No computer support technicians were on duty at the Caird Hall to address the problems caused by a poor wifi signal at the Scottish Labour Party conference at the weekend, it has emerged.
Staff at the venue were left red-faced after journalists reported they couldn’t access the Caird Hall’s wifi and had to scurry to local restaurants to file their copy.
The problem appeared to be the wifi signal continually ”dropping out” and first occurred on Friday and again on Saturday, although it was eradicated by the Sunday.
Labour councillor Richard McCready called for an investigation and said it has come to his attention no-one from the technical department was designated the task of IT support at the conference.
As a result venue staff were left to frantically try to contact ”techs” themselves to see if anyone was available to help out.
Mr McCready said: ”Somebody was eventually called out to fix it, but that’s not really good enough. There should have been someone on duty and on-site to address any issues.
”It’s embarrassing that some people were having to go to other places to access the internet. We had journalists from all over the UK here and the message should not be that you have to go to coffee shops and burger bars to do your job.
”We want the message to be that Dundee is open for business, and if we want to attract more events of this kind then we must have facilities that are suitable for the 21st century.
”We welcomed the Scottish Labour Party conference to the Caird Hall because it’s a good showcase for the city and otherwise it was a great success. Delegates loved being in Dundee, with many commenting on the great facilities and the friendly welcome.
”However, the issue of wifi not working in the conference was raised with me by a number of journalists. I raised it with the chief executive and have been informed by him that the matter is being fully investigated.
”That is very important for other events in the future, because we need to know there will be no repetition of this.”
He added: ”I will also be contacting Leisure and Culture Dundee to ask that they thank the Caird Hall staff for their hard work and that they look at what is required to ensure that the Caird Hall remains a great venue for conferences and other events for years to come.”
The problem was worst on Friday, the main day of the conference, when 20 harassed hacks with deadlines to meet queued up to break the news of UK party leader Ed Milliband’s pledge to keep the British nation united. However, their laptops’ wifi connections continually stumbled to a halt.
The Courier’s political editor, David Clegg, said: ”There were a lot of angry journos about. It was lucky for me I had our own office nearby to file from, but they didn’t have that facility and had to go to cafes with internet facilities.
”It doesn’t paint a very good picture of Dundee, unfortunately.”
A spokesman for the city council said: ”There was an intermittent equipment fault at the Caird Hall that was resolved during the conference. We are currently investigating the issues that emerged to ensure that there is no repeat of this in the future.”