Technology

To bring attention to its online commercial real estate marketplace LoopNet.com, and at the same time throw a meaningful event for clients, CoStar Group, a Washington D.C.-based provider of real estate analytics and marketing services, on Jan. 18 hosted a 3D mapped projection event to illustrate the message “If a Commercial Property Isn’t Advertised on LoopNet.com, it Might as Well Be Invisible.” The projection display gave the illusion that a 12-story Los Angeles building had literally disappeared.

In this monthly series, EM brings you tips and tricks from pros and experts who’ve been eating social media marketing for breakfast. So eat up, and check us out on Twitter @eventmarketer and Facebook.com/eventmarketer for more.

Every conversation in the event marketing industry eventually comes around to technology. You want to know what tools are out there to make your jobs easier, make your programs more successful and most crucially, make your target consumers love you the most. We have heard your clarion calls for help and now, with this monthly series, EM’s own Ken Briodagh will collect and codify the hottest, newest, most interesting, best (and sometimes worst) technological doohickeys available to you.

­Every event organizer faces this question at some point: Should I provide wifi at my event? Since the desire is almost always there, and usually budget will make the decision. Let’s assume the answer is yes. So, you’ll put in wifi. Your attendees will love you. But now you face the real tough issue of infrastructure. Your choice is pretty clear. Either you will pay the venue to piggy-back upon its wifi capability, or you will buy and install your own.

Internet access is the gigantic black elephant in the room at every trade show, conference, shindig, hootenanny and pop-up in the world. Consumers and attendees expect it. And they don’t want to plug in at a station. They want wifi. They feel entitled to it, and God help you if they don’t have wifi or cell service at your venue. But any event planner or brand marketer will tell you, it’s not as easy as all that. First, no matter how you slice it, providing even a little bandwidth is bloody expensive.