Wi-the-Fi Can't You Get WiFi at a Convention Center Here?

I write this sitting from a local casino convention center floor with the thumping beats of Huey Lewis & the News in the background...groovy.

While I've written many times how wonderful our EV-DO and EDGE connectivity is in the Reno and Tahoe destination, it's only been in the last year that WiFi connectivity has been lit up aggressively. Visit even the smallest privately owned coffee shop/bar and you're likely to find free WiFi. Places like Java Jungle, the Chocolate Bar, Deux Gros Nez, the Record Street Cafe, Walden's, and of course every Starbucks on "Every Corner" offers T-Mobile HotSpots. Even Anchors Bar & Grill in Sparks has better WiFi than most.

So Wi-the-Fi can't most of the convention centers at the casino gaming properties get it dialed in!? (Insert image of me throwing my cell phone  against a wall and it bursting in to a 1,000 pieces to highlight the emotions that well up while contemplating that last statement.)

For the record, my best experiences have been at the Siena and Harrah's. While pretty much every property touts WiFi of some sort, it's pretty hard to find and reliably connect.

At right is a picture of my desktop as I sit and write this on the floor of one of our largest local hotel convention centers. Bleak. Barren. Devoid. Zip. Zero. Nada. Crazy.

Thanks Sprint for the EV-DO. You should sponsor me. I'm your biggest fan!

While I respect that our visitor demographic on the whole is not part of the "Always On" generation, northern California is our market and that place is lit up.

Perhaps it has in large part to do with local casino executive leadership? When's the last time you saw a local gaming executive hanging out in Java Jungle or Starbucks for that matter banging away on a laptop?

Most casino executives in this region are self -admittedly "unconnected". This doesn't mean they're "bad people", it simply means their priorities are perhaps out-of-sync with the 20/30/40 something's that are living out their business careers in Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton properties. The "unconnected" will never never prioritize WiFi until they get plugged in themselves.

So as we businesses leaders continue to move our office infrastructure to VOIP soft-phones and access to our business intelligence systems and functional processes management to online web applications, I can assure you I will not be the only frustrated business professional "stranded in the desert". Help. Please.