If you’re hosting a seasonal event like a holiday market, christmas village, or winter festival, you’re juggling countless details, from booking entertainment and signing crafters and vendors to promoting your event. It’s important not to overlook your WiFi plan, though, because the success of your show depends on it. Ticket scanning, vendor payments, and production capabilities require reliable internet. 

Follow these tips to ensure you have the WiFi and internet solutions to support your holiday event. 

Communicate with Your Network Provider

Outline your event plan well in advance and share it with your WiFi vendor early in the planning process. That means choosing your vendor as early as possible. Technology setup will go more smoothly if you provide your network vendor with your full production and build schedules in advance. If they know when you want your event set up, they can plan to deploy internet at just the right time. It’s also useful to provide them with a map of the event that includes the location of the service areas, and permanent and pop-up structures. That helps them identify potential challenges and ensure optimal coverage. 

Once the event begins, the network provider should continue to keep an eye on the network. To ensure everything runs smoothly, they will likely attend the first weekend then continue to monitor and manage it remotely through the duration of the event. They should also provide access to a vendor support team in case you run into any issues. Embedded support is always available, but if budget does not allow for it, our dedicated team of Network Command and Control engineers will be watching your network 24/7/365.

Connecting Your Holiday Event Technology

At a large holiday event, your network will need to work flawlessly. Guests will require WiFi to share to social media, scan entry tickets, and pay for concessions and vendor merchandise. Your production staff will need networks to run their laptops, audio systems, smart lights, surveillance technology, and more. 

The setup for a large show can be complex, requiring more than a few mobile hotspots, which is proven to not work well with thousands or more attendees. If your event draws thousands of visitors a day, you’ll need reliable bandwidth to ensure that guests and vendors can reliably use their devices and other technology. 

Your network provider will assess your WiFi and internet needs by asking key questions about your event:

  • What applications are you using that will need network access? 
  • Are you using wristbands or providing QR codes that need to be scanned?
  • Are you hosting special activities with separate entrances or access levels like mazes, skating rinks, etc.?
  • In addition to your bar/beverage and food concessions, will your crafters and vendors require network access for their POS platforms?

The more information you provide your technology vendor, the more likely it is that the network will run smoothly for your event. 

Is Temporary Event WiFi the Answer? 

Christmas and winter festivals are sometimes pop-up events at unconventional venues like parks, stadiums, or parking lots. Others stay in a fixed location as part of a year-round series of seasonal events or festivals like Renaissance fairs. 

If you have a permanent space, consider installing permanent internet infrastructure rather than bringing in temporary installations for each event. You’ll likely see better ROI over time with a fixed solution that supports all your events. 
Getting the right internet solution for your holiday event starts with choosing the right vendor. Backstage Networks provides clear customer communication and expertise in event WiFi. Contact us today for a free quote.