Curve IT are the long-term providers of the IT infrastructure and support for the Brighton Centre, including the provision of free delegate WiFi for all events. In May 2016, ESPID (European Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases), held their five-day annual conference at the Brighton Centre.
The Brighton Centre is one of the largest purpose built conference and exhibition centres in the South of England. The venue offers clients a professional venue with the capacity to accommodate up to 5,000 delegates. It plays host to all different types of events including party political conferences, medical conventions, Trade Union conferences and graduation balls.
With more than 2,500 delegates attending, the ESPID 2016 event organisers, Kenes International, had some very specific IT requirements in order to optimise the attendees’ experience of the conference. Guaranteed connectivity was critical for the organiser to achieve their target download rate of the ESPID conference app.
The Project
- To plan and install enhanced connectivity within the Brighton Centre for the five days of the conference.
- To enable fast initial download and subsequent updates of the dedicated ESPID 2016 conference app.
- To facilitate faster download speeds of large files relevant to a particular speaker session.
- To provide the connectivity for delegates to engage directly with the speaker via the ESPID app and to vote live on particular topics.
- In addition, Curve IT were asked to act as on-site IT support for the duration of the conference. We provided tech support at each speaker session and helped delegates with connection and other technical issues.
Increasing the Connectivity Capacity for ESPID 2016
- We meticulously planned the number of access points that would be required. This depended on the number of delegates in any location at a particular time. It also depends on the type and age of device that is being connected to the network. Calculating the user behavior is essential to this planning process.
- We installed additional access points throughout the building which we completed in a tight timeframe once the previous conference had vacated the Brighton Centre. De-install had to be completed swiftly before the next event at The Brighton Centre.
- We established a network monitoring system in order that we could pre-empt any connection issues.
- Our team were onsite throughout the five-day conference to assist with any connectivity issues and to assist attending delegates from all over the globe.
Benefits of High-Speed, Dependable Delegate WiFi
- Greater download rate of ESPID 2016 app due to high speed WiFi and ease of updates. One delegate exclaimed “the connection is faster than my office WiFi!”
- It empowered instantaneous communication between delegates and speakers allowing for debate between delegates with different experiences in their countries of origin.
- The live voting system allowed for continuous data gathering on the topics that can be used for research purposes going forward.
- At one point we had 2,400 devices simultaneously connected to the WiFi.
- The speedy WiFi facilitated increased social media commentary and connections at the Conference.
