[PyConUK-adm-priv] Cardiff Conference Wireless

[Cory Benfield]

Yes, it’s worth it.

Trust me when I say that if we provide crappy wifi, 50% or more of the social media response to PyCon UK will be about that crappy wifi. At tech conferences, delegates really notice when they can’t get online. And saying that we can tell delegates to bring their own mobile broadband is pretty extreme: in those cases that’s basically going to be amounting to us telling them that we were unwilling to solve a relatively simple problem.

Providing internet at conferences is on roughly the same level of importance as providing beverages other than water: it’s not mandatory, but it’s certainly expected.

Cory

> On 9 Jun 2016, at 12:11, Zeth Green <zeth at infomachine.uk> wrote:
> 
> Is this really worth it?
> 
> In 2016, we can just tell delegates to bring their own mobile
> broadband if they depend on reliable/better wifi than the venue gives.
> 
> We could buy ten mobile Internet dongles each with a month of
> broadband for £30 each (better deals may be available), we could then
> lend them to speakers and others who still didn't turn up with
> Internet.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 9:07 AM, Peter Inglesby <peter.inglesby at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Craig,
>> 
>> Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, and thanks for the nudge!  (If
>> anybody else is waiting on a reply from me, please give me a kick.)
>> 
>> Having decent wifi at the conference feels like it's of pretty high
>> priority, and I'd like us to find a way of paying for it.  Unfortunately, it
>> wasn't in the original budget, and while we have some contingency (and some
>> reserves), we need to be sure that if we spend the money, it's a good
>> investment.
>> 
>> A handful of questions
>> 
>> Is the £3k an upper limit on what this would cost, or is that just for
>> dishes on the roof?
>> Have we talked to City Hall about putting some dishes on their roof?  Are
>> they happy with the idea?
>> What would happen if we put some dishes on the roof, but it turned out they
>> didn't work for some reason?  Would we lose the money?
>> Could we get less good provision (but still better than what's currently
>> there) for less money?  That is, would two dishes be good enough?
>> Would maxwifi be able to help with things like traffic shaping?
>> When would maxwifi need us to confirm our order?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Peter.
>> 
>> On 19 May 2016 at 23:30, Craig Barnes <craig at thebarneses.uk> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Richard at maxwifi has gotten back to me, with the following comments.
>>> 
>>> '''
>>> I have been doing some digging with regard to internet connectivity and
>>> it does appear that its going to be problematic.
>>> 
>>> The Broadband service is very poor and there are no point to point
>>> solutions that we can rely on.  That means we have to use satellite or
>>> 4G or even a mix of both.
>>> 
>>> To that end we need access to the roof probably or a suitable site to
>>> mount some dishes facing facing south.
>>> 
>>> You are looking at around £750 per dish for connectivity and about the
>>> same price for  4 sim 4g router.
>>> 
>>> So I would assume you should allow £3k for connectivity top of the quote.
>>> 
>>> Perhaps you can let know how that sits with you.
>>> '''
>>> 
>>> At this point I have no indication of what is in the pot for this, so
>>> any guidance would be appreciated.
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> 
>>> Craig
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 18/05/16 23:32, Craig Barnes wrote:
>>>>>>  * Buying in provision from somebody like:
>>>>>>      o http://www.get-me-connected.com/
>>>>>>      o http://maxwifi.co.uk/
>>>>>        I'll get in touch with them to see what options are available.
>>>> 
>>>> Apologies for the delay on this, I've reached out to both of these
>>>> companies, and MaxWifi got back to me.
>>>> 
>>>> I am expecting a budgetary estimate this week.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers
>>>> 
>>>> Craig
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>> 
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