Planning for a conference or meeting consumes energy, time, money, and other valuable resources. One often overlooked aspect of event planning is technical support. Small challenges become major distractions when a technician is not readily available. Issues don’t happen every time, but they happen far too frequently. Do you want to roll the dice with your meeting? How fast will your event issues be fixed? How will waiting for a tech to respond to your emergency affect the impact of your meeting? How long is too long when considering down time? What if there was a way to prevent any unnecessary interruptions?

Many times the phrase, “Our tech will be on site” is used to put the client’s mind at ease. This sentence implies that should anything go wrong a tech will swoop in and get you back on track, which is not exactly accurate. Once you identify a problem with the AV equipment, someone on your team may try to fix it. After a minute of frantically fumbling around, it’s time to call the tech. So you call the number that was given to you and oops! The tech is not in the AV office. Now the hotel staff jumps in to help you to locate the tech. Finally, after a couple of minutes, the tech is found! He is currently helping another group put out their fires. He says once he finishes there, he will rush over to help you. In the best possible scenario, he gets to your issue within 5 min. After reaching your room, the tech has to troubleshoot the problem which can take up more valuable time. Again, let’s say the tech was top of his class and identifies the issue within 2 min. Having identified the breakdown, he now has to get the equipment replaced or recalibrated to get your event back in gear. This takes a couple more minutes. By conservative estimates, it can take your “on site” tech anywhere between 9-15min. to get the meeting on track again. Your conference emergency is finally getting the attention it deserves.

During this entire “hunt the tech down” process what has been happening in your conference. Did the speaker continue on as if nothing was wrong? Probably not as most presenters rely heavily on their supporting AV equipment. Did you elect to take a break early to give some time for the remedy? Maybe, but what does that do to the rest of the schedule? Which speaker will you ask to “hurry” their presentation to make up the lost time? Let’s assume your current presenter is the world’s best, and she is not shaken. What impression does this whole fiasco have on your attendees? How about your upcoming presenters? How would seeing this unfold effect the next presenter’s presentation? Do you think she would give her best presentation with unreliable equipment on her mind? Remember, speaking in public requires focus, organization, passion, and timing. With equipment issues, now the presenter has one more mental challenge to juggle.

Even the most seasoned speakers are affected by equipment failures so why give Murphy the opportunity to raise his ugly head? The answer to this nasty problem is having a tech (or two) in your meeting room, dedicated to your conference, and following your event’s every step. Many times a professional tech can identify a problem before anyone else notices and can make the necessary adjustments. Sometimes the pro tech can anticipate an issue and prevent glitches from occurring at all. Don’t fall for the risky “on site tech” solution. Instead, invest a little more for a dedicated conference AV technician. The takeaway here is that an audio visual technician, controlling your event’s AV system, produces faster resulting in a seamless event. Make no mistake about it; if you plan for Murphy’s law, it doesn’t matter if he shows up or not. With dedicated audio visual technical support, your event will sound and look its very best.