ATTEND2IT
Dominic Hampton, MD,
Attend2IT, on the UK’s thirst for
quality connections
5G
Peoples hunger for data
continues to grow. Even if 5G
achieves half of what is promised
then apps will be able to place
more demand on your phones
connection. Great for user
experience as long as they are in
an area that is designed to cope
with demand. Having used 5G
we find that it fails even quicker
than 4G, so whilst speeds are
increasing reliability is not.
Also visitors are bringing
less cash and are more reliant
on card and contactless. This
means reliable comms are more
important than ever, this is a
trend will expect to continue.
Demands
Reliable production Wi-Fi is
now a must on almost all events
which with a specialist company
is almost always achievable.
Blanket exhibitor Wi-Fi and
free guest Wi-Fi are often asked
for, ultimately though it’s not
free and somebody has to pay
for it. Sponsorship is inevitably
required to make the sums work,
but it is achievable. Site security
with CCTV and scanning in
and out are popular, as ever the
balance between features and
ROI are key
Costs
We have seen a large increase
from our existing clients in terms
of specific features and entire
elements required. Once we
have a sitewide IP infrastructure
adding a camera, ePOS system,
36
PA speaker or other IP element
is not that costly. We find that
the various events now use us for
multiple disciplines which has a
large cost saving for them.
Brexit
We see no specific issues as
we have to adjust our equipment
and frequencies used when we
go to Europe anyway, but we
aren’t looking forward to the
extra paper work and queues at
passport control.
Winning business
We have found the balance
between a proactive and reactive
approach to new business can be
a tricky balance as many events
are annually awarded and the
week that an organiser wants to
think about event Wi-Fi is always
published meaning for us to
proactively contact an organiser
on that week is tricky and we
don’t want to annoy a potential
new client before we have even
started. So, we therefore work
on the ensuring repeat business
and recommendations. As we
continue to consistently deliver
a good service this has proved
successful and has ensured
sustainable growth.
EVENT
MAY | SECTOR FOCUS
Cashless is among
the trends in the
event technology
realm