How To Avoid Tech Issues At Your Important Business Conference

You’re hosting a business conference that pools together a lot of important people. Members of the press will be there, as will some potential investors and high-ranking people in your company. The goal of the event might be to unveil a new product or present an update on your profit margins for the quarter – whatever the purpose, this event is important and you can’t afford for things to go wrong. 

Naturally, things go wrong at business conferences all the time, and there’s usually one key culprit: technology. Tech issues range from audio problems to videos not loading or projections refusing to load. There are so many ways for a tech problem to disrupt your crucial event, so let’s explore the best ways to avoid any from happening. 

Test All The Equipment Beforehand

Never run a business event without testing the equipment beforehand, or you’re almost guaranteeing a tech issue. Problems are particularly common with AV equipment, but you can buy cable testers to plug every item in and check for issues. If nothing gets flagged up, then at least you know your equipment is in good working order and shouldn’t short-circuit. 

This is something you should do a few weeks before your event in case there are issues with your equipment. Your tests may discover multiple problems with different cables or hardware, in which case you need to reinvest in better equipment. When you’re completely satisfied with the tests and are certain your equipment works, move on to the next step. 

Run Through A Couple Of Live Demos

You need to check that the equipment functions properly when used for your event. Tests will show any technical problems, but you’ll only find compatibility issues during live demos. Host test events with your tech support team and run through the entire event with them. This will help you flag up common concerns like videos lagging, audio levels fluctuating and so on. 

Make sure you run through the event at least three times without any problems to feel confident that the tech issues won’t be a problem. This should be done leading up to your event – and make sure you do it at the event’s location. There’s no point setting it all up in your office if the event will be in a separate place with different connections. 

Keep Some Contingencies In Place

After running your tests and demos, you’re reasonably certain there won’t be any tech problems. Nevertheless, you can never be 100% sure that something won’t come out of nowhere to cause an issue. 

That’s why you keep some contingencies in place to deal with any random tech issues. For example, your power source randomly cuts out. In this case, you can solve the problem without delays by having a backup source ready to go. Identify other tech issues that could spring up and plan for the worst. 

Hopefully, you’ll never need the contingencies and all of your planning leads to a successful event without glitches. It’s incredibly important to get this right, as even the smallest tech problem can reflect badly on your brand. You need your event to have a positive impact, so take the preparations seriously!