In this week’s blog, we’ll share with you everything you need to know about phone charging stations and how to effectively use them at your events. Below is a list of topics we’re going to discuss and we promise you that by the end, you’ll be an expert.

Why Should I Have Charging Stations at my Event?

There’s lots of reasons to have cell phone charging stations at your next event but the two most important are revenue generation and customer satisfaction. 

 The goal of conferences, trade shows and events is to generate dollars. Dollars for the attendees, the vendors and the event organizers. Branded cell phone charging stations are a great new way to generate revenue while keeping your guests happy and engaged.

Cell Phone Charging Stations Benefit Attendees, Exhibitors and Event Planners

Attendees always need power for their devices at events. If there’re no cell phone charging stations for them to use, their options are being lucky enough to find an outlet and having to sit on the floor or leaving the event completely and going back to their room to charge up. Neither is a good option for the planners organizing the event. People sitting on the floor is a bad look and attendees and exhibitors leaving the event floor isn’t making anyone money. Show managers do everything they can to make sure their guests are happy by offering food, entertainment, seating, lighting etc. and yet, by not providing a way to charge their devices and the frustration of a phone being at 8% can diminish a patron’s overall impression of the event.

Generating Revenue Through Cell Phone Charging Stations

A Planner and/or Organizer’s main goal is to generate revenue for their event/conference. If they don’t generate enough revenue, then there may not be an event next year to manage. This is why they’re constantly looking for new ways to generate dollars through sponsorships. Sponsors are the life-blood of any event and it’s the planner’s job to offer them the best opportunity to get their brand front and center for a reasonable price. Grab Bags, Floor Stickers, Coffee Stations, Lanyards and a host of other options are staples for revenue generation but Planners always need new ideas and cell phone charging stations are becoming that idea.

 Cell Phone Charging Stations Rent for $600-$750 for the week and custom branding is approximately $400 which puts a planner’s cost at around $1100 per unit. In most cases, they can turn around and sell this sponsorship for $3000-$5000 which makes for a nice, low maintenance profit.

Planning

One of the first questions we get asked by clients that are looking to rent cell charging stations is, “We have X amount of people coming to our event so how many stations should we rent?” It’s a great question but one of the most important factors in determining how many phone charging stations you should rent is, what time of day is the event taking place.

Phone Charging Stations for Early & Mid-Day Events

For morning and early afternoon sessions, we usually recommend 1-2 charging stations for every 500 attendees. People are generally busy in the mornings catching up on emails, news, social media, etc. so they definitely put a dent in their battery power. Giving them the ability to charge up before they carry on with their day is a courtesy that everyone should be offering. After all, they were probably just #hashtagging something nice about you and your event.

 Charging Stations for Afternoon, Evening & All Day Events

Afternoon and evening events are whole different ball game and we usually recommend 2-4 charging stations for every 500 attendees. Right out of the gate, you will have a lot of people that haven’t had a chance to charge their device during the day so it’s a great opportunity to come to the rescue while showcasing your sponsor’s brand. As the evening progresses more and more people will need to find a spot to charge up and if they can’t find one, they may consider leaving and nobody wants that. Some well-placed charging stations around your event will keep your attendees happy and your sponsors even happier.

Charging Station Placement

There’s generally three ways you can go when placing your charging stations that will best showcase your sponsor’s brand and help your patrons stay charged up. The first is having a central “Charging Zone” location where you could group your charging stations together. Areas like guest registration, an eating area or an area where you may want to draw traffic are all good options. The second option is spreading out the charging stations around your venue so guests will have many different locations where they can charge up. The third is a combination of options one and two. You may want to just put a few at registration and spread the rest throughout the venue. Charging stations tend to draw people to them, they’re like the kitchen at a house party.

Branding & Revenue Generation

It’s a great idea to have charging stations at your wedding but it may not be a great idea to have them sponsored with someone’s branding. However, there are many events where selling the branding space on your charging stations can be very profitable. Sponsors are always looking for new ideas for events and trade shows. Sponsors are starting to shy away from flyer and grab bags because in a lot of cases, they usually go straight into the recycling bin without a glance. Cell phone charging stations are a great way to offer sponsors something that is new, effective and useful.

What Type of Charging Stations Should I Rent

We always recommend one of two types of charging stations for events. Locker style charging stations like The VIP charging tables like our Bistro Charging Table Both of these options have their own unique benefits.

 Cell Phone Charging Lockers – Locker Style charging stations like The VIP allows attendees to charge their device while continuing to roam around the event they’re attending. They usually have excellent opportunities for branding and almost always come with an HD screen for showing videos, photos and presentations.

 Cell Phone Charging Tables – Charging tables like The Bistro Table are great for creating meeting spaces and also to give people a chance to rest their feet while they charge up their device. They come with 4 x Wireless Charging Pads, 12 Charging Cables, 8 x USB ports and 4 x 110v outlets so attendees can charge up laptops and any other device they may need to charge. The nice thing about the tables is that they just replace regular tables that would have been at the event anyway so they’re not actually taking up any extra space.

Shipping

Cell Charging Stations are usually shipped in crates on wheels and shipping companies usually offer regular, dock-to-dock shipping and “White Glove Service”.

Dock-to-Dock Shipping

The phone charging stations are shipped from the supplier’s dock, to the dock of the venue. From there, the responsibility is on the renter to get it from the dock to where they’d like it placed within the venue. They would also put the unit back in the crate and wheel it back to the dock for return shipment. It’s a popular option and a pretty simple procedure.

White Glove Service

White Glove Service includes not only the dock-to-dock shipping but the shipping company will also bring the charging stations directly to the spot the renter would like them placed, unpack

them, plug them in and also take the crates away. Once the event is over, they come back with the crates, pack everything up and transport port them back to the renter’s facility.

 GrowCharge Inc. offers FREE dock-to-dock shipping within Las Vegas while our competitors need to send their charging stations across the country and then all the way back which isn’t cheap and will certainly eat into an organizer’s profits.

Conclusion

Offering cell phone charging stations as a sponsorship package is a great way to generate more profits for your event while offering your patrons and attendees a very useful, free service. More and more planners are seeing that sponsors want new and innovative ways to spend their sponsorship dollars and Cell Phone Charging Stations are leading the way in new sponsorship ideas. Head over to our rental page and have a look at what we have to offer. Or, head over to our contact page and fill out our contact form and we’ll get back to you right away.

Jim Neal

 

Solar Phone Charging Stations will hopefully be coming to a city near you soon. GrowCharge Inc. are trying to help communities with their GREEN Solar Phone Charger Station. They can easily be placed in parks, on city streets, at hospitals, schools, restaurants, outdoor pools & clubs, outdoor malls, golf courses, hiking trails and even in your own backyard. The Solar Phone Charging Hubs are also very helpful in emergency situations for neighbourhoods and shelters. Today’s focus is on 5 of the benefits that we really like about this compact solar phone charging station. We’ll also talk about why every city should implement these into their infrastructure.

A Little Bit About Solar Phone Chargers

One of the first things we looked at was portability and ease of set-up. The Solar Phone Charger weighs 40 pounds and it’s pretty easy to move around. It comes with 4 pre-drilled holes in the bottom to secure the unit in a permanent locations such as next to bus benches or outdoor areas at hospitals and malls. You can also use pegs to secure it to soft surfaces like grass for outdoor concerts, festivals and parties. For the setup, you just take it out of the box and start charging your devices.

The Solar Phone Charger Station comes pre-charged and charges devices at a quick 2.4 amps, the most that today’s smartphones will allow. It’s also waterproof, offers 12 charging ports and it measures just 10″(W) x 10″(D) x 36″ tall. It’s great for both residential and commercial use. If you’re looking for something a little larger, here are some other solar options that may fit the bill.

The Battle To Keep Your Devices Charged Is Real

The battle to keep your devices charged is real and can create anxiety. It always seems to be the absolute worst time when your battery moves into the red and you realize that your phone will die soon. Having reliable spots throughout cities and towns for people to charge their cell phones is already happening in places like NYC and is a growing trend across the country. With people being so connected to their phones these days it’s imperative that cities provide a phone charging service that is free for the public to use. Not everyone can afford afford the type of system that was implemented in NYC but there are other less costly solutions available.

Here are a few groups in today’s society that could really benefit from this GREEN technology…

Solar Phone Charger Stations For The Homeless

One of the most vulnerable groups in today’s society are the homeless population. With approximately 50% of the homeless population having a smartphone, one of the challenges they have is finding a place to charge their devices. Common places to find power for the homeless include libraries, subway stations, restaurants and in some cases, they can find power on the street. Another problem is that if you are lucky enough to find an outlet, there’s a good change that someone else is already using it. And with so many public places being shut down due to Covid, it’s become even harder to track down a source of power for a dying phone.

The other issue is that pay phones have been disappearing in cities at an incredible rate . The homeless population are having to rely on smartphones to keep in touch with family and friends. They also use their devices to help track doctor and social worker appointments. Callbacks from homeless shelters are another reason that a charged phone is so important. It could be the difference between getting a warm bed and meal or not. Placing solar phone charging hubs around a city is a much needed service for some of our most vulnerable population.

Solar Phone Charger Stations For Colleges, Universities & Schools

Solar charging stations are slowly making their way onto college and university campuses. Some of the challenges are limited budgets and the high cost of some of the solar chargers on the market today. The Solar Phone Charger from GrowCharge Inc. solves this problem with its compact design and low cost. Most College and University buildings in the USA are 50+ years old. There just wasn’t the demand for power back in the 1970’s like there is today. The cost to upgrade a school today could be in the millions depending on its size so in most cases, it’s just not a viable option.

Solar Charging Hubs placed around campuses are a cost-friendly way to give students a GREEN option for charging their devices. Growcharge’s solar charging hubs charge devices quickly and they are an environmentally friendly way to charge up devices. A lot of states are now offer schools funding for GREEN projects like solar charging stations so students can more easily access power.

Solar Phone Charger Stations For The Elderly

More and more seniors are using smart phones. In fact, 62% of people over 70 now use smartphones. Having a safe place for them to easily charge their devices is important. Hospitals, Parks and Bus Stops are a few locations where a senior could use a way to charge their phones. Not everyone can scrunch down on a floor somewhere to charge their phones so having a solar charging solution in locations where seniors gather seems like a good idea.

Solar Phone Charger Stations For Adventurers

One of the great things about a self-contained solar phone charging station is that you can literally place it in the middle of the wilderness and it will be there waiting for someone if they ever need it. Hiking Trails, National Parks, Campgrounds and many other remote places are all good places for a solar phone charging station. We’ve all heard the stories of hikers who got lost while their phone was dying. Having these solar phone charging hubs in various locations could help save lives.

Solar Phone Charger Stations During Emergencies

Natural disasters such as Wildfires, Flooding, Tornados and Earthquakes can be devastating. Even harsh winters like we’re seeing in Texas right now can be very hard on a population. And after the dust settles, communities can be without power and water for days and sometimes weeks. Solar Phone Charging Hubs can be pre-charged from a regular 110v outlet. Rescue teams could then drop them into communities or bring them to shelters so people can charge their devices. Much the same way that city crews drop off large water trucks so people will have fresh clean water. Stranded residents would have the ability charge up their devices and get in contact with families and loved ones. They could also get updates on relief efforts and shelter availability.

Where To Get A Solar Phone Charger Station

You can email info@growcharge.org or purchase directly from their website at www.growcharge.com or call 1-800-403-1560. GrowCharge have offices in the USA and in Canada and ship all over the world.