Blog · Attendee registration
Event attendee registration: from spreadsheet to QR in one afternoon
The three ways to build your attendee list — import, public form or API — what to ask for at sign-up, how to handle capacity and waiting lists, and GDPR without surprises.
Attendee registration is the part of the event that gets decided weeks before doors open, and the one that drags the most consequences behind it: a badly built list is paid for at the door, in the reports, and even in a data-protection inspection. The good news: doing it properly is one afternoon of work. Here is the complete map.
The three ways to build the list
1. Import what you already have. If registrations live in a spreadsheet — or in a management system that exports one — import it directly: each column to its field, duplicates controlled, and every row gets its personal QR by email. This is the route for schools, associations and companies with their own database.
2. Public registration form. You publish a link and each attendee signs up on their own, with the fields YOU define (name, ID, company, t-shirt size — six field types, required or not, unique or not). With reCAPTCHA for the bots and real-time validation. On submit, an automatic QR lands in their inbox. This is the route for open days, workshops and events with open enrolment.
3. Connect your own system. If enrolments (or payments) already happen on your website or your CRM, the insertion API registers every enrolee the moment it happens, with duplicate protection and optional badge delivery. Your system leads; access control follows.
The three routes coexist without friction: import the pre-registrations, leave the form open for latecomers and connect the payment flow for paid attendees.
What to ask at sign-up (and what not to)
The temptation is to ask for everything. Experience says the opposite: every extra field reduces completed registrations. Ask for what you will use at the door or in the report; the rest is dead weight. And mark as unique the fields that must not repeat (email, ID number): the form will reject the duplicate on the spot, instead of leaving you two badges for the same person.
Capacity and the waiting list
When registration has limited seats, the system must do two things, both automatic: cap active attendees at capacity and move the surplus to a waiting list — registered, notified, with their QR inactive until a seat frees up. No closing the form by hand at midnight. We verified this behaviour with real concurrency tests: two simultaneous sign-ups for a single seat cannot both get in.
GDPR without surprises
Three non-negotiables on a public registration: the link to your privacy policy on the form itself, explicit consent before submitting, and never using the data for anything you did not announce (if you want to send marketing later, that is a separate, optional checkbox). Data lives on EU servers and is exported or deleted whenever the organiser decides.
On event day
The list you built is the same one the door validates: every QR is scanned with a phone, with or without coverage, and the dashboard counts in real time. Afterwards, export to Excel who came and when — closing the circle that began with that list.
Want to see it with your own data? The free account includes test attendees: set up the form, register yourself and scan your own QR with your phone. If the full circuit works on your desk, it will work at your event.