When you’re planning a business event, renting computer equipment makes more sense than buying and it’s sometimes an even better option than using your own equipment. Rental laptops are great for hands-on classes, exhibition booths and more and it’s much more economical and convenient than buying new equipment when it’s only needed for a short time.

Here’s how to find the right laptop rental for your business event.

Benefits of Renting

One of the key benefits of renting laptops for your event is that they relieve people from the need to bring their own laptops to the event. A full-service laptop rental company will not only provide the equipment, but will also make sure that it’s installed and working properly for immediate use.

Renting also ensures that you don’t have to bother about setting up the equipment. Technicians from the company will help you troubleshoot any problems you face during the event and you can even request a technician to be present at the venue to tackle any issues that may come up.

Renting Give You Flexibility

Renting laptops for your business event allows you the flexibility to choose from a variety of options. For instance, you can rent top-of-the-line equipment, so that your business appears more tech-savvy and professional at important business events.

Perhaps the most important benefit of renting is that it will cost you a fraction of what it would cost if you had to buy all of the laptops yourself.

Protect Your Own Laptops

Renting laptops, instead of using your own for a one-time event like a business meeting or conference also protects your personal equipment from the risk of damage during transportation and use.

Choosing a Rental Company

It’s important to choose the company you rent the laptops from carefully. Check the company’s reputation and credibility as well as their product and service offerings. Choosing a good rental company will ensure that you can look forward to a successful and stress-free event.

Crunch Some Numbers

The first thing you’ll need to do is figure out how many people you are expecting to attend your event. The sooner the rental company has the approximate number of laptops needed, the better your chances are of getting the same type of laptops for all of your attendees. This is especially important in a classroom setting, as it will be easier to give instructions to your students if they’re all using the same machine.

Technical Needs

Find out from presenters, instructors and exhibitors what they will be using the laptops for. Some of the technical specs needed may include the following:

• High processing speed
• Large hard drive
• Maximum memory
• Advanced graphics cards
• External monitors and other peripherals like mice

Additional Software Requirements

Find out what operating system you want to work with and any additional base software that needs to be loaded on each laptop, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Suite, accounting programs and the like. A good rental company will load additional software onto the laptops for you.

If the rental company doesn’t provide the custom software that you require, ask them if they can supply a test machine in advance that you can load with the appropriate software, so they can “ghost” the machine and load the additional software on to all of the machines.

Alternately, you could arrange for the laptops to be sent to your company or event location early, so they can be loaded with the custom software prior to the event.

Tried and Tested

Have someone who will be using the laptops, such as an instructor, presenter or exhibitor, test some of the machines prior to the beginning of your event to make sure they are working properly.

Be sure to find out if the rental company will supply spare laptops, in the event that one or more of the machines don’t work as needed due to a hardware or operating system failure.

Appoint a Trouble-Shooter

Your event should include keeping a computer tech on hand to trouble-shoot any small technical glitches that occur. This person should have the contact information for the rental company in case additional machines need to be delivered. Alternately, you could have a tech person from the rental company on hand during the event.

Leasing Makes Sense

When preparing for a special business event, leasing laptop computers and/or other technical equipment makes sense in a number of important ways. Just be sure to choose a rental company that can meet all of your business conference needs.

When you’re a non-techy, buying a new computer with a new operating system is only exciting up to the point where you have to start using it. A computer’s job is to simplify your life, not complicate it and an operating system change shouldn’t be the equivalent of a mid-life crisis. Still, most of us “regular” folks do tend to get a bit flustered and frustrated when dealing with such changes.

If it was up to this writer, all computers would have the same operating system for eternity. As this will never be the case, here are 5 simple steps for adapting to a new computer and/or operating system.

Read all About It

You’ll actually have to start using a new operating system to become really familiar with it, but you should also read about it. Simply using a new operating system, like Windows 8, won’t teach you everything you need to know about it and all the hidden gestures and shortcuts. Even with a more intuitive OS like Apple’s iOS, you will learn more tricks by reading about it than you would otherwise.

Familiarity Breeds Content

There’s no substitute for actually using a new operating system. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the screens and User Interface layout on your new computer. Before you can start making the best use of the new OS, it’s important to learn about new or different features. If you need to, make notes as you go along.

Big electronic brick and mortar stores are great places to go to ask questions about the latest hardware and to play around with it. These stores will have a variety of different devices for you to try out that will be running everything from Windows 8 to MacBook. You could also visit an Apple or Microsoft Store to try out the hardware and ask questions of the knowledgeable salespeople.

Transfer Your Files

If you haven’t already done so, back up the files from your old computer and transfer them to the new computer. If you’ve never backed up your files before (shame on you!) there are a few different ways to do it.

• Bootable Backup – This type of backup is sometimes called a "clone." It’s like a spare tire for your car. If the primary drive on your computer dies, you can hook up the clone and reboot the computer from it. The downside is your computer will run slower when booted from an external drive.
• External hard drive – An external hard drive works by creating an archive of your changed and deleted files and keeps you backed up as you work, provided you remember to plug it in to a port regularly.
• Cloud Backups – This type of backup is the easiest to create and maintain. After the initial setup the software will automatically keep your computer backed up any time it is turned on and connected to the Internet.

Save Your Bookmarks, etc.

If you use Chrome on the old computer, sign in to your account and save your bookmarks, apps and extensions. When you sign in to the same browser on the new computer, your settings will show up automatically. Any changes made to your settings will be synced across all your devices. However, if you use another browser, you’ll have to sync your bookmarks manually by searching the folders were they are stored.

Update the Antivirus Program

Almost all new Windows computers now come with an antimalware program preinstalled but it probably won’t be updated and it won’t be the best there is, so you’ll need to update it and check the features it has. A good antimalware program should include the following:

• On-demand malware scan
• On-access malware scan
• Website rating
• Malicious URL blocking
• Phishing protection
• Behaviour-based detection

These days, antivirus services handle Trojans, rootkits, spyware, adware, ransomware and more. If you’re not happy with the program that came with the computer, uninstall it install one of your own choosing. PC Magazine rates some of the antimalware programs available, as well as some of the free antivirus tools available.

For the uninitiated, here’s a glossary of some of the terms:

• Malware – is software intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems
• Trojans – are often disguised as legitimate software and can be used by cyber-thieves and hackers trying to gain access to your system
• Phishing – is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by posing as a trustworthy individual or business
• Rootkits – are a collection of computer software, usually malicious, designed to enable access to a computer or areas of its software that would not otherwise be allowed
• Spyware – a type of malware that is installed on a computer without your knowledge in order to collect your private information
• Adware – is software that automatically displays or downloads unwanted advertising material when you’re online
• Ransomware – a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid

Technology has quickly become a key part of learning in the 21st century. Modern schools are now equipped with computer labs and student laptops. Technology plays a role in every aspect of education as students, teachers and administrators use their computers to gather information, create and express themselves, communicate, work together and track learning outcomes.

Here’s how computer education helps improve student success.

Preparing for the Future

Computers make it easier for students to keep up, while helping teachers improve the way lessons are planned and taught. Students who use computers learn to use word processors for school work, learn computer jargon and strengthen grammatical skills. They can also look up lessons on websites or through email, instead of carting heavy textbooks around with them.

Computers not only improve the way students are taught, but they also prepare them for the future. Even the most basic jobs involve computers. Today’s students will be prepared to fill future job openings because they will be computer literate and classes based on computer education get even more specific. Students can learn to use office suite programs, create presentations and data sheets and learn programming languages.

Improved Student Accomplishments

Students from all grade levels, who use computers, have been shown to attend school more regularly and perform better than students who don’t use computers. They get higher marks on exams and feel more involved with lessons when they use a computer. Computer use at home also helps students to become more focused on their homework, whether collaborating on projects with other students or on their own.

Simple and Efficient

The learning process becomes a lot more simple and efficient, as computers give students access to tools and methods of communication that are unavailable offline. For instance, students can check their grades or lesson plans online, communicate directly with their teachers through email or other platforms and they can send work to their teachers from home or anywhere else.

Research

Because of computers, research is far easier than it was in the past. Many of the history books and encyclopedias found in libraries are now available online. As the Internet grows, so does the amount of research that’s available. Students can now research topics in a matter of minutes, rather than the hours it used to take.

Encyclopedias offer vast amounts of information enhanced by appealing multimedia and interactive links. E-book collections offer thousands of texts and a countless number of online articles and journals devoted to every imaginable topic make research efficient and rewarding.

An online resource encourages students to follow pathways of information according to their own interests and so, using a computer also helps to develops self-directed learning.

Teachers, too, have access to thousands of images, diagrams, videos, maps, animation, games and much more, so they can appeal to the different learning styles of individual students.

Creativity and Self-Expression

Computers also play a role in how students express themselves and reflect on their learning. Because of the digital recording functions that are integrated into tablets and other electronic devices, students are able to catalogue the world the way they see it and then add their own viewpoint to already existing collections of knowledge to make their own original creations.

Audio, photo and video editing software and the different ways to post self-created media on the Internet, allows students to contribute to the creation of information, as well as simply access it. This allows their work a broader significance and affirmation and makes students active members of the learning community, either on the small scale of a school’s social media site or in the larger context of the World Wide Web.

Communication and Teamwork

Computers provide students and teachers more opportunities to communicate and work as a team. Learning management systems, such as Blackboard and Moodle, have space to participate in discussion threads and forums, chats and video conferences.

Students and teachers can use the shared functions in office applications to view revisions and add comments in real time, which makes the process of giving feedback more efficient.

Computers also transcend the traditional brick-and-mortar school by provide working adults and parents taking care of children, geographically isolated students and the underprivileged the opportunity to connect and interact with learning communities through online schools and other educational networks.

Student Learning Outcomes

Computer technology plays a role in how administrators assess student achievements and learning outcomes. Assessment tools such as standardized tests, student portfolios, document headings and surveys, produce information that can be collectively examined by an educational institution to find areas in which a student could improve.

Charts and graphs are generated as information is entered into databases, which allows administrators to identify patterns and make decisions involving changes in the curriculum and budget requirements.

In this day and age, businesses that want to make their mark online must learn how to take advantage of multimedia content. It’s what potential customers are responding to on the Internet, and nothing works better than video because it combines the power of visuals, audio, and storytelling to capture the attention of an individual.

However, producing and editing videos can be a tall order particularly for small businesses that can’t set up their own studios. There’s a free video editing software with Windows and there are freeware ones out there, but what they’ll give you are either watermarked files or severely crippled functionality. A business needs a full-fledged commercial video editing software, such as Camtasia Studio 8.

Created by TechSmith, Camtasia Studio originally started as a rudimentary video creation tool used by software demonstrators, but over the years, it has blossomed into a full-featured education/information video tool. Now at version 8, the program’s codebase has been rewritten completely from scratch and includes a whole slew of new useful features (such as multi-track video editing and hyperlinks) as well as optimizations that lessen the system requirements.

How Camtasia Studio 8 Can Help Your Business

To understand Camtasia Studio’s value as a tool for your business, you need to first understand what it was originally used for and what made it so popular in the first place. The first users of the program, or at least the first users who managed to use it for profit, are those who create video tutorials on Youtube.

When Camtasia was first created, it’s selling point is that it can capture screen activity and save it as a video. People who need to attract customers did so by creating tutorials of how to do things, whether it’s tweaking a game, installing a WordPress plugin, or even how to modify a computer’s registry – they used Camtasia to capture what they are doing and uploaded it to Youtube for everyone to see.

It highlights a couple of important things that businesses need to remember: first is that people prefer being shown what to do on a video, as opposed to reading text instructions, and second is that there is value in showing people how to do things. This means if your business has something to do with teaching people or showing them something, Camtasia Studio is the perfect tool. But what if your business relies on something else, such as conventional selling and marketing of goods? Thankfully, the new Camtasia Studio is still useful.

What Camtasia Studio 8 Can Do For Your Business

Version 8 of Camtasia Video is no longer just a desktop capturing application. It is a full-featured video editor that supports all the file formats that you would ever encounter, from MP4 to MOV, to PNG to MP3 and everything in between. You can now create and edit your own videos, for a fraction of the price of more popular video editing software used by big name studios. Additionally, Camtasia has a free trial phase so it is virtually risk-free.

So what can you do with a video editing program? Create your own Multimedia content, of course. It could be something with high production values or something that looks intentionally low-fi, designed to go viral on meme sites. Whatever kind of multimedia content you create, one new feature of Camtasia Studio 8 will be extremely useful: support for clickable hyperlinks on the video itself. This is not a simple text link either, you can turn anything on the canvas into a clickable hyperlink, whether it’s text or part of an image.

This clickable hyperlink will be a very valuable tool in bringing new customers to your fold. Just create a video designed to reach as many viewers as it can get, then stick a hyperlink in there pointing to your website or a newsletter signup and you’ll have an interactive ad that works so much better at driving traffic than a hundred dollar banner ad.

Camtasia also has the ability to include polls or interactive questionnaires straight from the video, which could be useful for gathering feedback or encouraging viewer engagement.

Is It Worth Getting?

The biggest thing that Camtasia Studio 8 has going for itself is the fact that it costs a fraction of what other video editing software demands while offering the same functionality. By virtue of being affordable, it minimizes the cost risk to businesses and makes it a smart move to at least get the trial version, just to see if you can put it to work for your business.

If you just need a simple image editing software for creating a video here and there, Camtasia Studio is still a good deal, as not only will it fill your needs, it also keeps you future proof in case you find yourself with a business that could benefit from a video campaign.