This past weekend over 250 science communicators gathered at Sigma Xi in RTP to explore science on the Web at Science Online 2010. The event brought together scientists, physicians, patients, educators, students, publishers, editors, bloggers, journalists, essay writers, web developers, programmers and others to discuss, demonstrate and debate online strategies and tools in the areas of science topics including publishing, teaching and promoting the public understanding of science.

We were approached by Anton Zuiker @mistersugar at the Social Media Business Forum last October about doing Wi-Fi for this event. Even though SignalShare is targeting much larger events (approx over 30,000 users) we agreed to do Science Online and create a great user experience for attendees. And that is really what reliable Wi-Fi is all about, a great user experience.

Too many times event planners and venue managers rely on basic Wi-Fi to handle special events where the number of users greatly exceeds the daily demand. During these events is when the signal is not shared with all users and frustration ensues. By providing a reliable and robust Wi-Fi environment, we strive to give users what they want and need during the event duration…a great user experience.

And Science Online was just that and I’m not just talking about the Wi-Fi. The event had an incredible enthusiasm, dynamic personalities and speakers from across the globe. We were blown away by the passion and expertise of the crowd from RTP area as well as attendees that came in from as far away as Australia.

Some of the killer applications that were handled during Science Online included:

• Multiple Ustream sessions going for each presenter/
• Multiple networks to allow presenters to have dedicated access without messages popping up into their presentations.
• Allowing for presenters to include additional presenters and attendees via Skype.
• Messaging out to attendees with links to pages for more info
• Provide bandwidth for Second Life sessions.

All of this and over 25 Gigabytes of data over 1-1/2 days was handled over the network. Science Online was a great opportunity to learn from a smaller conference with a lot of online interactions. Our next step is to analyze data and work with Science Online to communicate the value of the a reliable Wi-Fi experience.

We want to thanks Anton and Bora Zivkovic @boraz for creating such a great conference and making us a part of it. Also thanks to everyone at Science Online 2010 for their kind words and tweets! My favorite one is below.

So next time you plan an event, make sure the event organizer nows how important a reliable Wi-Fi experience is to your attendees. Science Online 2010 sure did!