Tirades from a tradeshow organizer
Tim Bourquin, my favorite tradeshow startup blogger, has been busy lately with some great posts. Like this one on why you should be very, very careful with sponsored sessions. And this great rant about the cost of high-speed Internet at hotels and convention centers:
- Iâve continually complained about the cost of high-speed Internet at convention centers and hotels since the first day I saw the convention center order form back in 1998. The trouble is, back then I could somewhat see the justification because centers and hotels were spending a lot of money to build the infrastructure. It was expensive to offer so it was expensive to buy.
But the convention centers and hotels are still charging for the service like it was 1998. $1,200 for two or three days is absurd - beyond a rip-off - and it was costing us booth sales. How is it that I can get more reliable and faster upload/download speeds at home for about $40 a month and yet for two days it costs $1,200?
Excellent question. I believe the answer is that they do it because they can. Same rationale as for the exhorbitant phone rates in rooms. Now if someone can just come up with a solution for the connectivity that would parallel how cellphones have made the hotel phone rates irrelevant…
November 16th, 2006 at 9:47 am
There is a trend starting to develop in larger cities for wideband internet access through a city-wide provider. I live in Raleigh (new convention center opening in 2008!) and noticed a full page ad in the paper this morning for Clearwire (I have no connection with the company and can’t vouch for their service quality). I checked their website and found they were present in 35 cities (although most of them aren’t typical convention destinations).
Doing some quick Google searches, I see that traditional destination cities such as New Orleans, San Francisco, Boston, and Hartford have announced plans to provide free city-wide internet. With luck, this will kill off those ridiculous booth connection rates.
Unfortunately, many convention halls are built like WWII concrete bunkers, impervious to the damaging effects of external radiation and wireless signals. So it will be up to us to demand repeater antennas strung into the interiors.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:01 am
I agree that the hardwiring charges are outrageous. As far as I’m concerned, wireless access should be treated like a utility. We don’t pay for each light bulb that is used to ‘light’ a show. Why should we pay for each internet signal when it’s already available ‘in the air’.
Recently I was able to negotiate a flat rate fee for a convention-centre wide wireless network that was accessible by password to exhibitors who paid a nominal $75 fee for the full three days. Their fees offset the total bill to the conference and we had some very happy exhibitors. There were only a few instances where we needed hardwire access to the ‘net’. And even then, the $300 fee was not a daily charge but covered all three days of event.
I think it’s important for show managers and meeting planners to challenge these charges, not only for the show floor but also in the hotel room block.
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