Along with running water, electricity and AC, a robust Wi-Fi offering is often something planners and their groups take for granted at any meeting venue they buy these days.
Attendees arrive with multiple mobile devices in hand, along with the assumption they’ll have good Internet connect wherever they meet, sleep and eat--just like comfortable ventilation. But while attendees may take good bandwidth capacity--the maximum data transfer rate of a network or Internet connection--for granted, planners simply cannot.
Meetings are increasingly technology-driven, with streaming video presentations and heavy Internet usage by attendees and trade show floor exhibitors. To keep all the data moving at an acceptable rate, it’s as important to do advance bandwidth planning as it is to organize guest room blocks, F&B and transportation. To miss this significant piece of today’s planning process can bring event disaster, or at least a lot of negatives on attendee evaluations.
Yet while planners, venue managers and tech people share responsibility for delivering the Wi-Fi capacity everyone expects to “just be there,” many are unprepared to start the conversation that addresses necessary bandwidth requirements. PageBreak
How much Is Enough?
“In a hotel venue, you can put aside a percentage of Internet bandwidth available in the property for the hotel for management of its functions, and you can allocate other bandwidth to the day’s meetings,” says Doug Rice, executive vice president & CEO, Hotel Technology Next Generation. “The big problem in today’s event management world is that people are not talking about the bandwidth issue primarily because they don’t know about, understand or fear its complexity.”
Rice said event planners, hoteliers and technology staffs all have a role to play in providing events with what some now call the “fourth utility.” Poorly managed event bandwidth requirements by attendees, presenters, exhibitors and venue managers can and do impact and even sabotage otherwise carefully planned events.
Many of today’s personal mobile devices weren’t around three years ago. People have adopted the new tools into their lives, and they bring along as many as two of three data-sucking devices to events. Add to this connectivity demand webcasting, streaming video, remote presentations, conference apps, social media, gamification and more to the event scene and what you have is a huge and expanding thirst for bandwidth.PageBreak
Anne Roth, CMP, key accounts director for International Hotel Group, says that the technology landscape has changed dramatically, and many meeting planners and venue managers are unprepared to address the issue.
“For so long, it’s been ‘do you have wireless’ during the site selection process,” Roth says. “Now planners are beginning to understand when they must ask about dedicated bandwidth and capacities. The more planners ask venue sales people about what they need, the more hoteliers and others will get up to speed about having this very important conversation early on.”
Steve Enselein, vice president of catering and convention services for Hyatt Hotels Americas, says most hotel sales and convention services people are no more up to speed on the bandwidth topic than are planners.
“We need to coordinate with on-site tech partners and AV companies that work inside our hotels,” Enselein says. “These people are very knowledgeable about Internet connectivity needs and they can assist with training hotel staff to ask planners the right questions about their bandwidth needs, just as they ask questions about meeting and sleep room requirements,” he says.
Planners are obligated to enter the site selection process knowing what level of use their attendees and presenters will need, how many devices they are likely to carry, and what kinds of sessions the event will require, Enselein advises.
“Buyers need to have history on Internet usage just as they have history of room pickup,” he continues. “Hopefully, this conversation happens early during the buying process.”PageBreak
Who Pays?
Fulfilling satisfactory bandwidth event needs is expensive, and like everything else that goes into a successful meeting, it costs somebody.
“Many event planners continue to expect ‘free’ Wi-Fi without understanding about what they are asking,” says John Rissi, senior vice president of operations for PSAV Presentation Services.
“Planners are in a ‘Starbucks mindset,’” he continues, “because they think they should be able to access the Internet for e-mail and all the other functions for free, just as they do in the coffee shop. But what if everyone showed up at Starbucks for a meeting? What kind of experience would they have? Sure, it may be free there, but the capacity is useless for today’s meetings. What we are trying to do is change the conversation away from ‘do you have Wi-Fi’ to ‘these are my bandwidth needs.”
Technology upgrades continue to be at the top of the expense list incurred by venues that are renovating or building anew. Managers like Mike Dominquez, senior vice president of sales for MGM Resorts International, say group rates must reflect the spend in order for there to be a return on investment.
MGM is pumping up its bandwidth speed with a $14 million expansion to its technology platform for its 13 Las Vegas resorts.
“Our expansion will give us a 30-lane highway,” he says. “If you have a 10-lane highway and you put 100 vehicles on it, you’d be okay. But if you added 10,000 cars on that highway, you’d need to either expand the highway at great expense, or get some cars off it. It’s the same with bandwidth.
“Expanding the ‘pipe’ costs a lot, and venues must get a return on their investment,” he continues. “This is what everyone concerned with the event booking process needs to understand. As with most any hotel renovation, rates go up to achieve ROI. But because bandwidth capabilities are unseen, some people have the expectation that it will be free. The industry needs to have a business dialogue that brings understanding about this very issue that is so important to the success of today’s meetings and events.”
Bandwidth, then, is something planners cannot take for granted, as they may those old utility standbys like air conditioning. To head off event sabotage, wise organizers know their connectivity needs and how to negotiate for them in the same way they bargain for F&B and room rates.
