About Westonbirt Arboretum
The Arboricultural Association champions the sustainable management of amenity trees in places where people live, work and play through our members and close collaboration with allied professions. They provide the standards, training, support, and recognition that put our members – in the UK and overseas – at the peak of their profession.
The Challenge
Getting good internet and WiFi connectivity in rural locations can be a challenge; particularly when it needs to be affordable and flexible. For the Arboricultural Association, getting good internet provision at Westonbirt Arboretum was crucial for their annual ARB event, where they needed to support stallholders’ PDQ machines. SCG’s YellowBox WiFi to the rescue; affordable mobile WiFi that’s great for rural locations.
YellowBox WiFi has been a great addition to our events, providing better flexibility for our stallholders and therefore a better event. We’ll definitely be offering it to our exhibitors again next year, and we’re even looking at trialing it at our Head Office to improve connectivity.
Steve Hodsman, Marketing Officer from The Arboricultural Association
The SCG Solution
For the Arboricultural Association, their annual ARB Show attracts more than 5,000 people over two days, with demonstrations, plant stalls, and even a tree-climbing competition. Hosted at Westonbirt Arboretum, a significant challenge for the organisers is how to support more than 100 stallholders to sell their wares, in a site whose rural location prevents broadband connectivity.
Traditionally, the event has had poor internet connectivity, which struggled to support PDQ machines, meaning payments were very slow. This ultimately drove stallholders to rely only on cash transactions; a difficult option in the age of cashless payments. Westonbirt Arboretum has been established for more than 170 years and houses 15,000 tree specimens. Its grounds provide recreational and event space, but the rural location and open ground make it less than ideal when it comes to connectivity. This has historically limited the use of payment terminals for electronic payments, which require good internet connectivity to support payment hardware. For this year’s ARB event, SCG is proud to have provided our YellowBox WiFi system, enabling stallholders to take card payments at Westonbirt.
YellowBox WiFi is our plug and go WiFi in a box, which works on SIM technology to provide consistent, reliable broadband provision. It can be used as a failsafe for traditional broadband, and will also work in remote locations, making it ideal for rural offices, events, festivals, and even disaster recovery. It also comes with added marketing features, enabling you to provide secure WiFi to visitors and capture their data too.