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Festival Planning Tips

festival planning tips

We’ve worked with many festival organizers and over the years we’ve gotten the opportunity to see how some of the most well-known festivals operate. Festival planning, no matter the size is never a straight forward task and requires coordination and teamwork. We have experience with a variety of conferences, corporate and recreational festivals. While we’re not event planners we do have some wisdom to share about the planning process when it comes equipment rentals.

Planning Your Festivals

Festival planning requires organizers to work together. While the efficacy of working remote has greatly improved with technology, we’re still seeing many organizations set up temporary offices. Having a physical space for your team to collaborate can make the process easier and allows you to generate ideas in a more spontaneous manner. Compare that to working remotely where you have to reach out constantly and set up meetings to share ideas. The planning stages of an event can often be a hectic and rushed one so, creating a focused space where your team can efficiently coordinate with each other is crucial.

Empower Your Staff

Setting up a great work space for your staff means providing the right equipment for everyone so they can hit the ground running. In these situations, a rental partner can make the process of organizing your event easier by facilitating everyone’s specific needs. From your design team to operations manager, they all have different needs. You can rent desktops, notebooks, or even iPads that match their type of work. The right rental partner can help you get a variety of devices. They can also offer replacements should any technical issues occur that your team is unable to troubleshoot.

Security Concerns

Another reason you may want to provide your own devices to staff is for security reasons. With a rental device you can request additional security applications installed and have devices locked down to prevent unauthorized usage. As an event organizer you want to prevent any chance of data breaches or other forms of cyber-attacks.

An Operation Hub

Beyond just the planning phase you may also need devices for your reception area or box office to sign in guests or provide additional services. You should think about what devices you need to best facilitate a smooth experience for your attendees. You can rent laptops, iPads, and even printers to make it easy for your staff to run your event.

A More Budget Friendly Solution

We know it’s often difficult to navigate an event budget and that’s why renting is such a good option. Renting can help alleviate that stress by helping you get more for less. There’s no reason to invest in a permanent space or equipment if you’re only using it for a few months of the year. Renting is a cheaper more efficient way to make sure your staff is able to work as effectively as possible. Also consider the ability to upgrade your setup each time you rent which makes the headache of obsolete equipment a thing of the past.

If you’re festival planning and are worried about your staff’s ability to get the work done you should consider setting up a proper work environment for them. This eliminates concerns regarding access to equipment and minimizes the risk of any technical issues causing long term delays. We’ve assisted many different types of festivals through our rental services and have seen what it takes to run a successful event. If you’d like to know more about what equipment you need for your event staff just talk to one of our event experts today.

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Accreditation Exam Case Study

With over 30 years under our belt, Vernon has had a chance to work with many different professional associations throughout Canada. We’ve worked with both local and national associations and have over that time gained a great deal of insight on the challenges of facilitating an accreditation exam. If you’re in the process of planning an exam for your association just know that this task should not be underestimated. While there are many pitfalls to be aware of in administering a successful exam let’s focused on the importance of having rental equipment and a real-world success story that we were a part of.

The Accreditation Exam Scenario

We were contacted by a national association to assist them in providing back up devices for their upcoming exams. They required these devices for any student that may experience unforeseen technical issues with their personal laptops during the exam. In case of any hardware problems the association needed the test takers to be able to continue with the exam seamlessly.

Device Imaging

The notebooks requested required specific specs and software to facilitate the needs of this particular exam. Our team coordinated with them to understand their unique specification and to facilitate the right applications and hardware specs required for the test. Students will not have time during the exam period to configure the devices therefore they must work precisely as intended right out of the box.

We also provide test devices to the customer in order to validate the setup and give them a chance to review and request any additional features. Once the device has been tested by the association then do we proceed with configuring and shipping. Our dedicated team ensures that all the devices shipped will function identically to the approved device.

Reliable Inventory

Over 1000 notebooks were requested by the association in order to ensure continuity during the testing period. Fulfilling an order of that size requires more than just a large inventory but also the ability to source large quantities of similar devices.

The Logistics

This association was a national one and had organized testing centers across Canada. Not only did we have to facilitate the delivery of these devices to over 50 locations nationwide, the devices were required to be on location all during the same testing period. While some of the testing centers were located in major cities, others were setup in isolated rural locations but that was not a challenge for us. All of our devices arrived on time and without issue. We were able to execute this order due to our large national network and extensive logistics experience.

Reverse Logistics

Not only is our delivery process dependable, our return process is just as reliable and easy. Once the exams had concluded our team picked up all of the devices directly from each location making the whole rental process a hassle-free experience. Once the devices were back in our facilities, we have procedure in place to not only clean the devices physically but also to remove any of the data left behind by the users.

The next time you’re organizing a test center consider whether or not you need to provide backup devices for your students. It’s important that you make the testing process as smooth as possible and having emergency devices on hand can help facilitate that. Another way to make your job easier is to find a reliable rental partner like Vernon who can handle requests such as these and can provide services across Canada so no matter where you need testing equipment, we can deliver it.