Use todays date as the event start date

Hello,

On my homepage I have the next 3 events listed, and on my calendar page I am showing all events(even past events). On the calendar I have the start date set to Sept 1, 2016, for my homepage I am using this

exact_date='12-22-2016'

This works; however, I would need to go in and edit the date monthly. Is there a way that I can echo the current date in the event_start

Like this

echo current_time( 'd-m-Y' );

This is what I have,

echo do_shortcode("[ai1ec view='posterboard' events_limit='3' display_filters='false' exact_date='12-22-2016']");

I would like to do something like this

echo do_shortcode("[ai1ec view='posterboard' events_limit='3' display_filters='false' exact_date='.current_time( 'd-m-Y' ).']");

Any Idea how I can do this?

Thanks,

Aaron