We are seeing a common and alarming trend that hotels are charging exorbitant amounts to use their hotel event Wi-Fi. Sometimes, this number can be well into the thousands, but you have options and you don’t always need to layout $30k just to have event Wi-Fi. Just much like all hotel restrictions, hotel event Wi-Fi fees are negotiable and there are ways to cut costs!
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On today’s episode of Whiteboard Wednesday, Will Curran is going to guide you through how to save on hotel event Wi-Fi. He lays it all out there: from simple steps you can take to negotiation tips! After this episode, you will undoubtedly be well on your way to breaking through the costs and saving money on your hotel event Wi-Fi.
About seven to ten years ago, there used to be this saying in the industry: if you don’t use our hotel AV, there’ll be some sort of fees associated. We call them hotel restrictions, hotel AV restrictions, or in-house AV restrictions.
Nowadays, in 2018, we’re seeing a common trend. Hotels are now saying if you don’t use our hotel AV, there will be $30,000 for hotel Wi-Fi. Hotels are learning that planners are realizing that it’s hard to get Wi-Fi. They don’t know where else to get it from, and hotels are realizing they can use that as a linchpin to force the in-house AV companies to do the AV. That way, they also get the business when it comes to Wi-Fi. Be wary if they offer free Wi-Fi. Let’s be honest, if it’s free, it’s probably going to be bad.
The first tip to save on hotel Wi-Fi is knowing some Wi-Fi basics. Among the terms you should get familiar with are speed, megabits per second, bandwidth, and ping. It’s important for you to know what speeds are because you need to understand what exactly you’re getting for your money.
The next thing that Will mentions is the difference between wired versus wireless connections. Choosing one depends on what you need the internet for. If you’re doing a live stream, you might need a wired internet connection. If you only order wireless connections, you might not be in good shape. Also, knowing how many connections you need for your attendees, vendors, exhibitors, and anyone else that needs Wi-Fi. When you’re having conversations about Wi-Fi, you want to make sure that you understand how secure it is. Learning about cyber security might also be a good idea!
Ask yourself what are you going to use the Wi-Fi for. Are you going to be doing live stream over it? Do you just need your attendees to be able to check their email? Are you doing any sort of audience response systems, such as Q&A?
Then, it’s important to know whether it’s dedicated or not. If you need a hundred connections, is that the same connections that the convention down the hall is going to be using, too? If so, it might slow down when all attendees get on. Or are those dedicated hundred connections just for you?
Have all these questions ready if you want to save on hotel Wi-Fi. The last thing you want is a Wi-Fi connection that turns out to be slow, not dedicated, and not secure.
Test Wi-Fi out before your big conference at another big conference. Consider it a part of your site survey! Event planners typically check what the venue look like and whether the food is any good, but they never seem to check the Wi-Fi. Remember, you’re spending a lot of money and sometimes, Wi-Fi can cost as much as your catering budget. Visit the venue during another big convention and ask to use one of their connections. That way, you can get proof of the Wi-Fi quality.
One of the tools you can use to do an internet test is Speedtest. It allows you to see the up speeds, the down speeds, and the ping. There’s a catch, though. Internet providers have realized that if they make Speedtest their fastest website, they can make it look like internet is really fast. Another website to consider is Fast.com. This website uses Netflix’s servers. A lot of internet providers throttle Netflix, YouTube, and all the big data-hungry services. When you use it, it uses Netflix servers, so you can see what do those speeds look like using a server that they might potentially be blocking or slowing down, which is fantastic.
While thinking of ways to save on hotel Wi-Fi, make sure to check the cell service too. Do you really need a ton of Wi-Fi if the cell service is good enough? Can people bring in their own hotspots and use their phones?
If the venue that you’re utilizing has poor cell reception, more attendees will need to get on the Wi-Fi, so they can do simple things like checking their email and calling their family.
You can save on hotel Wi-Fi by saving on the number of connections. How? With auto logout. You can set up a service that will automatically log people out after a certain period of time. You might be wondering why you’d want to auto disconnect your attendees. Won’t that make them angry? The good thing about auto logout is that it creates churn. And churn means losing connections and losing users. If someone plugs their laptop in or puts their phone on and lets it go for several hours, they don’t realize they don’t even need it anymore. It’s downloading the Spotify updates and downloading app updates.
They may actually not need that service if they’re not actively using it to check their email or participate in the audience response system. The hotel event Wi-Fi provider can set up an auto-logout that automatically logs them out every two hours, which forces them to re-login, which allows you to keep the number of connections lower. Let’s say you have 3,000 attendees, but you only want to pay for 1,500 connections. By using auto-logout, it allows you to free up spots in the number of connections for new people to log in. It’s a fantastic way to save money on hotel Wi-Fi!
We all know how to use Wi-Fi. We know where to look for the network name and the password. This is an opportunity for a fantastic use of sponsorships!
At a recent conference we had, Puerto Rico sponsored an event Wi-Fi network. It was called Puerto Rico and they put their saying as the Wi-Fi password. When people were asking what’s the Wi-Fi password, it got everybody to say the brand name. This is an opportunity that you can sell to your sponsors. What’s fantastic as well is that many have login pages. Imagine turning that into another sponsorship opportunity by putting a graphic up, for example.
You can also get attendees to give their email address to access Wi-Fi. That’s a great lead gen opportunity for that sponsor! But be careful: you don’t want to be stuck in a position where people are giving fake email addresses. Instead, make it worth it for people to give their email addresses, and turn it into a nice sponsorship opportunity to offset those costs.
The next pro tip is a little bit controversial. You could potentially allow attendees and exhibitors to buy their own internet. It all depends on what your objectives are. You have to ask yourself whether Wi-Fi is the most important thing that you have to have at our conference. Do the attendees need to get into an audience response system? Do they need to be able to check their internet? Do they need to call grandma? If the answer is no and your conference is more about connecting with other attendees or paying attention to the content, maybe you do not need to have free Wi-Fi.
Another good concept that you can have is this certain level of buyout you can have with Wi-Fi. For example, you could say to the Wi-Fi provider that you’ll pay for half of it and what that will allow is that you can drop that price from $10 per day to $5 per day. That allows you to drop the cost just a little bit lower.
You are capable of bringing in your own third-party event Wi-Fi provider, just like you can bring in your own AV. However, providers are starting to make it harder for you to realize that you can bring in a third-party vendor.
If you negotiate up front, you can actually have a provider park a satellite truck right outside your venue, run a cable in, and even utilize the existing infrastructure in the venue already. However, you have to ask that question ahead of time.
Will has another suggestion. You could tell a third-party vendor up front that you’ll use them for the next vendor, but not right now. Then, ask them to work as bait to be able to drop the price against the in-house company to be able to bring that Wi-Fi price down and use it as leverage to essentially drop that price as well.
If you are looking to save money on hotel Wi-Fi, the minimum thing you can do is ask. Don’t just assume that the venue is going to force you to pay that $30,000 bill for that hotel event Wi-Fi. Instead, ask them and don’t write it off right away.
Will wraps up today’s Whiteboard Wednesday by sharing this nugget of wisdom: “If you are negotiating, it’s ‘asking’ before the contract. After the contract, it’s called ‘begging’.” You don’t want to be in a position where you’re begging. Be in the position of negotiating!
When you are evaluating all of your venues, ask about Wi-Fi. Tell them you want to bring in a third party vendor for your AV and you don’t want to be charged up the front for Wi-Fi. Ask all these questions and have this entire conversation before you sign your contract. This will allow you to have the leverage to put it in place to get the best Wi-Fi with the best speeds and the best connections. It allows you to create those sponsorship opportunities, do auto logouts, and even potentially bring in a third party vendor instead!
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The right video conferencing system for your business will depend on your needs. Some companies will need nothing more than the ability to conduct general-purpose video meetings, while others will have advanced needs, such as webinars, online training, and mass presentations. To help you decide what system best suits your company, we test and rate leading video conferencing services based on performance, features, and usability. Here, we present our top picks in the category, along with links to detailed reviews and some helpful buying tips.
Video conferencing systems have become invaluable for small businesses, enabling enhanced collaboration, reduced travel costs, and increased productivity. With video conferencing, remote team members can seamlessly participate in meetings, share screens, and engage in real-time discussions, fostering a more connected and efficient workforce. These platforms also facilitate virtual client meetings, letting businesses expand their reach and maintain strong relationships with customers and partners across geographical boundaries. Additionally, video conferencing tools often integrate with other essential business applications. Some even offer advanced features similar to those of business VoIP systems .
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
4.5 Outstanding
With its rebranding to Zoom One, Zoom has evolved its wildly popular video conferencing system into an integrated business communications platform. In addition to audio and video meetings, it now has AI-backed meeting transcription and collaboration tools, such as mail and calendar integration, note-taking, text chat, and whiteboards. It also offers a marketplace featuring a large and growing catalog of apps that integrate Zoom One with third-party software.
Zoom One aims to lower the "toggle tax," which is how Zoom describes the productivity lost when you have to switch between multiple apps to perform everyday tasks. If the idea of spending most of your time in a single app appeals to you, Zoom One might be the ticket. This integrated approach pits Zoom One head-to-head with such business ecosystems as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 with Teams. If your company currently subscribes to one of these, then some of Zoom One's functionality might duplicate what you already have.
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Zoom One Review
4.5 Outstanding
Intermedia AnyMeeting is an attractive, easy-to-use service that's packed with enough features to suit any organization. We especially liked its AI-powered Virtual Assistant, which delivers reasonably high-quality transcriptions of video meetings and can even flag action items based on what's said during the call. Plus, as comprehensive as it is, AnyMeeting's pricing is on par with most of its competitors.
You can hardly go wrong with AnyMeeting, which is why it's earned our Editors' Choice nod for several years running. The one caveat might be that it lacks certain webinar-oriented features, such as breakout rooms. But overall, if you feel comfortable with its user interface and controls, it's hard to beat.
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Intermedia AnyMeeting Review
4.5 Outstanding
One of the most mature video conferencing solutions on our list, Webex has been around in one form or another since 1995. Now owned by Cisco, it has the unique distinction of enjoying the benefits of integration with the networking giant's rich ecosystem of tools, hardware, and smart conference room systems. As a result, it's the go-to solution for some of the Fortune 500's most prominent names.
Don't assume you need a huge headcount to use Webex. While it has a few pricing gotchas compared with some other services, it's fully capable of scaling from small businesses to large enterprises and everything in between. So, if your priorities are solid support and a near-unlimited capacity for growth, Webex could be the ideal choice.
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Webex by Cisco Review
4.0 Excellent
RingCentral is well-respected for its business communication technologies, most notably its voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution. RingCentral Video is its entry into the video conferencing market, and while it's playing catch-up to some of the more established players, it's still a solid offering. One appealing feature is its generous free pricing tier, which lets you conduct meetings with up to 100 attendees and lasting as long as 24 hours at a time.
If you're looking for a video conferencing solution that's well-integrated with a business VoIP system, RingCentral is an excellent choice. Both functions are built into the same app, with an appealing user interface. Also, it delivers more at no cost than any other system we looked at. Be aware, though, that it doesn't yet deliver all the capabilities of more mature competitors.
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If you want to learn more, please visit our website Digital Conference System.
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RingCentral Video Review
4.0 Excellent
The only way to join Google Meet conferences is via a web browser, but what might seem to be a limitation at first may actually be its greatest strength. Because there are no dedicated clients to download and install, Google Meet should be accessible to anyone with a modern browser, regardless of OS platform. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Meet integrates with the wildly popular Google Workspace suite of productivity apps, either.
If your organization doesn't use Google Workspace, chances are some of your partners or customers do. That should be reason enough to consider it, given how easily it integrates with Workspace users' calendars and email. Beyond that, Meet is a robust video conferencing solution with one of the lowest barriers to entry of any service in our roundup.
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Google Meet Review
4.0 Excellent
GoToMeeting is a mature video conferencing solution from GoTo, the company formerly known as LogMeIn. It offers a good balance between features and cost, and it includes competitive features like smart transcription and unlimited recording to the cloud. It also integrates with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 calendars.
As a standalone video conferencing solution, GoToMeeting is a dependable offering, but it lacks some features you'd want for general-purpose video meetings. It's best suited for use cases like webinars, contact centers, and remote IT management, especially when paired with GoTo's other software for those markets.
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GoToMeeting Review
3.5 Good
ClickMeeting stands out from the rest of the pack by catering to customers who primarily want to conduct webinars and other large-scale presentations. Unlike the other services in our roundup, it can scale to audiences of up to 1,000 participants (although not all will be able to actively participate). It also offers generous online storage for recording meetings, so that people who couldn't attend a live session can have the option to play it back later.
If webinars are your thing, or you're looking for a video conferencing solution for online education sessions, you should definitely give ClickMeeting a look. If, on the other hand, you expect your users to engage in a lot of peer-to-peer video calls or conferences with a small number of participants, you'll probably be better served by a different product.
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ClickMeeting Review
3.5 Good
Microsoft has a pattern of steadily piling features into its products, and Teams is no different. It has risen from humble beginnings to become a team collaboration behemoth and a core part of the Microsoft 365 suite. More importantly, unlike some competitors (such as Slack), it's also a full-featured video conferencing system that's suitable for far more than one-to-one video calls.
Die-hard Microsoft shops should take note: If you're already using Teams—and particularly if you're a Microsoft 365 customer—it may be all the video conferencing software you need. On the other hand, if you're not all-in on the Microsoft way of doing things, and all you want is video conferencing, we recommend you look elsewhere.
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Microsoft Teams Review
3.5 Good
While it lacks the bells and whistles of some of its competitors, Zoho Meetings' appeal lies in its low price. Unlike many of the services in our roundup, it offers a free tier that lets you host meetings for up to 100 attendees. It also integrates seamlessly with the rest of the Zoho business software suite.
Zoho would like to be your one-stop shop for business apps, and if you've already bought into the broader Zoho ecosystem, you should give Zoho Meetings a look. It could also meet your needs if you're on a particularly tight budget. However, when using it as a standalone solution, you may find you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere.
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Zoho Meeting ReviewBuying Guide: The Best Video Conferencing Software for 2024
Video conferencing has experienced a remarkable evolution. Initially, it was available only in the form of pricey, high-end systems that combined hardware and software, and integrated into office conference rooms. Presently, cloud-based services are the reigning stars, requiring little dedicated infrastructure.
These new services are characterized by hardware agnosticism, letting you either procure dedicated hardware or utilize their computing device's webcam and microphone. Furthermore, many of them provide a completely browser-based experience, forgoing the need to install an app. Although desktop apps are often the optimal choice, there are noteworthy apps for Android, Chrome OS, and iOS.
Contemporary video conferencing systems offer a cornucopia of new capabilities that their predecessors never possessed. Best-in-class video conferencing services offer screen sharing, remote desktop access, text chat, file exchange, digital whiteboard communication, and even the ability to broadcast conferences to passive viewers, such as webinars. Additionally, some services can integrate with business voice over IP (VoIP) packages, enabling users to convert voice calls to video calls or initiate a shared meeting at the touch of a button, without disconnecting the original connection.
(Credit: Getty/Ariel Skelley )
As with most software-as-a-service (SaaS), video conferencing providers offer multiple pricing tiers. The lowest tier is available at no cost for many of the services we tested. These free offerings are great for connecting with friends and family, as well as for occasional business use. However, they have limited features, and come with restrictions on how long meetings can be and how many people can attend. Organizations that plan to use video conferencing as an everyday tool should invest in a paid service to take advantage of its additional capabilities.
Among the services we reviewed, the median pricing for business-grade service is around $13 per user per month. Most also offer more expensive tiers aimed at enterprise deployments. As usual, the greater your needs, the more you can expect to pay.
Although most services charge by the number of users, others charge by the number of hosts. Generally, services priced per host are designed for webinar-type usage, where only a host can initiate a meeting (and meetings will typically have many attendees). On the other hand, services that are priced per user are usually intended for more peer-to-peer usage, where anyone can start a meeting.
Video conferencing has quickly become an essential business tool, particularly given the rise of remote work. The products in this roundup all offer video calls via webcam, typically alongside several other features, such as text chat.
Understanding what constitutes a video conferencing platform can be confusing, since some of these same features have lately crept into team messaging platforms, like Microsoft Teams and Slack. In Teams' case, it offers a complete video conferencing solution, which is why we've reviewed it here. On the other hand, Slack and some of its competitors have only implemented person-to-person video calling, which is why we haven't included them in this roundup. The solutions we've reviewed here are all designed to support multi-party video meetings.
Beyond video calling itself, you'll likely want a few additional capabilities. For example, for presentations, screen sharing is essential. You may also want to look for more granular options, such as the ability to share just one document, image, or application (Microsoft PowerPoint, for example), rather than the entire desktop. Another feature many packages support is video annotation and virtual whiteboards, where meeting participants can collaborate.
Most of the video conferencing services in this roundup also offer a text chat mode during meetings and sometimes outside of video calls, too.
Many services offer automated recording that you can initiate with the press of a button. Typically, the recording will be saved to cloud storage and automatically shared with all meeting attendees. If you think this is a feature you'll want to use often, make sure the service tier you choose offers sufficient storage capacity, or that it can integrate with your existing third-party cloud storage provider.
Recently, video conferencing vendors have begun aggressively introducing artificial intelligence (AI) to their systems. Among the ways AI is being used to enhance meetings are automatic call summaries and transcription, noise cancellation, call scheduling, analytics and optimization, and facial recognition.
Readers' Choice/Business Choice 2022: Video Conferencing ServicesReaders' Choice/Business Choice 2022: Video Conferencing Services
Beyond the video conferencing software itself, another thing to consider is the hardware you'll need to support it. Fortunately, almost every modern laptop, tablet, and smartphone comes with an integrated microphone and a serviceable (if fairly mediocre) webcam. Many modern laptops ship with high-quality 1080p webcams built in, and the same goes for many higher-end mobile devices.
Desktop PCs, on the other hand, will typically need additional hardware. If you're looking for enhanced clarity of sound or video, you'll need the best microphones and high-end webcams you can get. Some business monitors also come with built-in video conferencing features.
For most use cases, consumer-grade hardware is all you need. Then again, if you want the highest possible video quality for webinars and client meetings, you may need to make additional purchases, such as green screens, ring lights, and LED panels.
Although these hardware purchases drive up the total cost of your video conferencing deployment, the good news is that you'll still save versus old-school, end-to-end conferencing solutions. You don't need to make a huge capital outlay all at once. Instead, you can buy the licenses you need and grow organically as you add new seats, which can dramatically reduce costs.
At first glance, it can seem challenging to choose which video conferencing service is right for your organization, because most offer the same basic features. But in fact, you'll want to evaluate several factors before making your decision, and assessing the software's overall user experience (UX) is a good place to start.
In each review, we discuss the ease of signing up, creating a meeting, inviting participants, and setting up audio and video controls. We also look at the UX from a meeting invitees' point of view, and how easy it is to access smart meeting controls, such as whiteboard-style collaboration and file sharing, annotation, and the virtual assistant features mentioned above.
We've also tested each service's prominent features, but it's up to you to decide which ones you need most. For example, do you need dial-in numbers, VoIP integration, or both? How about features like screen sharing or remote control? Some services offer teleconferencing with both dial-in numbers (local or toll-free) and VoIP calling, while others provide just one or the other. A few offer international dial-in numbers.
During our testing, we hosted and joined meetings to test the experience of registered and non-registered users alike. We made sure to outline how easy it is to join a meeting, including whether a participant needs to download software before joining (which could cause a delay or even be a dealbreaker). Other services simply require that attendees enter a code to access the meeting.
Our reviews also cover the host's administration features. The best services let you set up various types of meetings, such as lecture-style meetings where all participants are muted, or a discussion or Q&A mode in which presenters can mute and unmute participants as needed. Other options include enabling and disabling webcams, locking latecomers out of a meeting, creating a waiting room while preparing for the meeting, and allowing break-out sessions.
Finally, you shouldn't just take our word for it. Most of these services offer at least a 30-day free trial, so you'll have the opportunity to test drive the product that looks most attractive to you. Make sure to include relevant stakeholders in your decision-making process, both within your organization and without. With careful consideration, you're sure to arrive at a solution that's cost-effective, easy to use, and gives you the features you need.
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