When you’re organizing events, the desire to be a good fiscal steward means you should examine every additional cost. But one that you should approve is laptop rental for presentations, videos, or streaming the hybrid portion of your event.
Why you should rent a laptop for your event
September 08, 2022
“Rental for a laptop on average is less than – $300,” says Encore VP of Product Management Matthew Johnsen. It’s a small investment for buying peace of mind and ensuring your tech suite is fully capable and integrated with the rest of your set-up.
Let’s examine why that is.
What could go wrong if you use your laptop?
“Some organizations will lock down your USB port,” Johnsen points out. “That’s a problem because web cameras connect through the USB port on your laptop.”
Your work laptop also might not have an internet jack, which is a must if you want a secure, reliable wired Internet connection to stream videos or other content.
Connection settings and software compatibility are other potential hold-ups that can be circumvented by using equipment owned by your event technology provider. With a personal laptop, you can’t troubleshoot connections and compatibility in advance. “Renting a laptop allows our technicians to properly set it up. We know it works with our web cameras. And if there’s audio associated with the web camera, we can make sure that it is tagged,” shared Johnsen. It’s the best way meeting organizers can show up knowing that everything is ready to go and to eliminate surprises.
“Another issue meeting and event planners don’t think about when using personal equipment is how that ties their machine to the meeting and might expose potentially personal information to the meeting participants. For example, if you have Microsoft Outlook open while you’re sharing your screen, everyone in the meeting might see email previews pop up during the presentation. This not only is distracting, but it might also reveal sensitive information.
In this way, renting a laptop reduces risk. “We can lock down the rental laptop so there won’t be any distracting pop-ups,” Johnsen explains.
And since your personal computer won’t be connected to the projector, you’ll be able to work without disrupting anyone, or having anyone else see what you’re doing. You also won’t have to worry about disconnecting and reconnecting your laptop to the projector during breaks.
And since your personal computer won’t be connected to the projector, you’ll be able to work without disrupting anyone, or having anyone else see what you’re doing. You also won’t have to worry about disconnecting and reconnecting your laptop to the projector during breaks.
Ready to get started?
We’d love to chat about your next event. Reach out to learn more!