A Guide To Event Wi-fi: Why Is It The Modern Day Event Requirement?
Recently, event IT and event wifi providers have seen a sudden rise in demand for their services at exhibitions. In the past, event wifi was unheard of except if a product as well as campaign with specific internet requirements was being exhibited. Nevertheless today, event wifi is a vital component for occasions including conferences, sport events, festivals, road shows and also experiential marketing events.
Why is event wifi necessary?
Many venue providers have found the growth in demand for event wifi a difficult task to overcome. Venue providers often think they have got sufficient broadband to supply an event – however it’s usually not the case.
Many of these venues don’t have sufficient bandwidth and for that reason require event wifi so as to deal with the heavy use of data (e.g. various website demos at IT events, increased usage of smartphones and portable internet devices). Likewise, events planners too have been caught unawares, but through no fault of their own. Event wifi is frequently an after-thought and something that we do take for granted.
When can event wifi be used?
– Festivals – event wifi at festivals provides site wide wireless networks to enable mechanisms such as ticket devices.
– Indoor as well as outdoor networks – event wifi can be utilized at a giant marquee or across numerous rooms at a meeting.
– Temporary Cloud – event wifi employed for data capture or as a thank you to your customers.
– Server access – use terminals to gain access to your main server with event wifi.
– Press rooms – support the bandwidth hungry journalists attending your occasion with either a hardwired or wi-fi system.
– Production offices: internet in a porta cabin or a fully networked extension of your office with VOIP and server access with event wifi.
Furthermore, with this growth of event wifi has come a whole new raft of innovative marketing and data acquisition concepts. Some of these include:
1. Blog spots – event wifi companies have had request for blog spots so delegates can report on the event as it is happening. These devices are triggered by RFID devices worn by each one of the participants which means no log in is necessary.
2. Data exchange – no cost access to the internet at functions (like festivals) is usually provided via temporary clouds or wifi hotspots. Organizations employ event wifi to supply people with free access to the internet in exchange for some of their basic data.
3. Website promotion – Public website demonstration is enabled through event wifi at events and exhibitions.
4. Promotional stands – event wifi gives the marketer a wider variety of promotional resources to utilize. If wifi is being utilized at their marketing stand, it can keep prospective customers looking for a longer time, and give that particular promoter an advantage over its other competitors.
What are the numerous event wifi choices?
There is a wide range of event wifi options available:
– Quick and effective 3G bonded routers up to 7mbs.
– Satellite up to 10Mbs (per sat).
– Point to Point where onsite broadband is not possible. This too gives excellent bandwidth with almost no contention ratio.
– Temporary ADSL/ADSL2+Broadband. Up to 20Mbs 2:1 contention ratio. This is cost-effective and generally achievable anywhere with an address.
– Temporary wi-fi, clouds and site wide transmission with a variety of data capture and monetisation solutions.
With the ongoing progression of technology, it is almost certain that the demand for IT at an event, in particular event wifi, will continue to increase. With the increase of smartphones, portable computers, server based ticketing systems (as well as the move towards a cashless society) event coordinators along with venue providers must make event wifi more of a priority than it is at present. Event wifi is not only a basic requirement to cope with the numerous modern day internet- using devices, but it is also a powerful marketing tool, used for processes such as data acquisition or finding new ways to interact with potential customers.
The article author works closely with Noba, a specialist IT company based in the UK. Noba offers high quality event wifi and technical infrastructure to events and exhibitions all through Europe and across the globe.