A core element of the data network design will be Smart City Networks’ Vice President of Technology, David Langford. Degreed in communications systems management, Langford cut his teeth early on with the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Network & Services project, where he served as a leader in the Network Operations Center deploying the first national pre-Internet high-speed IP infrastructure. In the mid-90s, he developed the Sales Engineering division at AOL. Building from that, he joined UUnet Technologies and built a team that traveled with FORTUNE 500 companies to support their events, installing temporary data network capabilities often where none existed.
Question List
From
Oscar in Austin, TX on 1/27/2009
Q. We'd like to find more information on the emerging technologies being used in the meeting & hospitality industry. What resources would you suggest (events, publications, online, etc.)? A. Answered on 1/27/2009.
To stay on top of emerging technologies being used in the meeting and hospitality industry, I highly recommend these resources:
• www.meetingtechonline.com (MTO) and the Meeting Tech Online Events. (I also follow MTO on Twitter or Facebook.)
• The IAEE Web site (www.iaee.com).
• Corbin Ball (www.corbinball.com or Twitter: corbinball). I also read his “Tech Talk” newsletter.
From
Sarah in Los Angeles, CA on 10/10/2008
Q. What should I look for when evaluating a facility’s technological capabilities to ensure it meets the needs of our show? A. Answered on 10/10/2008.
When evaluating a facility’s technological capabilities it’s important to understand what your show will require. Are there requirements for simple low-speed Internet access? Will your exhibitors require high-speed Internet access? Will your attendees expect WiFi capabilities? All of these factors help determine technological capabilities.
If your team has an IT/networking staff, work with them to prepare a list of requirements for your show. Some items you’ll need to determine include:
- How many wired and wireless connections will your team need to operate smoothly?
- What will be the show’s anticipated registration requirements?
- Are there Internet cafés/lounges for attendees/exhibitors? Wired or wireless?
- Will any of the show’s speakers and/or sessions require connectivity for their presentations?
- Depending on your event, you may also need to evaluate audio visual systems.
Request a meeting with the technology staff on site and use straightforward questions to determine their knowledge level. Technological capabilities are often heavily impacted by the expertise of the staff rather than the type of technology in the building. Just as a sports car will run faster lap times in the hands of a skilled racing driver than in the hands of the average person, technology can be utilized to its maximum in the hands of a trained network administrator. Do your best to explain your show’s overall technology demands in both wired and wireless services. This will help the staff understand your anticipated requirements and meet your needs.
Don’t be afraid to ask the staff questions like these:
- What’s your redundancy plan?
- What can I expect to happen if my connection is having issues such as slow data transfer or connectivity loss?
- Do you have a real-time monitoring system?
- What type of routers and switches are you using?
- What experience do you have in providing comparable technology to other events of a similar nature? Can you provide references from other shows?
- What are your wireless capabilities? Are they hotspots or is it throughout the building?
At the end of the day, a building should have a fiber-optic backbone, gigabit switches, 802.11a/b/g wireless capabilities to provide for attendee WiFi access and a technician or network engineer with the education to understand and deal with any issues that may arise.
From
Jenny in San Francisco, CA on 11/1/2006
Q. What is a paycast and how can it benefit my show? A. Answered on 11/1/2006.
PayCast® Service is an end-to-end content management and distribution platform for secured live and on-demand, pay-per-view and subscription services over the Internet.
Want to sell your content over the Internet but don’t want to deal with technology elements? PayCast is the solution. The service provides for all of the components that go into hosting and supporting the technical end of a Webcast, including managed Web hosting, content hosting, Digital Rights Management (DRM) for content security, streaming and commerce. This allows the show manager to focus on content production, management and marketing.
PayCasts also allow for keynotes, presentations, seminars and even virtual tours of the trade show to be presented to attendees, exhibitors or potential exhibitors to see what the show is like or catch up on events that were missed, but at the same time, transitions the burden of support costs to the user.
Features
• Customizable front-end Web interface to match your brand
• Ability to run pay-per-view and subscription-based services
• Content delivered live, on-demand or on download basis
• Content secured with latest Microsoft DRM 10 technology
• Highly scalable license delivery and clearing house platform
• Merchant account integration
• Back-end content and user management system
• Comprehensive reporting
From
Richard in Las Vegas, NV on 11/1/2006
Q. Why do convention centers need gigabit network backbones? A. Answered on 11/1/2006.
With today’s ever-increasing demands on application performance and distributed computing, Gigabit backbones are becoming an essential component of any network design today. Gigabit connections allow data to be transferred across the network as if the devices were directly attached to each other. Multiple users sharing multiple platforms across multiple network segments in an increasingly expansive network infrastructure demand that communications be immediate and without connection errors. Gigabit backbones allow data transfer at rates once thought unobtainable. The network needs to be flexible and allow for connections to be made almost anywhere at any time.
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This forum is for information and discussion purposes only. It should not be used as a substitute for professional advice from business advisors who know your individual business. We do not guarantee the accuracy, reliability or completeness of any information provided by this forum.
The answers and opinions provided by this industry expert do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of EXPO magazine or Ascend Media LLC, nor is an endorsement of this company’s products or services implied.
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