Honey Dijon Rave during our Event on Climate Change
Just imagine – you are halfway through a TWO-WEEK event where you are managing all the onsite badge printing and session scanning, when you have to dismantle the badging stations for one evening, only to re-assemble them again the following morning. That was our predicament during a climate change event recently for a global digital and print publication.
At the start of the event, we had setup two different badging areas – one inside the main entrance which included COVID and security, and one in the main reception area of the event. The former had 2 badging stations, whilst the latter comprised of 8 stations in total, including one at a Registration Enquiries desk and one at a Media enquiries desk. The other 6 were placed in the main foyer and were setup to be contactless for attendees. Each badging station consisted of a:
- Windows laptop
- A QR scanner
- A Zebra badge printer with a roll of paper
- A waist high cabinet on which the equipment was placed
Setting up all the stations at the start of the event meant working with the cabling team, network cables were dropped from the suspended ceiling from 3 places so all the stations could use a hard-wired connection. Once everything was in place, it was tested extensively to make sure a) it worked! and b), it was stable and secure.
Then, halfway through the event, the entire foyer area had to cleared for… a Honey Dijon rave! Honey Dijon, as we now know, is an American DJ, producer, and electronic musician. And the whole foyer area was to be converted into a dance floor for one evening, in the middle of our 2-week event on climate change.
Fortunately, we had a process which we followed, resulting in minimal disruption. As event sessions were ending during the day, registration staff unplugged and dismantled all the technical equipment and placed it on a trolley. The trolley was wheeled into a secure room, where it was locked overnight. The cabinets stayed in place (as they were used for ticketing the event), but all the branding was removed. Although most of the equipment was identical, we had to make note of laptops connected to office printers, as they had printer drivers installed.
Fortunately, there were a limited number of sessions starting first thing on the following morning. So, the 2 badging stations in the COVID security area were for the early morning sessions, giving staff time to re-assemble all the badging stations in the main foyer. Fortunately, this became a simple exercise of re-connecting hardware and testing it – by 9am the following morning, all badging stations and enquires desks in the foyer area were fully operational again.
Though not ideal, some pre-planning made the whole process of dismantling and reassembling badging equipment a breeze, so the event encountered minimal disruption.
How can Hybrid Event Solutions help?
Did you find this article useful? Sign up to our mailing list to receive updates from us on how to deliver great experiences to your live, virtual and hybrid event attendees.