When NAFSA: The Association of International Educators brought 8,000 of its members to the Twin Cities for its very large annual convention in the spring of 2007, they turned to Computer Rental Systems to provide the technology equipment they needed to have in place for the eight-day event.

“The high level of service we received from Computer Rental Systems was a big relief after a few years of different experiences with other technicians,” recalls Carlos Parada, CIO at NAFSA.

NAFSA is probably the largest international studies organization for higher education, with a broad membership that includes business, service providers, study abroad programs, academic institutions, and educators. Its members traveled to the conference from across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. CRS worked closely with Parada and his team, providing computers, printers and networking services for the duration of the event.

CRS utilized over 250 computers, monitors and printers at this convention, supporting NAFSA by building three separate functioning networks:

• An administrative network to handle all of NAFSA’s office functions for the conference.
• A remote network to communicate with NAFSA’s LAN in its home offices in Washington, D.C. so that they could handle both online and onsite registrations.
• An exhibit hall network called the NAFSA Commons to showcase the organization’s eighteen user networks that are organized around five knowledge areas. These computers were used to demonstrate the contents of each network, including software that the organization uses to share information.

In planning for the conference, Carlos shared that the quality and dependability of the equipment was important to him, but equally important was the attention to service and detail that he received from the people he worked with. “The service we received from the CRS team was excellent. Businesses that have helped us for previous conferences have left a lot to be desired in terms of personality, communications and readiness. It was completely the opposite with CRS.”

Our lead tech Corey Koidahl remained on site with Carlos and his team for much of the conference. “Corey showed that he is a can-do person, a good communicator, and a pleasure to work with. When one of our wireless networks went down, Corey worked with our network administrator to resolve it quickly,” Carlos explained.

“John, Corey, and the rest of the team fully understood that this is our biggest event of the year, and that timing was crucial. They were able to deliver what they promised and support any contingencies that came up. CRS had the right combination of price, know-how and customer relations for our conference. They were excellent!”

The CRS team is now hard at work planning for the 2008 NAFSA Conference in Washington, D.C. We’ll be sending a team to work to set up their conference later this month!