Conferences and events are all about face to face communications but there is an increasing expectation by delegates, speakers exhibitors and sponsors that whilst at an event they will have convenient access to their tools of trade i.e. email, internet, VoIP and office/business programs.
Don’t ignore this influential segment of the market that are starting to partially make attendance, sponsorship and exhibition participation decisions on whether the event has free and fast internet connection for their convenience. And don’t think that just because the venue has in-room “wi-fi” or broadband connections that delegates will pay the ubiquitous $29.95 per day for access.
Providing an internet kiosk is a good start but with the growing length of user queues, especially during meal breaks and the increasing risk that these PCs can be very easily infected by viruses and spyware savvy users will avoid using them. A cost-effective alternative that caters to those who bring their own notebooks or PDAs is to provide some additional classroom style tables, chairs, 240V power and Ethernet cables (Cat5e) and/or wi-fi connection to the internet. Or take matters one step further – put these tables into sessions and watch session attendance jump.
Sounds complex, but let’s put it in non-technical perspective. Most venues now have broadband connections you can hire for your event. They are usually business grade DSL with speeds like 512kbps, 1Mbps, 2Mbps and these can easily accommodate about 10, 20 and 40 or more concurrent users depending on how fast you want their internet experience to be. This broadband connection is sent via a cable to the meeting room area and ends up at a wall socket (think large phone socket). Typically venues charge about $100 per day for a 512kbps internet link plus usage.
When you rent a connection you will also be asked to pay for internet traffic measured in Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB). Typically you will pay around $150-200 per GB but some operators charge much more so be aware. There is no hard and fast rule about how many GBs per day you will use – it depends on what your delegates do whilst on-line. For example, email and internet surfing are pretty low usage but downloading movies or music could chew up the GBs. I allow about 1GB per day for an average 500 pax event. You need an acceptable use policy that tells delegates what they can and can’t do on the free connection.
Back to the oversized phone socket - how do you get internet from there to the thronging hordes? Simple – call your AV or PC hire company. They will provide a router/access point and switch to split the single signal up to many users. This can provide four, eight, 16, 24, 32 or more CAT5e cabled “ports” and some routers have wi-fi capability. If you have a special type of business grade router called MIMO you can effectively support 40 or so users per router. You can have more than one router if your internet connection is large enough.
Great, but how much does all this cost and who is going to pay for it? Sponsors are the obvious answer but it won’t be long before it becomes more of a case of whether you can afford not to offer this service. It won’t break the bank and at least for the foreseeable future will be a strong marketing tool for your next conference.
A final word to venues – don’t discourage a client from offering free wi-fi or broadband access to their delegates because you could very well find that the client will go elsewhere. It is erroneous to assume you are losing revenue from your own in-house wi-fi or broadband system. Internet now in most countries is offered for free in most hotels and venues – it won’t be long before it happens here.
Ray Shaw is an accredited meeting manager (AMM), original author of Events software (now developed by Amlink) and an IT journalist. To contact him, email ray@im.com.au or visit www.rayshaw.com.au.
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