WiFi Hotspots
CORRECTION: Despite what I said below, it seems that the paid access is widely available throughtout the hotel. Also seems that you cannot share an account. :-(
Actually, this post is so far only wishful thinking. We do love our AdTech hosts, but one complaint I’ll register early is that, in our tech-junkie industry, the Palace offers poor WiFi access for a venue for this event.
The hotel does offer WiFi, but in limited areas, which do not generally coincide with the AdTech event, and on a fee basis. Not only is the fee basis rather irritating in itself ($16 a day), but it is in addition to the $16 fee you have to pay for high-speed Net access in the rooms. And then, it’s limited to something like the downstairs lobby and select areas on the mezzanine (I’ll clarfiy exactly where in an update to this post shortly), but not on the second floor where seminars are taking place.
I’d love to find some free hotspots. I’m hoping that some folks in the exhibit hall have left open some WiFi nodes. If anyone finds some open access points, please post here in the comments field of this entry.
UPDATE: Someone told me there are some other networks available, depending on where you are in the hotel. I haven’t actually been able to connect to any yet, but my friend said he connected from the Speaker Room.
Also, I did go ahead and buy the access, and access is fast and readily available. The process for buying access, BTW, is that you go down to reception and purchase an access code there.
Finally, if you’re feeling really cheap, there is a Starbucks next door, where access is a bit cheaper—$10 a day instead of $16 in the hotel, or $30 for a month at Starbucks, which is less than you’ll pay for two days at the hotel. Bad news is I haven’t seen the Starbucks T-Mobile network bleeding into the hotel, so you’d have to actually go nextdoor to get online.
