Exhibition Laptop Theft On The Rise

We heard again last week from yet another victim of laptop theft from an exhibitor at an event in Manchester. Whilst it did not surprise us, we sympathise with the victim; it is probably worse than losing your wallet or having your credit cards stolen when you consider the possible implications losing personal and commercial data.

The exhibition environment is literally a paradise for a thief wanting to make a quick getaway with £1000s (or $1000s) worth of computing kit. Why? Exhibition halls erect and collapse shell scheme systems often on a per exhibition basis to meet the needs of the individual exhibition.

Little attention therefore can be paid to any security cameras that might be installed as this would be too costly. Though the foyer areas might be permanently covered, there are many blind-spots in most halls during the exhibition.

The increasing number of exhibitors using their laptops on their stands without securing them means that the tradeshow arena is an adventure playground for laptop thieves - see this one stolen in under 73 seconds.

Leaving a laptop lying about on a stand (whether secured or not) of course leaves it vulnerable to damage from knocks and spillages Etc.

The benefit to an exhibitor of using a personal notebook - essentially as a piece of digital signage - is minimal in any case. It is highly unlikely that a visitor to the show will interact with it.

Can you imagine them going for the touch pad or mouse to flick to the next page in the PowerPoint show - even if you had set the page transition...?

A sterling idea would be of course to consider using a good looking slim-line touch screen kiosk (kiosk, pod, booth, info point Etc.) that has been corporately branded with the exhibiting businesses logo and preloaded with the very media that was to be shown on the laptop.

Kiosks are robust, inviting, secure, impressive, easy to use, inexpensive to hire and create a fantastic first impressive. Kiosks also help by helping the exhibitor to avoid missed conversations by quickly engaging those visitors that may otherwise just have paused briefly and then continued on their journey around the exhibition hall.

In the case of a thief - to another stand that hasn't been forward thinking enough and smart enough to hire a corporately branded touch screen kiosk.

Memorytube kiosks Limited are based in Blackburn in East Lancashire and specialise in the short and long term hire of touch screen kiosks.