Insufficient Bandwidth Can Ruin a Meeting, Expert Says
by Harvey ChipkinNothing derails a meeting faster than inadequate bandwidth that slows the data being sent through a network or modem connection, a tech expert warns.
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Everything from delayed audio in virtual presentations to the inability to upload conference photographs can occur when planners neglect to ensure that hotels have the necessary bandwidth, said Gregory Van Dyke, senior vice president, global sales and marketing for PSAV, a meetings technology company.
Van Dyke, who led a discussion on technology during a Future of Meetings panel at this year’s MPI World Education Congress, spoke with Travel Market Report about how planners can manage bandwidth and other critical tech issues.
Where is your company focusing as far as developing technology?
Van Dyke: Futuristically, the biggest area where people are engaging us is bandwidth management. A lot of our hotel partners are asking us to help them build out their bandwidth infrastructure. Whether you’re talking about virtual meetings or connectivity, the network is critical to the meeting experience.
It’s important that a meeting: one, has the appropriate bandwidth; two, has a well-designed network for wireless connectivity; and three, that the bandwidth can be managed properly to it works efficiently.
Why is bandwidth so critical?
Van Dyke: Consider the fact that a planner might have 300 delegates accessing a network and 300 more accessing a website; while sending video out for a hybrid meeting. What happens if at the same time in the same hotel a guest is downloading Netflix movies in their room and three other people are uploading their vacation photos?
All that could interrupt your meeting network. I have had photographers come to us because they couldn’t upload photos for the next day’s conference newspaper as a result of the hotel’s bandwidth being over-subscribed.
What’s the hotel’s role as far as maximizing technology?
Van Dyke: What a lot of hotels can do is segregate their pipes. The right amount of bandwidth has to be reserved for your meeting so that it cannot be interfered with. That doesn’t have to involve knocking down walls in an existing hotel. It’s usually a question of organization.
Also, a lot of hotels say they have high-speed Internet access but planners should check the specifics. There are many variations of what high speed might mean.
What are the costs involved?
Van Dyke: I’m often told that wireless Internet should be free. Yes, the basics are free, but if planners want more than the basics, they should plan and pay for making sure it works properly.
And while there are costs involved, there are also opportunities to monetize; for instance, you could find sponsorships for your meeting app.
How should a planner approach onsite technology in general?
Van Dyke: Ideally, a planner will take the vision of the meeting designer and work with the relevant partners to execute it – the sound, the Internet connectivity, the audience engagement.
Planners must start by working with a well-thought-out meeting objective. Their challenge is to have a focus. They can’t just say, ‘Here’s my budget and my boss told me I need a meeting app or social media.’ The meeting needs to be well-designed with a strong objective.
There’s so much free technology. Why can’t planners handle it themselves?
Van Dyke: Most planners need a technology partner onsite. Some think they can handle it themselves and it’s true that there are some meetings, perhaps internal ones, where Skype or other free technologies will be sufficient.
However, if planners are doing something where a live presentation is mission critical, technological expertise is called for.
What are the potential drawbacks if planers don’t plan properly?
Van Dyke: A couple of examples: If a planner is bringing in a speaker from a remote location, it would be unacceptable to have the audio delayed. Then the audience sees the speaker talking but the audio comes a few seconds later.
Another potential problem is if you’re doing a smartphone poll and you’re in a foreign country, you might be in for a horrible fee.
What’s coming next in meetings technology?
Van Dyke: We will keep paying attention to customizing the meeting experience for the individual attendee. It may eventually be feasible to have individual messages sent to individual phones.
We already have people interacting on iPads at meetings. It might be surprising but somehow there is a higher level of discussion in a smaller room when people are looking at their own devices.
There is occasionally device clash when different delegates have Blackberrys, Androids, and iPhones. At some meetings, rentals are made available so everybody is using the same device. At some high-end meetings you might even have the planner purchase an iPad for every delegate.
For more on the future of meetings, see “Attn. Planners: It’s High Time You Embraced Social Media,” Nov. 28, 2011, and “Making Meetings Better – by Design,” Nov. 3, 2011.
