At today’s events, there is no excuse for inadequate WiFi. Business events depend upon connections for trade shows, conventions, conferences, product launches, expositions, and corporate events, the exchange of information and ideas relies on emails, websites, social media exchanges, streaming video demonstrations, document downloads, and the whole wide world of the web.

Lightning-fast Internet Facilitates Business Connections

Average web users, sadly, become frustrated after a mere 3 second delay in connectivity time. According to a recent survey,1 57% of online shoppers stated that they would abandon a web page after waiting 3 seconds for it to load. Multiple studies have shown that a 3 second delay is enough to cause visitors to bounce; furthermore, studies show that there is a significant negative impact on revenue when visitors encounter wait times. A page load slowdown of just one second could cost billions in lost sales each year.2

While this research focused mainly on the damaging effects of slow connection speeds upon eCommerce sites, these negative effects translate to business events as well. A recent study by O’Reilly3, demonstrated that slow WiFi (a 500ms network delay) created measurable amounts of frustration and negatively impacted emotional engagement. For Event Organizers, a trade show or convention’s primary goal is to facilitate valuable connections between exhibitors and attendees. If the event does not provide the lightning-fast Internet connections upon which modern business operates, then the event may not provide enough ROI for its valuable exhibitors and sponsors to justify their involvement.

Why Should I Use an Expert to Design my Event WiFi?

Event Planners can guarantee excellent WiFi coverage by consulting with a technology expert. A wireless array specialist can:
• Gauge the event’s needs based on how many people will attend—ensuring proper, adequate bandwidth.
• Ensure that the right amount of IP requests can be handled—giving each event the correct capacity.
• Ensure that the router(s) and access points are properly located.
• Ensure that the signal strength is strong throughout the venue areas.
• Offer advanced, plentiful access points—giving every attendee an excellent connection.
• Offer constant monitoring, on-site.
• Ensure that every access point is fully functioning for the entirety of the event.

Can Event Planners Just Use the Venue’s Free WiFi?

In a word—no. We’re all used to being offered Internet connection for free, offered to us, free of charge, with the purchase price of a hotel room, a sandwich, or a cup of coffee. Free WiFi is common; however, it is also:
• Unsafe
• Unsecured
• Unpredictable

Should I Use the Hotel WiFi or a Third-Party Vendor?

At this point, the vast majority of hotels and event venues have some type of WiFi network in place; very few venues offer these connections for free. Event Planners know that these services often come with heavy costs and complicated pricing structures. Unfortunately, Event Planners cannot guarantee that the on-site service can handle the number of attendees their event will pull in, the number of devices those attendees will use, the amount and type of content that the attendees will need to access, and the security needs of the attendees and their information.

Installing, maintaining, managing, and supervising WiFi is an important undertaking, and it’s very expensive for a large venue to properly install a system. Since the costs of installing proper infrastructure in large venues runs into the millions of dollars, a third-party vendor is often the best intersection of customized technology and cost savings. Technology experts like SmartSource Rentals can provide the ideal wireless connections for your event—giving you exactly what you need, without forcing your event budget to help foot the costs of the hardwired options that the venue worked to install.

For meetings, trade shows, and other corporate events, an expert technology team can ensure that your network is running, fully-connected and expertly operational for your guests!

Resources:
1 http://www.radware.com/PleaseRegister.aspx?returnUrl=6442455868
2 http://www.apmdigest.com/website-response-time-1?utm_content=buffer53cf6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
3 http://www.oreilly.com/pub/e/3149