5 Steps to Take to Make Your Next Conference Go Smoothly

by Stephanie Faris on Monday, October 10 6:00

Conferences bring great opportunities for brands to make business-building connections. Whether they re interacting with attendees at a booth or leading a seminar, professionals can get the word out about their products and services while also collecting leads. However, today s conferences rely heavily on technology, from the PowerPoint slides that guide presentations to the multimedia necessary to make interactive trade show booths.

If your business is participating in an upcoming conference, it s important to prepare well in advance to avoid embarrassing issues on the day of the event. Here are a few things your tech team can do to make every conference attendance a success.

Test Presentations

Your employees spend hours creating and perfecting their presentations, but it s important to ensure they ll work at the remote location. Set up an internal test with a projector and the device the employee will be using for the presentation. Try to imitate the environment at the remote location, including disabling your own LAN connection and connecting to your hotspot to identify any elements that might rely specifically on your own environment to work.

Back Up Presentations

Despite your best efforts, you can t always count on the cloud to reach your presentation. You may also have device issues. Storing your presentation in multiple places can provide a built-in safety in case something goes wrong. It may seem outdated, but store each presentation on a flash drive in addition to your other storage methods. If something goes wrong, the presenter could use any laptop to display the presentation.

Line Up Remote Support

Unless tech support is traveling alongside the presenter, any technical issues at the remote location will be tough to troubleshoot. Be sure in advance that you ve made provisions for either providing remote tech support or paying for the service. Some hotels and conferences provide support. Familiarize yourself with this person in advance of the conference.

Safely Relocate Equipment

One of the worst things that can happen in advance of a conference is damage to equipment. This could be the tech for your exhibit booth, your laptop, your sound system, or some other piece of equipment. Make sure you have a plan to get all electronics safely to the location, whether you pay professionals to do it or have your own employees transport it.

Arrive Early to Test

Arriving at the location mere minutes before it s time to go on is a big mistake. Build in extra time prior to the exhibit or presentation to set everything up and test it. Consider what could possibly go wrong and have a plan in place to remedy each possible issue. This will tell you how far in advance your team members should show up.

If someone from your business is attending a conference, it s important to plan the tech well in advance. It can be easy for devices and software to fail when professionals need them the most. By testing everything and considering the worst that could happen, you can begin to prepare to both avoid and repair any issues that might arise.