Gradual allows you to create and manage community events directly through an AI assistant using Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Instead of manually configuring every event detail in your Gradual Dashboard, you can describe what you want to create or update in natural language. Your AI assistant can help you manage event information, speakers, agendas, registration settings, announcements, and more.
This guide explains how to use an AI assistant to manage events in Gradual.
Before You Get Started
To manage events using an AI assistant, you need:
A Gradual account with permission to create or manage events.
An AI assistant connected to your Gradual community through MCP.
MCP enabled for your Gradual community.
If MCP has not been enabled for your community, contact the Gradual Support team.
To connect your AI assistant, follow Connect Your AI Assistant to Gradual Using MCP.
Once connected, you can start managing events by entering instructions directly into your AI assistant.
Note: Your AI assistant follows the same event management permissions as your Gradual account. You can only create or manage events in communities and clubs where you have the required access.
Create an Event
You can use your AI assistant to create different types of events, including:
Community events.
Webinars.
Meetings.
Conferences.
Reservation-based events.
Events can be configured as:
Virtual: Attendees participate online.
In-person: Attendees participate at a physical location.
Hybrid: Attendees can participate online or in person.
Create a New Event
Open your connected AI assistant.
Describe the event you want to create.
Provide the required event details:
Event name.
Event type.
Attendance format.
Start date and time.
End date and time.
Time zone.
Community or club.
Include additional information, such as an event description or location.
Ask your AI assistant to create the event.
Example prompt:
Create a virtual webinar called “Community Growth Strategies.”
Date: November 12, 2026
Start time: 10:00 AM
End time: 11:00 AM
Time zone: America/Los_Angeles
Community: [Community Name]
Description: A webinar covering practical strategies for growing and engaging an online community.
Your AI assistant creates the event as a draft.
You can review the event in your Gradual Dashboard before publishing it.
Important: Always provide the correct time zone when creating or updating an event. Your AI assistant uses the time zone you specify rather than assuming one.
Find and Review Existing Events
You can ask your AI assistant to find existing events and review their details.
List Events
Example prompts:
Show me all upcoming events in my community.
List the past events in my community.
Your AI assistant retrieves the matching events.
Review Event Details
You can also request information about a specific event.
Example prompt:
Show me the details of the event “Community Growth Strategies,” including its date, time, speakers, agenda, and publication status.
This helps you review existing events before making changes.
Edit Event Details
You can use your AI assistant to update event information after an event has been created.
Supported updates include:
Event name and description.
Start and end times.
Time zone.
Event location.
Event images.
Online meeting or event URL.
Registration URL.
On-demand viewing URL.
Attendee instructions.
Event tags.
Access and visibility settings.
Registration eligibility.
Update Basic Event Information
Example prompt:
Update the event “Community Growth Strategies.”
Change the start time to 11:00 AM Pacific Time.
Keep the event duration at one hour.
Update the description to mention that attendees will receive practical examples and templates.
Your AI assistant updates the event details.
Update Event Location
For in-person or hybrid events, you can update location information.
Example prompt:
Update the event “Community Networking Meetup.”
Location: Downtown Conference Center
Address: 123 Main Street, San Francisco, CA
Add instructions telling attendees to check in at the front desk.
Update Event Visibility and Access
You can also ask your AI assistant to update who can access an event.
Example prompt:
Update the event “Leadership Roundtable” so that it is available to members of the “Community Leaders” space.
You can also update whether an event is unlisted and whether the attendee list is visible.
Manage Event Speakers
You can use your AI assistant to add or remove speakers from an event.
Speakers must already exist in Gradual before they can be assigned to an event.
Add Speakers
Example prompt:
Add Jane Smith and Alex Chen as speakers for the event “Community Growth Strategies.”
Your AI assistant updates the event’s speaker list using the existing speaker profiles.
Remove Speakers
Example prompt:
Remove Alex Chen from the speaker list for “Community Growth Strategies.”
Important: Removing a speaker from an event also removes that speaker from the event’s agenda sessions and topics.
Review the event agenda after removing speakers to confirm that the remaining speaker assignments are correct.
Create and Manage an Event Agenda
You can use your AI assistant to build and update an event agenda.
Each agenda item can include:
Session title.
Start and end times.
Description.
Location.
Assigned speakers.
Track and stage information for events with tracks enabled.
Add an Agenda Session
Example prompt:
Add an agenda session to “Community Growth Strategies.”
Title: Building an Engaged Community
Start time: 10:00 AM
End time: 10:30 AM
Time zone: America/Los_Angeles
Description: Practical strategies for encouraging community participation.
Speaker: Jane Smith
Your AI assistant adds the session to the event agenda.
Update an Agenda Session
Example prompt:
Update the session “Building an Engaged Community” in “Community Growth Strategies.”
Change the end time to 10:45 AM.
Update the description to include community engagement examples.
Delete an Agenda Session
Example prompt:
Remove the session “Closing Discussion” from the agenda for “Community Growth Strategies.”
Review the updated agenda in your Gradual Dashboard.
Manage Event Tracks
Tracks help organize sessions within larger events, such as conferences with multiple topics or parallel sessions.
For events with tracks enabled, you can create, update, and delete tracks using your AI assistant.
Create Tracks
Example prompt:
Enable event tracks for “Community Leadership Summit.”
Create two tracks:
Community Growth
Member Engagement
You can then organize agenda sessions into the appropriate tracks.
Example prompt:
Assign the session “Building an Engaged Community” to the “Member Engagement” track.
Note: Tracks must be enabled for the event before agenda sessions can be assigned to tracks or stages.
Configure Event Registration
You can use your AI assistant to manage event registration settings.
Supported settings include:
Event capacity.
Registration opening date and time.
Registration closing date and time.
Waitlist availability.
Ticket names.
Ticket prices.
Ticket capacity.
Set Registration Capacity
Example prompt:
Set the registration capacity for “Community Growth Strategies” to 100 attendees.
Configure Registration Dates
Example prompt:
Open registration for “Community Growth Strategies” on October 20, 2026, at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.
Close registration on November 11, 2026, at 5:00 PM Pacific Time.
Configure Tickets
You can also manage ticket options.
Example prompt:
Create two ticket options for “Community Leadership Summit”:
General Admission: $50, capacity 100.
VIP Admission: $100, capacity 25.
Enable a Waitlist
Example prompt:
Enable the waitlist for “Community Growth Strategies” when the event reaches capacity.
After updating registration settings, review the event’s registration page in your Gradual Dashboard.
Manage the Event Waitlist
You can use your AI assistant to review and manage waitlist requests.
View Waitlist Requests
Example prompt:
Show me the pending waitlist requests for “Community Growth Strategies.”
Your AI assistant retrieves the pending requests.
Approve a Waitlist Request
Example prompt:
Approve the waitlist request for [Attendee Name] for “Community Growth Strategies.”
Approving a waitlist request registers the attendee for the event and sends a confirmation email.
Decline a Waitlist Request
Example prompt:
Decline the waitlist request for [Attendee Name] for “Community Growth Strategies.”
Important: Waitlist approval sends a confirmation email to the attendee. Review the request before approving it.
Manage Event Emails
You can use your AI assistant to configure event-related email settings.
These include:
RSVP confirmation emails.
RSVP reminder emails.
Reminders sent shortly before the event.
Event sender email settings.
Update Event Email Settings
Example prompt:
Update the email settings for “Community Growth Strategies.”
Enable RSVP confirmation emails.
Enable RSVP reminder emails.
Enable the reminder sent 30 minutes before the event.
You can also update the event’s sender email settings.
Example prompt:
Update the sender email settings for “Community Growth Strategies” to use our community’s event communication address.
Review the email settings in your Gradual Dashboard before publishing the event.
Create Event Announcements
You can use your AI assistant to create announcements for an event.
Announcements can be used to communicate important information to attendees.
Create an Announcement
Example prompt:
Create an announcement for “Community Growth Strategies.”
Title: Event Reminder
Message: We’re looking forward to seeing you at Community Growth Strategies tomorrow. Please check your registration confirmation for the event link and joining instructions.
Audience: All event attendees.
Your AI assistant creates the announcement for the selected audience.
Important: Announcements sent by email notify the selected recipients. Review the message and audience before sending.
Publish and Unpublish Events
Events are created as drafts.
Once an event is ready, you can use your AI assistant to publish it.
Publish an Event
Example prompt:
Publish the event “Community Growth Strategies.”
Publishing an event triggers notifications to community members.
Important: Before publishing, review the event details, agenda, speakers, registration settings, and access settings.
Unpublish an Event
You can also ask your AI assistant to unpublish an event.
Example prompt:
Unpublish the event “Community Growth Strategies.”
Your AI assistant updates the event’s publication status.
Copy an Existing Event
You can use your AI assistant to create a new event based on an existing one.
This is useful for recurring events, workshops, and event series.
When copying an event, you can specify:
New event name.
New start and end times.
Time zone.
Community or club.
Location.
Whether to copy polls.
Whether to copy Q&A questions.
Copy an Event
Example prompt:
Copy the event “Monthly Community Meetup.”
Name the new event “December Community Meetup.”
Date: December 10, 2026.
Start time: 10:00 AM.
End time: 11:00 AM.
Time zone: America/Los_Angeles.
Keep the same location and copy the Q&A questions.
Your AI assistant creates a new event based on the original event.
Review the copied event before publishing it.
Search Event Attendees
You can use your AI assistant to find attendees and review registration information for an event.
You can search by attendee name or apply filters such as:
Registration status.
Ticket type.
Check-in status.
Search for an Attendee
Example prompt:
Find the registration information for Jane Smith in the event “Community Growth Strategies.”
Review Attendees by Ticket Type
Example prompt:
Show me attendees registered with VIP tickets for “Community Leadership Summit.”
You can also use attendee searches to review registration or check-in status.
Note: Attendee searches are for viewing information. Event check-in operations are not supported through MCP.
Update Event SEO Settings
You can use your AI assistant to update search engine information for an event.
Supported SEO information includes:
SEO title.
SEO description.
SEO keywords.
Social sharing image.
Update Event SEO
Example prompt:
Update the SEO settings for “Community Growth Strategies.”
SEO title: Community Growth Strategies Webinar
SEO description: Join our webinar to learn practical strategies for growing and engaging your online community.
SEO keywords: community growth, community engagement, webinar
Social sharing image: [Image URL]
Your AI assistant updates the event’s SEO settings.
Delete an Event
You can use your AI assistant to delete events that are no longer needed.
Example prompt:
Delete the event “Old Community Meetup.”
Deleted events are archived and removed from the active event list.
Important: Confirm that you have selected the correct event before deleting it.
Example: Create and Publish a Hybrid Event
The following example demonstrates how to create a hybrid event using an AI assistant.
Step 1: Create the event
Create a hybrid event called “Community Leadership Summit.”
Date: November 20, 2026.
Start time: 9:00 AM.
End time: 4:00 PM.
Time zone: America/Los_Angeles.
Location: Downtown Conference Center, San Francisco.
Description: A one-day event focused on community growth, engagement, and leadership.
Step 2: Add speakers
Add Jane Smith and Alex Chen as speakers for “Community Leadership Summit.”
Step 3: Create the agenda
Enable event tracks for “Community Leadership Summit.”
Create two tracks:
Community Growth
Member Engagement
Then add agenda sessions to the appropriate tracks.
Step 4: Configure registration
Set the event capacity to 150 attendees.
Enable the waitlist when registration reaches capacity.
Step 5: Configure event communications
Enable RSVP confirmation emails and event reminder emails for “Community Leadership Summit.”
Step 6: Review the event
Open the event in your Gradual Dashboard and review its details, speakers, agenda, registration settings, and access settings.
Step 7: Publish the event
Publish “Community Leadership Summit.”
The event is now published, and the publication action triggers member notifications.
Best Practices
When managing events with an AI assistant:
Provide complete event details. Include the event type, attendance format, dates, times, time zone, and community.
Use exact event names. This helps your AI assistant identify the correct event when making updates.
Review speaker assignments. Removing a speaker also removes their assignments from agenda sessions.
Check registration settings. Confirm capacity, ticket options, and registration dates before publishing.
Review communications before sending. Publishing events, sending email announcements, and approving waitlist requests can notify members.
Review the event before publishing. Confirm that the agenda, speakers, location, and registration information are accurate.