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.
