Minneapolis Computer Rentals and Demand For it Support to Spike During September G.O.P. Convention

The demand for Minneapolis computer rentals and short-term computer hardware leasing arrangements will spike at summer's end when the Republican Party convenes in Minneapolis-Saint Paul for the 2008 Republican National Convention. The National Journal's Congress Daily reports that 'the political counterpart of Moore's law? will be operative both in the Twin Cities and in Denver, where the Democratic Party will hold its National Convention at the end of August. ?With each quadrennial national political convention,? the National Journal notes, 'the use of information technology seems to grow exponentially.?

By way of example, in 2004 only 12 online bloggers received press credentials to cover the RNC that was held in New York City. The RNC has announced that it will credential over ten times that figure to blog on the RNC that will be held at Saint Paul's Xcel Energy Centre, September 1st to 4th. Matt Burns, the RNC's director of communications, has estimated that between 175 and 200 independent bloggers will be credentialed for this year's convention.

The RNC's Committee on Arrangements (COA) is expecting more than 45,000 delegates, alternate delegates, party officials, volunteers, media members and convention guests to show up for the 2008 gathering of the G.O.P. faithful. The COA has contracted with more than 100 hotels for accommodation and there are nearly 50 venues spread out amongst Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Bloomington where separate events will be held as adjuncts to the main convention.

With the number of venues putting on events and the vastly greater number of mainstream and independent journalist covering those events, demand for computer equipment and technical support to bring off what promises to be an intensely high-wired convention week will be prodigious. At the macro level, blue chip technology providers like Microsoft, which is the RNC's official technology provider, Qwest Communications and Google, the RNC's official innovation provider, have already begun preparations in Minneapolis-Saint Paul. At the micro level, computer rental and rental equipment providers are ramping up to fill the demand for the computer hardware, peripherals and A/V equipment that will be required at the auxiliary venues and events away from the main convention site.

The demand for bandwidth is likely to be atrocious. The COA has arranged for USTREAM.TV to stream live coverage of the RNC from the convention site and for ShadowTV to provide continuous live and archival coverage of the convention proceedings from the Xcel Center. Arrangements are also being made to stream live coverage of the convention in Spanish as well as English.

Qwest, the RNC's official telecom provider, is putting down over 100 miles of fiber optics and copper cable to provide a gigabyte of bandwidth just to facilitate the demand for coverage of proceedings from inside the convention, while outside Verizon Wireless is anticipating a 150% increase in data transmissions over its broadband network during the convention.

Just as the demand for products and services from hotel rooms to caterers to rental cars will peak during convention week, so too will demand for the computer hardware and technical support to set up, maintain and troubleshoot the digital infrastructure underlying the convention. National firms specializing in computer rental, equipment rentals and computer support are now beginning to shift resources and prepare their logistics to handle the coming peak in demand. Preparations are being made to transfer equipment, resources and personnel from other regional centers to the Twin Cities in order to handle the demand for Minneapolis computer rentals that will be necessary to host the wide array of convention events and to bring live coverage of the G.O.P.'s festivities to the world.

For more information on Minneapolis computer rentals visit http://www.VernonComputerSource.com or call 1-800-827-0352 to let us help you determine your computer rental needs.