Building Emotion AI for Better Conferences with Vanessa Williams Saleh

Only 20 to 30% of event surveys get filled out. So how do organizers find out what landed with the audience? In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Vanessa Williams Saleh, founder of Attenlyx, who led global event strategy across 36 countries at Mars. We explore how she turned 12 years in event strategy into event technology that reads audience response with Emotion AI, and why AI built for different cultures and skin tones needs its own framework for each market. This episode is for female founders, women in tech and women in leadership building or buying technology for live events, and for event organizers and sponsors who want evidence of what their events achieve. What you'll learn in this episode: Why post-event surveys leave leaders guessing, from low response rates to vanity metrics How Attenlyx matches audience response to the speaker almost second by second and reports within 48 hours Why a model built on someone else's dataset showed low confidence, and why Attenlyx works with psychologists and regional specialists How emotional expression differs between West African and East African audiences with the same skin tone What organizers changed with the data, from panels of three to four speakers to shorter sessions Why an education-first sales process fits a new category such as Emotion AI Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:00 How Attenlyx grew out of event strategy 04:25 Why leaders ask what landed after events 06:28 AI leadership and event strategy at Mars 09:26 Why event feedback surveys get low response 14:57 Why event organizers stay stuck on ROI 17:39 Event technology that measures audience response 23:02 Emotion AI across cultures and skin tones 28:34 Which conference formats Attenlyx serves best 29:39 Why entertainment events are a harder fit 31:47 How event engagement shifts across a day 33:47 Benchmarking conferences across multiple markets 35:30 How many speakers belong on a panel 36:38 Audience fatigue, lunch timing and room temperature 38:05 Why an event strategist became a founder 40:21 Why events need evidence to be funded 44:04 Accelerators for a non-technical founder 47:52 Positioning as an expert in the room 53:42 Giving Gen Z and girls access 56:46 AI funding coach for female founders Show notes: Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/10/29/episode-174/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-175 Connect with Vanessa Williams Saleh and Attenlyx: LinkedIn (Vanessa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaowilliams/ LinkedIn (Attenlyx): https://www.linkedin.com/company/attenlyx Website: https://www.attenlyx.ai/#contact Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes and FundingCoach: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of event tech.