For a long time, a simple rule applied in the event industry: you plan to the best of your knowledge and find out afterwards what worked. Feedback forms, post-event surveys, learnings for next time. For the current project, that insight always came too late. This is exactly the principle VOK DAMS turned on its head with Digital Doppelgänger — and the topic now arrives in a single, comprehensive publication: "Data-driven Live-Marketing – Wie digitale Doppelgänger die Eventplanung revolutionieren" (How Digital Doppelgänger Are Revolutionizing Event Planning), published by Springer Gabler, is the first standalone specialist book on the subject.

Digital Doppelgänger are AI-powered participant profiles that behave like real people. They are created by combining event data, behavioral patterns, and psychological models, realistically representing entire target groups — from visionary networkers to critical pragmatists. The decisive difference to classic surveys: Digital Doppelgänger are capable of dialogue. You can talk to them, test concepts, and simulate reactions, already during the conception phase rather than only after the event. Post-data becomes pre-data; retrospective analysis becomes forward-looking design. One effect that's often underestimated in practice: classic surveys suffer from what's known as negativity bias. Critical voices tend to speak up louder than satisfied ones. Digital Doppelgänger sidestep this distortion, because they draw on modeled behavioral patterns instead.

An Approach with Industry Relevance

That this approach convinces beyond VOK DAMS itself is shown by its most recent recognition at the Event Technology Awards: VOK DAMS won the category "Organiser of the Year – AI Adoption and Innovation" for Digital Doppelgänger. A signal that the industry is undergoing a real shift — toward planning that can be tested and verified in advance. This is exactly where the new specialist book comes in. Its author is Colja M. Dams, Co-CEO of VOK DAMS, together with Dr. Anja Schmidt-Ott, Jan Filipzik and other participants. Across 125 pages, he traces the path from reactive post-data thinking to shaping anticipation through pre-data. The largest part of the book is dedicated to the chapter on Digital Doppelgänger: how they work, how they differ from classic personas, and how they translate into real projects. This is complemented by concrete case studies from practice and an outlook on where data-driven live marketing is heading next. The book is now available as a softcover and eBook from Springer Gabler, Amazon und Thalia and in bookstores.

From Book to Practice

What the book describes, VOK DAMS has long since put into practice in client projects. Digital Doppelgänger are a tool that already helps today to plan events more precisely, identify barriers early, and sharpen messages so they truly land. Anyone who wants to go deeper will also find the strategic foundations in our whitepaper "How Digital Doppelgänger Shape Future Live-Events" – available here for free download.

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