Having a solid social media strategy in place may be fine and well, but if the meeting facility you’re using doesn’t have adequate bandwidth all of your best-laid plans may be torn asunder.
“If people want to engage with social media, planners have to ensure that the connectivity is good enough to support what they have to accomplish,” says Jim Spellos, president of Meeting U. and host of Meetings Focus’ free “The Ultimate Meeting Professionals Guide to Internet Connectivity” webinar on February 17.
“And in a lot of ways it means that not only does the Wi-Fi have to be good enough, but from a cellular standpoint you need to make sure there’s not a lot of dead spots for cellular carriers. Make sure all of the carriers can be accessed; that has become part of what a technology site inspection should cover when meeting planners inspect a facility.”
Spellos says there are a number of apps on the market that indicate where cell towers are located, but the best way is to start with the phone you have and check with that, and also ask people who work in the hotel.
“Common sense applies,” he adds. “If the meeting space in underground, rather than on the top floors, [you’ll probably encounter more problems].”
Spells says the problem will only become worse as technology improves.
“I can see the day when the number of connected devices will be far more than the hotel of 2015 can accommodate,” he says, stressing that the old advice to “know your group” applies, so make sure to find out how tech savvy they are, and then weave that into your site inspection list.
