Contribution by Dobias van Ingen (@Dobias van Ingen)
Community, curiosity, and doing Wi-Fi properly (with a bit of fun along the way ☕️📡)
If you’ve ever tried explaining co-channel contention or roaming behavior at a dinner party, you know how quickly the room empties. 😅
But put a few hundred Wi-Fi professionals in a theatre, add real deployment stories, a shared passion for getting things right, and suddenly those conversations are not just welcome, they’re the main event.
That, in a nutshell, is Wi-Fi Design Day.
Ahead of this year’s Wi-Fi Design Day London (April 16, 2026), I sat down with Matt Starling (Ookla/Ekahau) to reflect on why this event exists, what’s changed in Wi-Fi design, and why community-driven learning matters more than ever. I’ll also share why HPE Networking continues to support this event even though the “ROI” isn’t simple maths.
How Wi-Fi Design Day Started (And Why It Still Exists)
At its core, Wi-Fi Design Day was created to fill a very specific gap.
As Matt puts it:
“We wanted a place for Wi-Fi professionals to gather that was accessible, genuinely useful, and completely community-driven.”
From the start, the goal was a low-cost, high-value event designed for people who actually care about Wi-Fi. Not sales decks. Not buzzwords. Just practical, real-world learning and proper conversations.
Wi-Fi Design Day gives people space to:
✅ Learn from real deployments and real challenges
✅ Meet others doing the same job, day in and day out
✅ Build relationships that genuinely help careers and businesses
And yes, it also solves a very real problem:
finally having a room where everyone understands why RF design actually matters.
What Makes This Event Different?
Plenty of conferences ask for feedback.
Wi-Fi Design Day actually acts on it.
Every year, attendee input is used to redesign the experience, not just tweak it. That willingness to listen is a big reason the event has grown consistently.
A simple but powerful example from last year:
● Many attendees came solo
● They wanted an easier way to meet others
So this year?
A pre-event networking coffee session and dedicated area were added specifically for solo attendees ☕️
It’s a small change, but it captures the philosophy perfectly. Feedback doesn’t go in a drawer. It shapes the event.
Education First. Always.
One rule matters more than all others:
Wi-Fi Design Day is not pay-to-play.
Sponsorship does not buy a speaking slot.
Every talk is selected based on:
● Real-world relevance
● Technical depth
● Actual value to the audience
Each year, you’ll see a mix of:
● Well-known industry experts
● First-time speakers from the community
Some of the best sessions don’t come from polished slide decks — they come from honest stories about what actually happened during a deployment.
Every session is reviewed in advance. The standard is simple:
You should leave each talk with something you can actually use.
The Road to 2026: What’s Changed in Wi-Fi Design?
Dobias’ view: more devices, more responsibility
The biggest shift I’ve seen?
Explosive growth.
Wi-Fi today isn’t just about laptops and phones:
● IoT devices
● OT sensors
● Medical and healthcare systems
● Data feeding AI and business decisions
All of these rides are on the same wireless foundation, and expectations are high.
Where do even experienced engineers still trip up?
⏱️ Time pressure
🎯 Skipping proper requirements analysis
🧩 Treating “best practices” as one-size-fits-all
Good Wi-Fi design still follows a simple truth:
start high-level, understand devices and services first, then go technical.
And the repeat offenders?
- APs mounted incorrectly
- Using the same AP everywhere
- Reality not matching the design
Old problems. Still everywhere.
Matt’s view: Wi-Fi is mission-critical now
Wi-Fi has moved from “nice to have” to business-critical infrastructure.
When Wi-Fi fails:
● Users can’t work
● Systems stop
● Revenue can be impacted
So “good enough coverage” is no longer good enough.
Design now needs to be reliable, predictable, and resilient.
One of the biggest gaps remains the disconnect between design and deployment:
● AP settings don’t match the plan
● Antennas are installed differently
● Mounting positions change on site
The design isn’t wrong, the execution drifts.
Where Ekahau Fits: Validation Is Everything
If there’s one area where teams still cut corners, it’s validation.
The pattern is familiar:
- Design is completed
- Validation is skipped to save time or cost
- Issues appear later
- Troubleshooting gets expensive — and noisy
Validation confirms:
● The design works in the real environment
● The installation matches the intent
● Performance meets expectations
Skipping it is a false economy.
Great teams understand Wi-Fi isn’t a one-time project. They:
● Monitor continuously
● Validate changes
● Optimise proactively
And one misconception Matt would happily retire? 👉 That predictive design alone is enough.
The proper workflow is still: design → validate → optimise
Miss that middle step, and you’re gambling.
Why HPE Networking Supports This Event
Is the ROI simple maths?
Honestly — no.
But the community has always been instrumental to both HPE Aruba and Juniper, and now HPE Networking.
We support Wi-Fi Design Day because:
● We want people to learn how to build good Wi-Fi
● We want to understand what the community struggles with
● We want better conversations, not just demos
The best booth conversations aren’t about product pitches.
They’re about:
● How solutions are actually used
● What problems teams are trying to solve
● Catching up with great people we enjoy working with
And yes, I’m excited to show:
● Our speed of innovation as HPE Networking
● A technical reference video that’s genuinely useful and fun
● Some nice collaboration with Ekahau 👀
What We Want You to Take Away
Matt calls it the Three I’s:
● Inspiration
● Ideas
● Innovation
I’d add one more:
👉 You had fun learning something.
If you leave having learned something useful and enjoyed the day job done ✅
Before you arrive
● Check the agenda
● Connect with people on LinkedIn
● Watch past Wi-Fi Design Day talks on YouTube
● Join the Ekahau Slack and start conversations early
After the event
Let’s compare notes:
● 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn
👉 linkedin.com/in/dobias-van-ingen-621b191
● 🔗 Connect with Matt
👉 linkedin.com/in/matt-starling-03913633
● 💬 Join the Ekahau community Slack
If you care about doing Wi-Fi properly, learning from peers, and having genuinely good conversations, Wi-Fi Design Day is where you want to be.
See you in London ☕️📶
Register for Wi-Fi Design Day here.