. The integrity of ratification should be actively stewarded.”