If you’re organising an event, here’s why venue wifi still matters…

The vast majority of venues have wifi, right? Yes they do. But is it the wifi you were expecting?

1 – Is it really fast? It might well say so, but what does that really mean anyway? A good connection needs to work fast for your guests, all of them, on their multiple devices. Things to look out for in advance of booking your venue: bandwidth, upload / download speeds. For a really big venue (or if there are other events taking place in the same venue as you on the same day), you should ask for a minimum 5Ghz frequency with 10Mbps (megabytes per second) capacity per 100 connected devices unless you are expecting a great deal of video traffic. If you’re in need of expert advice, speak to these folks.

2 – Is it really free? It might well say yes, but are you on the ‘fast’ (5Ghz) wifi or just the slow basic package (2.4Ghz)? It’s worth checking this with the venue in advance so that you can stream videos or music, make seamless video calls, run a live SMS Q&A session, start a new trend on Twitter or whatever you need. Negotiate if you need to and don’t be afraid to ask the venue for details.

3 – Allow time for you to test the wifi before the event begins (if it’s really important, go and check well in advance of the event). Get your own laptop and phone connected to make sure you know how it works and can easily help your guests if they need it. Test those links, fire up YouTube and make sure your video works as it should.

4 – Ensure the wifi works throughout your space. You also need to check that if you’re planning on breaking out to other areas of the venue (the garden, the restaurant, the lobby area etc) that it (the same wifi with the same login details!) works there. Be sure to check the signal throughout, in particular for venues with high ceilings, concrete walls or metal sheet clad walls.

5 – Write down the login details somewhere big and visible so your guests can get logged in as soon as they arrive. Avoid shreds of paper that need to be handed around. It just swallows up valuable time at the start. If it’s one of those really c0mpl!CaT3d passwords, then be sure to get your 1s and is, 0s and Os right…