Q: How many in-building professionals does it take to discuss indoor wireless networks in the Big Apple?
A: 80+ according to the count at our latest and greatest in-building seminar in NYC on Wednesday, February 12.

Although the day is split into two tracks, a morning introductory track and an afternoon more advanced track, the theme of the day really focused around vertical markets, including architecture/real estate, hospitality, public safety and transportation. Speaking of public safety, here’s Scott with a clever shot while walking to the seminar.

Right from the start at 10am, our meeting room at the Westin Times Square is full of people who are ready to get an intro to the wonderful world of in-building. That is, after a few refreshments, sponsored by WSP Flack.

The presentations begin with an intro and quick presentation on the enablers of in-building wireless by iBwave’s CTO, Dominique Gauthier. Ray du Tremblay, VP Building Technology Systems at WSP Group follows with a talk on the growing need for in-building in the architectural industry. He mentioned a quick anecdote that Jay-Z and Beyonce were recently apartment shopping and the first thing they did in each visit was check the signals on their phones. If the coverage or capacity was bad, they were out of there. Speaking of Jay-Z – here’s the song that was constantly playing in the mind of at least one iBwaver throughout this trip:

Our next guest is Ed Donelan, President at Telecom Infrastructure Group, speaking about in-building trends in the hospitality industry. iBwave retakes the stage then to present our solutions for today’s in-building challenges. The morning finishes off with Chief Alan Perdue, Executive Director of the Safer Buildings Coalition speaking on in-building coverage in the public safety industry.

As our guests refuel, thanks to our sponsor Advanced RF Technologies (ADRF), in-building chit chat fills the room.

The afternoon session also holds a record number of attendees – 87 – some who stuck around from the morning session as well as many new people!

iBwave is up first with solutions to deploying a high volume of in-building networks in 4G, public safety, Wi-Fi and various environments. Our team then presents new features and products in the iBwave product suite. The first guest speaker for the afternoon is Nathan Cornish, Director of Design Engineering at Transit Wireless. He presents his company’s experience deploying the new wireless network in the New York City Subway. After a quick break, sponsored by Copper River IT, Steve Crotty, Director of Design Engineering, DAS Solutions for Goodman Networks speaks about his company’s experience using iBwave Mobile, our app for in-building professionals on the go. We finish off the day with a live demo of our new small cell planning tool, our famous rapid fire panel and a Q&A session.

It’s a big day full of thought provoking content and what better way to finish it off than by debriefing with industry colleagues over a few drinks. Thanks to SOLiD Technologies for sponsoring the cocktail. But first, a photo of our iBwave hat winners!

As the iBwave team debriefs on the day’s events while walking back to their hotel, they snap a few shots to capture the mood at Times Square.

Back at the hotel, it’s time to face the music – we have a big day of driving through a snowstorm tomorrow so better get some sleep!

But don’t worry – everyone made it back to Montreal safe and sound. Until next time!