Whitepaper: Getting up to Speed on Event Bandwidth

Getting up to speed
EVENT BANDWIDTH
PREPARED BY RUTH A. HILL
The annual meeting is off to a great start. Good attendance, exhibit floor is humming,
and the schedule is moving forward nicely. It’s now time for the first general session’s
keynote presentation.
The highly publicized and anticipated presenter moves to the podium to begin a live
online demonstration to hundreds of attendees in her audience, most of whom carry at
least one mobile Internet device. All goes well until she announces a white paper link to
the assembly and everyone begins downloading at once. The speed on a sea of mobile
devices – and the onstage apparatus– goes from 60 to zero almost instantly.
Why did this happen and how could it have been
avoided? There are many people in the planning process
who play a role including the event organizer, the hotel
sales and service staffs, and the hotel tech group.
Scenarios like this one often occur when there is
inadequate communication about configuration
of Internet services for the event. At the same time
managers were talking about room setups, food and
beverage choices, and parking spaces, they should also
have talked about what has become an essential event
service, said Doug Rice, executive vice president &
CEO of Hotel Technology Next Generation.
“That scenario is likely caused by a bandwidth
problem,” said Rice.
“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. In this
scenario, the attendees needed a lot and some should
have been reserved just for the presenter.”
The big problem in today’s event management world,
say Rice and other industry pros, is that people are not
talking about the bandwidth issue – primarily because
they don’t know about it, don’t understand it or fear its
complexity.
Yet bandwidth configuration has become just as
important to achieving an event’s goals and objectives
as compelling content, well presented and tasty food,
adequate meeting space, and comfortable guest rooms.
There is at present little fluency with bandwidth
terminology like there is for room setups. Everyone
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understands what is meant by cabaret, theater, and
classroom style. But familiarity with technology terminology is more limited.
Rice said event planners, hoteliers, and technology
staffs all have a role to play in providing events with
what some call the “fourth utility” – which is right up
there with running water, lights, and HVAC. Poorly
managed event bandwidth requirements by attendees,
presenters, exhibitors, and venue managers can and do
impact and even sabotage otherwise carefully planned
events with disturbing frequency.
Event planners and venue managers are getting vocal
complaints and feedback when Internet access fails to
meet the needs and expectations of attendees. Unsatisfactory Internet experiences are also is causing
groups to avoid rebooking venues where they’ve had a
bad experience. Today Internet connectivity affects the
entire industry.
Many of today’s array of personal mobile devices like
tablet computers and pertinent technologies weren’t
around three years ago. Consumers have adopted the
new tools into their lives and work at an amazing pace,
and they bring with them as many as two or three datahungry devices to events.
Add to this phenomenon the movement towards
webcasting, streaming video, remote presentations,
conference apps, social media, gamification and more
to the event scene and you have a huge and expanding
demand for bandwidth.
Most event industry people agree it’s time to start the
conversation about bandwidth.
Getting up to speed about EVENT BANDWIDTH | CIC • HSMAI • APEX
Bandwidth Defined
In plain English, bandwidth refers to the maximum
data transfer rate capability of a network or Internet
connection. It is the measure of how much data can
flow through a connection in a given amount of time.
The more demand for data flow, the more the flow
speed is affected and maybe even blocked. Lots of data
going through a narrow “pipe” takes longer than the
same amount of data flowing through a broader one.
The number of people at an event and the number of
things they are doing online in both public spaces and
guest rooms – checking email, downloading applications and streaming videos, communicating on social
media sites, and more – affect online access and speed of
connectivity throughout a venue. Add to attendee data
demand that of a presenter’s needs, those of a hotel or
other venue’s management where the event is happening
such as check-ins and housing registration, and exhibitor
usage on the show floor.
“It’s what the telecommunications industry refers to
as the ‘data tsunami’ with bandwidth requirements
doubling each year or approximately 30-fold between
2010 and 2015,” said Rice. “Hotels struggle to meet
the expectation that guest-room Internet will be as fast
as residential service because that’s what guests want.
Both the amount of bandwidth hoteliers have to buy,
and the sophistication of network management tools
they need to manage intelligently, have grown rapidly.”
How bandwidth affects the event and
meetings industry
For years, event organizers have selected sites based on
rates, space and availability for desired dates. Now it is
often advisable and maybe necessary to add a fourth site
selection consideration to the list: bandwidth capability.
But how much is enough?
“The demand for Wi-Fi at events is growing by high
double-digit numbers each year,” said Corbin Ball,
meetings technology expert and consultant. “Tablet
computers, on average, use 400% more bandwidth
than other mobile devices and are becoming the fastest
adopted technology hardware ever. Attendees have
multiple mobile devices and expect the same broadband experience they receive at home and office – even
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though there many be thousands of people trying to
access the Wi-Fi signal simultaneously.”
Ball said technology exists to provide what users
demand, but equipment and bandwidth are expensive.
So many meeting and event venues are far behind in
keeping up with demand.
Anne Roth, CMP, Key Account Director for IHG,
InterContinental Hotels Group, said planners do say
that capacity problems create unsatisfactory experiences
for attendees at their events.
“For so long, it’s been ‘do you have wireless’ during the
site selection process,” said Roth. “Now we are beginning to understand that the question needs to be more
specific, asking about dedicated bandwidth and capacities. On the front end Meeting Planners and Hoteliers
need to clarify the bandwidth capacities and whether to
order dedicated bandwidth. This will become the norm
as wireless connectivity is one of the major causes of dissatisfaction for hotel travelers and meeting attendees.”
Mike Dominquez, senior vice president of sales for
MGM Resorts International, said industry conversation and understanding about bandwidth needs to
include investment costs. He compared bandwidth
data traffic to that of highway vehicular traffic.
“If you have a ten-lane highway, and you put
100 vehicles on it, you’d be okay,” said Dominguez. “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’ – which compares to that highway – costs a lot
and venues must get a return on their investment. This
is what everyone concerned with the event booking
process needs to understand.”
MGM’s answer to burgeoning pipe needs is a $14
million expansion in what Dominguez calls its
“30-lane highway” – a technology platform for all its
13 Las Vegas resorts that can be expanded as needed.
He said the project gives his company the ability to
fulfill unlimited bandwidth needs.
“If I renovate a hotel, my rates are going to go up
because I need the ROI. With expansion of bandwidth capabilities, it’s the same principal. But because
Getting up to speed about EVENT BANDWIDTH | CIC • HSMAI • APEX
it’s unseen, some people have the expectation that it
should be free. The industry needs to have a business
dialogue that brings understanding about this issue.”
What event partners need to know and
when they should know it
Starting the bandwidth conversation can be a challenge
for both event planners and their hotel or other venue
partners. Most people plead low or minimal technical
knowledge. So why not just hand the bandwidth issue
off to the techies?
“The bandwidth issue touches every single aspect of our
business – sales, exhibitors, attendees, venues – everyone
is impacted,” said Michael Owen, managing partner
of EventGenuity. “The problem is many people don’t
know how to have the conversation. Planners and hoteliers need to learn enough to discuss bandwidth needs
because it is every bit as important now to success as all
the traditional considerations like F&B, space and rates.
“Planners need to be prepared to take responsibility for fulfilling attendee expectations
regarding bandwidth,” he continued. “Typically
they know an event’s attendance and budget
history, space needs, food and beverage needs
and so on, and bandwidth needs are now every
bit as important. Technology is changing so fast,
it has become mandatory most of the time.”
Capturing and reporting an event’s technology needs and
usage in a post-event audit is every bit as important now
as room pickup and budget fulfillment, Owen added.
Steve Enselein, vice president catering & convention
services for Hyatt Hotels Americas, agrees with Owen.
Most hoteliers in sales and convention services are not up
to speed on this topic any more than planners are, he said.
“We need to coordinate with on-site tech partners
and AV companies that work inside our hotels. These
people are very knowledgeable about Internet needs
and they can assist with training the hotel staff to ask
planners the right questions about bandwidth needs,
just as they ask questions about meeting and sleeping
room requirements,” he said.
Establishing bandwidth event needs
“Planners should come to the site selection process
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knowing what level of use their attendees will need,
how many devices they will carry, what kinds of
sessions the event will have and what needs presenters
will have. They need to have event history on Internet
usage just as they have history on room pickup. Hopefully this conversation happens early during the buying
process,” Enselein continued.
John Rissi, senior vice president of operations for PSAV
Presentation Services, and leader of the APEX (Accepted
Practices Exchange, an initiative of the Convention
Industry Council) Bandwidth and Connectivity Workgroup, said planners might not have much to consider in
the way of bandwidth requirements if all their attendees
are going to do is check email. But the younger generation in particular are requiring a lot of bandwidth for
their mobile Internet devices.
“If you have 500 young event attendees in their 20s on
mobile devices, they are using a lot of bandwidth - for
gaming, video streaming and other functions. If they are in
a hotel, they are looking for the group’s data pool because
they prefer not to use their own data plan,” he continued.
Besides attendee bandwidth demands and presenters’
needs, there’s the exhibit hall to consider.
“Vendors often bring in their own networks to the
exhibit floor, and if you get too many hot spots, that
can interfere with wireless access points and crash
networks. So this is definitely a key area for planners to
consider. They need to have conversations with exhibitors about bandwidth needs, and maybe they don’t
allow individual hot spots on the exhibit floor.”
Who pays for a group’s bandwidth
needs?
Meeting rapidly increasing demands for satisfactory
Internet connectivity at events is expensive and like
everything else that goes into a successful event, it costs
somebody.
Many event planners continue to expect “free” Wi-Fi
without understanding about what they are asking,
said Rissi. “Planners are in a Starbucks mindset,” said
Rissi, “because they are thinking they should be able to
access the Internet for email and other functions for free,
just as they do at the coffee shop. But what if everyone
showed up at Starbucks for a meeting? What kind of
Getting up to speed about EVENT BANDWIDTH | CIC • HSMAI • APEX
experience would they have? Sure it’s free there, but the
capacity is useless for meetings purposes. What we are
trying to do is change the conversation away from ‘do
you have Wi-Fi’ to these are my bandwidth needs.”
So who gets the tab for escalating event bandwidth demands? Many planners may think it
belongs to the venue. Owners and managers
of hotels and other event sites face a significant business dilemma in getting their venues
up to speed in order to remain competitive.
It’s an ongoing investment need for venues that host
events, Rissi added, and it requires frequent updates
in infrastructure at a minimum of every five years.
Hoteliers are business people and are looking for ROI.
So somebody must pay for a more robust bandwidth
capacity, and it may get passed on to group sponsors via
markups similar to those on F&B and other event items.
Venues are challenged to invest in more capability
when they need it, said Owen. “But the question for
them is how and when do they invest if they think
their clients are not quite to the need point yet.” When
there is doubt, the conversation today sometimes
moves to tiered bandwidth service he said.
“I’ve noticed some hotels may charge guests $12 a
night for Internet access, but another includes it for
free. Now there are tiered sections. If all you want is
email access you can probably have it for free, but more
speed costs another couple of dollars, and the next tier
– say to download a movie is more again. In the case of
event planning, this gets into the matter of dedicated
and shared services, another point for negotiation.”
It’s not just a tech issue or a financial issue, but a
content delivery issue, Owen continued.
“Everyone needs to understand this. If you work hard to
deliver event content and experiences, what good is it to
allow a lack of bandwidth to sabotage or impact it?”
Many hotels expect that wireless data services from the
mobile carriers will meet their bandwidth need, but
the mobile carriers themselves know they are rapidly
running out of radio spectrum Rice said. As a result,
the carriers are actively offloading cellular traffic onto
Wi-Fi networks, especially in high-traffic locations
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like hotels. In some particularly congested locations
like New York and San Francisco, mobile carriers have
gone so far as to provide some hotels with a free Wi-Fi
infrastructure in order to offload the demand on their
cellular networks and reduce complaints from their
mobile customers.
Ball said many facilities are beginning to recognize that
basic Internet for attendees is becoming as expected
as water and lights. “A number of hotels with meeting
space are providing free access in the lobby and/or
guest rooms. Others are not and they usually charge for
Internet access throughout their facilities,” he said.
Ball recommends that a basic, throttled level of Wi-Fi
(512kb/sec) should be provided throughout a meeting
facility. That is enough, he said, to tweet, answer
emails, and view basic web pages but not fast enough
to easily stream video.
“If you need more bandwidth, then pay a reasonable
rate,” he said to event organizers.
How and where to learn
MaryAnne Bobrow, CAE, CMP, CMM, CHE of Bobrow
and Associates and chair member of the APEX Standards
Committee, has encouraged event stakeholders not to run
away from the bandwidth question if it seems overwhelming. Help exists, and more is on the way.
“No one is suggesting that we all become experts
in bandwidth, networking and data transmission,”
she said. “The APEX group’s key objective is to raise
awareness and impart some basic information and best
practices about this matter that planners and suppliers
both need to consider when thinking about the events
they plan, produce or host.”
Help already exists on the CIC website, including the
easy-to-use Bandwidth Estimator. Additional tools and
resources such as a site evaluation checklist and glossary
of important terms related to the bandwidth matter are
in development.
The workgroup is also making presentations at
industry events that will assist stakeholders in gaining
knowledge and information about Internet bandwidth.
At the very least, it’s time to start the conversation so
everyone can get up to speed.
Getting up to speed about EVENT BANDWIDTH | CIC • HSMAI • APEX
What event partners need to know about bandwidth
Management of Internet bandwidth needs for events has become an essential part of the planning and the
content delivery process. Venue hosts, their Internet management agents, and event planners all bear responsibility for successful connectivity to stakeholders including attendees and participants, exhibitors, venue
managers, and presenters. Conversations about bandwidth needs should occur during the site selection or
venue buying process.
Need to Know Items for Meeting Professionals Include:
• What is the event or meeting’s bandwidth demand?
What is the expected level of Internet usage on
site? This should include the number and types of
mobile devices in use such as smartphones, tablet
and laptops, and readers.
• What do presenters and facilitators require for such
functions as live demos, app training, and remote
collaboration. How much (low, med, high) bandwidth
is required?
• Consider exhibitors’ private wireless networks.
Their Wi-Fi equipment can interfere with a venue’s
bandwidth network. Too many wireless networks
too close together can cause interference that cause
all to stall or shut down. Setting policy about show
floor use of networks may be advisable.
• Understand what is meant by shared/dedicated bandwidth. Shared capacity is generally offered by a hotel,
convention center, or other host venue and is based
on a “best effort” performance and not guaranteed.
Dedicated bandwidth is set aside for specific use and
should carry guarantee of functionality.
• Know whether the event requires shared or dedicated bandwidth. Shared bandwidth means everyone in
a venue may be competing for capacity, but it may
be satisfactory for casual use like checking email
and systems not critical for the event. Dedicated
bandwidth is set aside and guaranteed for specific
use such as a keynote presentation. Control and
access is prescribed to ensure availability when
needed. It is recommended for very large events,
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presenter networks, hybrid meeting activities, and
critical event operating systems.
• Know a venue’s bandwidth availabilities and who
manages it before booking the event. Ask detailed
questions about the age, coverage and capacity of
the Wi-Fi system. Know who is your on-site technology partner/expert, and what version the wireless
technology they are supporting.
• Know what event apps are doing. Do apps store
schedules and other information, or do they pull
them from the Internet each time they’re accessed?
Do they use photo or video uploading? Is there
gamification that requires check-ins, social media
interaction, photo scavenger hunts, and so on? An
app provider should be able to estimate how much
bandwidth can be required.
• Verify the bandwidth you are getting. Check
available speed against what has been promised.
Verification sites like www.speedtest.net and www.
speakeasy.net/speedtest provide good starting
points although they are not failsafe ways to check
your bandwidth.
• Know when to call for outside help. For events with
critical Internet connectivity needs, it may be advisable to hire an Independent Internet Service Provider
(ISP) and/or a network consultant who specializes
in the event industry. Evaluate alternatives and shop
around to fulfill your connectivity needs at a fair price.
Getting up to speed about EVENT BANDWIDTH | CIC • HSMAI • APEX
Need-to-know items for Hotels Sales and Convention Service
Professionals include:
• Ask the customer the question, “Do you know the
bandwidth and wireless device requirements for
your group?”
Asking the important questions ahead of time
provides an opportunity for the meeting professional
to assess not only the client’s needs, but also the
client’s understanding of their needs. Hotel sales
and convention service professionals must be ready
to start these conversations to better serve their
customers, meet demand, and exceed expectations.
Knowing this information is as important to building
a good relationship as knowing the room pickup,
food and beverage history or payment history.
• Ask about the group’s past experiences. Have they
had service or capacity issues?
To better service your clients and understand their
past experiences should be part of that conversation
as well. Knowing what has caused problems before
can help the property’s network service provider
make the right recommendations about what type
of service that will avoid repeating these problems.
This may be an opportunity to talk about dedicated
bandwidth and Wi-Fi capacity.
• Know what the property’s network service provider
is capable of. Can they offer dedicated bandwidth
for individual groups? What is the pricing for dedicated bandwidth? How many wireless devices can
the network support?
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Understanding bandwidth and Wi-Fi capacity is just
as important as having access to ballroom capacity
charts. The availability, access and pricing for dedicated bandwidth is information that you should not
only know, but stay up to date on, since technology
changes rapidly and infrastructure improvements
can happen quickly.
• Know the bandwidth in the property’s meeting facilities, at what point does that max out?
If this is a group that pushes the property’s physical
capacity you need to know if there is enough bandwidth to support all those maxed-out meeting rooms
and if the Wi-Fi network can handle all the devices
in thouse rooms. If not you’ll need to talk about
ways to supplement the Wi-Fi or bring in bandwidth
and the costs involved in both. The property’s network
service provider is crucial in this conversation.
• What is the bandwidth for the sleeping rooms, at
what occupancy does that max out?
Guest room Internet access has been identified
as one of the key satisfaction indicators for both
frequent travelers and meeting attendees. Understanding where a property’s occupancy level can
affect guest room bandwidth is important, especially
with large groups and during high-occupancy periods.
• Be familiar with what’s offered in common areas.
Very often properties offer Internet service in public
space and food outlets, sometimes for free, but
often this service offers very limited bandwidth
suitable for email and simple browsing by a few
people only. It is important to set the correct expectation with the client about the level of bandwidth
and Wi-Fi capacity available in this area.
• Connect with the hotel’s event technology experts.
Know who at the property you can turn to for more
information, additional guidance and technical
expertise, whether that’s an in-house expert or
someone who manages the hotel’s relationship with
the network service provider. With technology and
infrastructure investment continuing to evolve at an
increasing pace, you can’t assume past information
is still accurate.
Getting up to speed about EVENT BANDWIDTH | CIC • HSMAI • APEX
About CIC
The Convention Industry Council’s 31 member organizations represent more than 103,500 individuals and
19,500 firms and properties involved in the meetings, conventions and exhibitions industry. CIC facilitates the
exchange of information develops programs to promote professionalism within the industry and educates the
public on its profound economic impact. CIC’s programs include the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP)
program, the Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) initiative, and numerous industry resource projects.
About HSMAI
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business
for hotels and their partners, and is the industry’s leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue
growth. The association provides hotel professionals & their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel
sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue through programs such as HSMAI’s MEET, Adrian Awards, and
Revenue Optimization Conference. HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising more than
7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Connect with HSMAI at www.hsmai.org,
www.facebook.com/hsmai, www.twitter.com/hsmai and www.youtube.com/hsmai1.
Copyright © 2013 Convention Industry Council (CIC) and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI). All rights reserved.
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Getting up to speed about EVENT BANDWIDTH | CIC • HSMAI • APEX