Planning an event is no easy task, especially when it comes to communications. Whether it’s a conference, festival or pop-up store launch, dependable WiFi and telecoms are essential to avoiding disasters on the day.
In this blog, we’ll explore how to effectively plan your event’s communication needs to ensure a seamless experience for both staff and attendees.
Event communication essentials
Before you can get planning your event’s telecoms setup, you need to think about the essentials. What bases do you need to cover to make sure everything runs without a hitch?
Your communication needs will normally fall into two categories: staff communications and guest comms. To help you get started, let’s run through what they both entail.
Staff comms
Effective communication among staff members is crucial for any event. But the bigger the event or the more rural its location, the harder it is to ensure everything runs smoothly. Having reliable WiFi and network solutions in place can ease this process.
It’s not just how staff communicate with each other that matters – they also need to be able to communicate with external parties. Depending on the type of event, you might need to take into consideration the following areas:
- Production staff – lighting and sound technicians, stage management and event organisers are just some of the people who rely on solid WiFi to get their jobs done.
- Front-of-house staff – front-of-house staff need WiFi to operate Internet of Things (IoT) items such as ticket scanners.
- Security – security teams need comprehensive network solutions that allow them to communicate with each other and seamlessly integrate CCTV channels.
- Vendors – food and gift stalls, bar staff and other vendors need reliable connections to facilitate transactions and manage inventory.
- Emergency services – it’s usually beneficial to install voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) lines as a backup so that the emergency services can always be contacted.
Guest comms
Almost as important as staff comms are the communication needs of your event attendees. Reliable guest comms enhance the overall attendee experience and ensure that guests can interact seamlessly with the event and the outside world.
When considering how telecoms can aid attendee experience, you’ll need to think about the following things:
- Event interaction – various services such as ordering food, accessing information and receiving scheduling updates require attendees to have good internet connections. With reliable WiFi, guests can make efficient use of event apps and services and enjoy a more cohesive experience.
- External communication – whether it’s posting to social media or messaging family to say they’ll be late home, being able to communicate with work, friends and family while at an event is not something people hope for – it’s something they expect.
- Information access – schedules, maps, FAQs and other event-related content needs to be easily accessible so that guests can get the most out of your event. Dedicated web-hosting services can help make this process as simple as possible.
Determining your event’s telecoms needs
The word ‘event’ can mean many things. From small village fairs to thousand-strong festivals, the size, location, and telecom requirements vary drastically. To determine the needs of your event, these are the key things to take into consideration.
Outdoor vs indoor
As you would expect, outdoor event WiFi can be a lot harder to set up than indoor WiFi due to the lack of existing infrastructure. Alternative solutions such as mobile hotspots or satellite internet may be required.
Event duration
The duration of your event can also have a significant impact on your telecom needs. In general, shorter events can make use of a wider variety of temporary setups, while an event lasting multiple days might require a semi-permanent solution.
Area covered
Events spanning a large area will usually need more access points and boosters than those limited to a small space. This is to ensure consistent and reliable coverage for everyone visiting and working in the venue, no matter where they are.
Number of attendees
The more attendees that there are, the greater the bandwidth requirement. It’s important to have in place a robust system that can handle a large volume of individual connections so that all users can access the internet without latency issues.
Staff operations
Whether they’re food stall vendors at a festival or behind-the-scenes management at a conference, all staff working at your event need to be able to do their jobs without interruption. To avoid problems further down the line, make sure you understand all operational needs before implementing a telecoms solution.
Additional bandwidth requirements
It’s not just the number of people that impacts your event’s bandwidth requirements. The way they use the internet also has an effect. Live streaming and social media uploads use more bandwidth than general browsing, so if either of these are happening at your event, you’ll need infrastructure than can handle high-usage activities.
How to get WiFi for an event
The first step to getting WiFi for an event is to research providers. From 5G to satellite internet, there are various tech solutions available to suit your specific needs.
It makes sense to combine your attendee and production telecoms with one provider for a seamless and more cost-efficient setup. Look for a provider offering bespoke solutions with backups in place in case signal drops.
Finally, don’t forget to communicate connection info to your attendees – there’s no point paying for great WiFi if nobody knows it’s there! You can also take this opportunity to promote vendors or encourage social media sharing via the login page. Any free marketing like this will help to offset the costs of providing WiFi to guests.
Event WiFi from Click
At Click, we specialise in providing all-in-one internet and telecom solutions for a range of businesses and organisations. We know that traditional methods and providers aren’t able to cater to every circumstance, so we focus on listening to your problems and designing a tailor-made offering that perfectly fits your needs.
Our event WiFi can be up and running in as little as 48 hours, providing you and your guests with superfast, undisrupted internet. We cover festivals, sporting events, conferences, TV and film production, pop-up stores and product launches, country fairs, and exhibitions – among many more! Get in touch to find out how we can help you.
