Blog · Attendee registration
Event check-in: set it up so the queue never forms
Perfect check-in starts days before the door: QR codes sent in advance, scanners sized for the peak minute, and a plan for the person who arrives without a code. The complete setup, step by step.
The best check-in is the one nobody notices: the attendee arrives, something beeps green, and they are already inside thinking about coffee. That "nothing" has a trick to it, and it is built days before doors open. Here is how we do it ourselves.
90% of check-in happens before the event
Every attendee arrives with their QR already on them. That is the entire secret. The code goes out by email at registration — or when you import your list — and travels on the phone, on paper or in an Apple Wallet pass, one gesture away from the lock screen. On event day you don't "do" check-in: you collect it.
Two reinforcements that save more queue than any extra scanner:
The day-before reminder with the QR attached again ("see you tomorrow — have your QR handy"): fewer people diving into their inbox in front of the door.
Signage on the approach: "have your QR open". Sounds obvious; works every time.
The door: phones, not desks
One phone per door person with the scanning app: green passes, red doesn't, a warning if it is a repeat. No laptop desk, no searching surnames — name search is plan B for incidents, not the flow. How many phones? The peak minute decides, not total capacity: a human scanner reads a QR every 2-3 seconds.
And don't let the venue's network gamble with your doors: the app validates without coverage against the downloaded list and syncs when the signal returns.
The one who arrives without a QR (because someone always does)
Three cases, three thirty-second answers:
"The email never reached me" → search by name in the dashboard and re-send it — or scan it straight off the screen.
"I'll sign up now" → express registration on the public form and their QR joins the normal circuit (capacity permitting; if not, the automatic waiting list).
"I'm here on behalf of…" → no code, no entry — but express registration turns the argument into a formality.
Afterwards: check-in is data too
Who came and who didn't (for attendance certificates, for the next edition), when the real peak hit, how many warnings fired. Exported to Excel that night, it is the report that prevents the classic mistakes at your next event.
Build the whole circuit with ten test attendees before deciding: free account, your form, your QR and your phone scanning in half an hour. If the circuit flies on your desk, it will fly at your door.