Attending a Conference? There’s an App for That!
I just published a post on my Computerworld blog about how conferences and tradeshows of the future are incorporating more mobile and wireless technologies to provide attendees more value than ever before.
In that post, you’ll find out how cutting edge events are:
- Extending the battery life of your mobile devices
- Using high density Wi-Fi networks to offload bandwidth demands from cellular networks
- Leveraging video as a way for attendees to connect & share
As a preview to that post, check out the 2 minute video I created about an iPhone app created specifically for one such event, the Forrester IT Forum:
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WiFi Jedi.com 
Very good point on wifi access. Now, this is not going to turn around quickly.
I see the good vision here – is just not “around the corner”.
My view on what it will take:
Architecture issues: A lot of the convention centers were built as fortresses, so now wifi access points are difficult to execute.
Heavy investment: For a trade center, the wifi infrastructure alone can run from 500K to a lot more than that – not inexpensive technology.
When talking to the infrastructure managers that try to keep the capital costs down while maintaining competitiveness, this is one of the wicked issues.
Security: The other issue to consider is security of the wifi network. Everyone expects open access – with all the manageability complexity of the firewall and scanning.