Corp. Enhances Conf. Center
<H1> Corp. Enhances Conf. Center</H1><H3> tupperware touts fiber-optic link for corporate market</H3>By Lauren Bielski
<B>O</B>rlando - A recently installed fiber-optic link will make it much easier for the Tupperware Conference Center in Orlando to market its videoconferencing capabilities to corporate planners.
The telecommunications link will enable the center to partner with video production companies such as Century III studios at nearby Universal Studios, and to broadcast to facilities equipped with fiber-optic backbones worldwide.
The center, using standard microwave dish transmission, already has hosted about 30 videoconferences. While catering mostly to religious groups in the past, Tupperware is setting its sights on the corporate market by promoting the security of fiber-optic transmission, which is critical for confidential product rollouts.
"We've always had to be creative in terms of marketing ourselves and finding niche markets that we could service," said convention manager Bob Cherny. "Videoconferencing is definitely in greater demand and the infrastructure is well entrenched; I think we can really generate business here."
The center's efforts represent the cutting edge in video technology transmission, said Gregory Knapp, a technology consultant for the International Association of Conference Centers, and director of conference management services for university housing at the University of Michigan. Knapp said he has heard of only two or three similar arrangements in the U.S. conference center market.
Tupperware Corp. built the facility in the mid-1960s for corporate training and sales meetings. The center opened for general business in the late 1970s, when organizational changes made the Tupperware meeting schedules less frequent. The facility, which has 2,600 square feet of exhibit space, also features a 2,000-seat theater.
Tupperware's ability to draw corporate business to its conference center has been hampered, however, by the lack of neighboring hotel rooms. The company sees its fiber-optic line as its gateway to increased profitability in a cost-conscious era.
The strategy comes at a time when conventions and meeting business is getting a higher profile in Orlando. While the most recent figures from the Greater Orlando Convention & Visitors Bureau indicate the majority of visitors arrived for sun and fun only, 6.6 million traveled for business in 1994. That year, the city hosted about 15,000 meetings and trade shows, representing a 17 percent increase in sales volume from the previous year.
Cherny noted that the microwave dishes Tupperware formerly used for videoconferences became too expensive-and were too susceptible to inclement weather-to make it worthwhile to offer as a service to clients.
To use the fiber-optic link, Tuppeware had to partner with a full-service video production facility that had the cameras and editing equipment necessary for broadcast-quality transmissions. That's when it chose the Century III facility, which also provides satellite transmission services.
"When a client asked for graphic overlays and a more complicated broadcast, it spurred me to seek out more efficient ways of working with Century III," Cherny said.
Linking the two facilities cuts down significantly on the costs of teleconferencing because expensive equipment doesn't have to be moved, set up and dismantled. It also allows the conference center to offer clients all of the enhanced communication capabilities of sophisticated processing via graphics workstations (including Wavefront 3D animation systems and Macintosh graphics) at Century III without having to transport it to Tupperware.
"All we need to do now is bring your typical portable setup-such as you might see the local news using to capture footage on the road," Cherny said. "This merely amounts to cameras and switchers; the rest of the video processing happens on a remote basis," he said.
Recently, Cherny said, the Seventh Day Adventists of Florida requested videoconferencing to bring a speaker to an audience in multiple locations. The audiences at the downlinked sights across the country were able to dial in to the conference via telephone and ask questions during the meeting.
"Not only were costs of transmission far less expensive than a standard microwave transmission, the incoming phone calls were made to more than one satellite-based at Tupperware-at the same time without a loss in real-time video transmission or other broadcasting problems," Cherny said. Tupperware is seeking a more permanent agreement with Century III, but for now collaboration is contracted on an as-needed basis.
To publicize the new fiber-optic link, Cherny has run limited advertising and communicated with several interested planners on MPI Net. He also is negotiating with the American Society for Training and Development to provide conferencing services for a training forum the association is planning in the Orlando area.