Intel - MSI Event Management

Challenge

The client was tasked with devising an event to showcase the possibilities of wireless and handheld technologies. The event needed to showcase novel examples of how wireless networking and hardware solutions can positively impact personal computing and enterprise business.
 

Solution

The solution was to develop tools and events that utilize the technologies provided by the vendors. Our solution was to develop an online event registration service that provided attendees the opportunity to register for events and select topics they were interested in. The information was then used at the event to present personalized just-in-time agendas and event schedules for event attendees on wireless dell handheld computers.

During the event we also had dynamic online survey and trivia games every 15 minutes to 1 hour. Each trivia event would provide group scores based on the companies each attendee represented. We also sent real time notifications to every attendee informing them of each meeting session.

The technical infrastructure was prototyped for the event, it had never been done before. I had to coordinate research and development efforts between two separate vendors, AvantGo and Sybase Ianywhere database solutions. The rest of the systems were built from scratch by myself and my development team.
 

Results

The event acquired critical acclaim and the client was very happy with the event. The vendors were very impressed with the prototype and opted to gather a division around the proof of concept we accomplished during the event.
 

Robert's Thoughts

This project was very stressful, primarily because of the nature of prototyping an unproven technology model with little or no testing. Add to the fact that we didn't know the layout or technologies that were going to be present at the San Francisco location and you have a very unlikely solution. It was very gratifying to build the system and demo it running on a secure wireless network. To be honest we were down to a few hours before the event occurred and we still couldn't get the system to function correctly. It took all night to get the system configured and running correctly. I then only had 3 hours of sleep before the event started and continued into the early hours of the next morning. But it was worth it, we got additional work from our Intel client while also getting additional opportunities from various event attendees. I also got the opportunity to look around San Fran, it was the first time I had ever been to the city.