Terrapinn’s AI adoption strategy worked the second time because it fixed the process before adding AI. Its first rollout ticked every box, yet 51.5% of users were dormant or very low users. Sharon Roessen, Terrapinn’s Chief Operating Officer, told the story at aiblLIVE London 2026.
The second attempt kept the tools, rebuilt the sales process behind them, and then took one use case at a time. Event business plans came first, rebuilt as a gated series of Claude skills. Here is what changed.
All figures as stated on stage by Sharon Roessen.
It bought access but not adoption. Terrapinn hired an AI lead, trained about 40 senior leaders and bought 400 Gemini licences. It expected those leaders to spread usage. Instead, more than half of users were dormant or very low users, and people did not build the GPTs or Gems it expected.
What we had actually done is we’d bought access, but we’d not got adoption.
Sharon Roessen, Chief Operating Officer, Terrapinn
It rebuilt the process and kept the platform. Gong data from about 16,000 calls showed low activity, poor preparation and reps who pitched instead of selling to value. Terrapinn simplified its SPIN method, rewrote the sales playbook and began retraining. The rebuild also changed how it recruits.
Through a series of Claude skills with nine gates. The skill runs one part of each plan, then stops for the leader to read, comment and push back. Connectors pull in attendee and exhibitor data. After a team review, the CEO gets a nine-page summary instead of the full 80 to 100 pages.
People don’t build their own house. We need to build it for them and then let them decorate within that.
Sharon Roessen, Chief Operating Officer, Terrapinn
By letting a few people build and everyone else use. Roessen builds the skills, and most staff get £5 a month on Claude. Building burns tokens fast: she once used the month’s credits on its first day. Terrapinn spent £12,000 on Claude this year.
Sharon Roessen is Chief Operating Officer at Terrapinn, which runs about 90 global B2B events a year with about half a million attendees. She has run one of Terrapinn’s businesses herself. She spoke on the Efficiency track at aiblLIVE London on 20 October 2026.
If your licences are live but your people are not using them, this is the reset to borrow. The full PDF goes deeper than this page, in Roessen’s own words.
For COOs, CEOs, transformation leads and anyone restarting an AI rollout. Six pages, about an eight-minute read.
