Meetings and events heading for a mobile meltdown

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iBAHN, a global leader in IP platform-based systems and broadband technologies for the hospitality industry, today published new connectivity research and guidelines to help event and meetings professionals manage the “mobile meltdown”.

iBAHN’s new whitepaper, ‘Connectivity can make or break your conference or event – how can you plan a successful event and protect your ROI?’, gives meetings professionals new insights into connectivity management and the five top “must-haves” for successful connectivity planning.

Smartphones, tablets and laptops are part of everyday life for today’s delegate.  Gartner Group predicts 100 million iPads will have been sold by the end of 2012, and that doesn’t include sales of the tablets by competitors.

The whitepaper advises that conference delegates are now very likely to carry two, three or more devices and demand sufficient bandwidth to get them all connected. As well as participating in the event and accessing the increasing amount of content via specifically developed apps, delegates do not want to be disconnected from the rest of their online world of work and leisure. This means riding the wave of the data tsunami caused by social networking, digital photos and video.

Combine this with the connectivity needs of the event itself, which might include linking numerous virtual delegates, sharing live content, streaming video, and using social media to engage with the world beyond the physical venue, and it’s easy to see why event planners have to assume a whole new role to understand and facilitate these requirements.

Meeting planners and venues used to be able to estimate how much bandwidth would be required at an event by the number of delegates and the set-up of a room. Fundamentally, as long as the correct amount of WiFi access points were positioned in the correct places then everything should run smoothly. But times have changed and this method of planning does not take into consideration the number of wireless enabled devices per delegate and how they will be used.

As a result, iBAHN advises event professionals to focus on designing for data throughput, which means preparing the event for levels of bandwidth consumption that are based on the number and type of devices and usage. This requires understanding the requirements and behaviour of all types of attendee and where these requirements will be needed most: session presenters, general attendees, conference staff team, exhibitors/sponsors, news media, C- level and high-touch attendees and remote attendees.

iBAHN also underlines how important it is to check the capabilities of WiFi access points, as older installations are not always suitable for iPads.

The whitepaper advises on the top five “must haves” for meeting planners:

1. Dedicated bandwidth Event attendees do not want to share bandwidth at a venue and it’s certainly not a trend for the future. Event decision-makers are demanding an allocation of bandwidth for the exclusive usage of the conference attendees only and this will see rising allocations of bandwidth to 20Mbs, 50Mbs, 100Mbs and beyond over the next couple of years. The alternative is segmented dedicated bandwidth for specific location and functions. For example, the Press Room needs 25Mbs, and the Attendee Area must have 50Mbs. Event planners may also request a limit on bandwidth usage for low priority areas, which could ensure the users in these areas receive no more than 20Mbs.
2. Seamless VPN connectivityConference attendees demand complete access to their corporate network content and protection of their stored intellectual property. This is often an afterthought for the traditional event planner but attendees expect and demand a seamless “office away from the office” network experience.  Building a temporary network that is as secure and stable as a permanent corporate network is essential.
3. Private and custom SSID / Virtual Local Areas Network (VLANS)Event planners should ask for the creation of a temporary private and secure virtual network that meshes with the corporate network. This fosters much higher rates of productivity and reduces the learning curve when working on the temporary network at an event. This feature request is sometimes aligned with the creation of ‘hidden’ and private networks for mission-sensitive or mission-critical areas of an event.
4. Seamlessly Mobility at the venueA popular demand is the ability for attendees to move around a hotel/conference venue while remaining seamlessly connected, whether they are in the main hall, seminar rooms, bars, guest rooms and so on. This also extends to the variety of devices. Any successful event must allow attendees to connect whenever and wherever they like, and share content through their devices of choice with uninterrupted access to personal and professional content (via the cloud) over any device.
5. Ratio of device to conference attendeeAttendees’ usage of multiple devices has increased dramatically in the past year. For example, recent events supported by iBAHN ECS EMEA, saw attendees using at least two mobile devices – laptop and smartphone, with increasing visibility of tablets, such as the iPad.  Event planners need to ensure that the break area has ample wireless coverage and to be aware that, 100 attendees could mean as many as 250 or more devices that will need broadband wireless connectivity throughout the venue.