How to organize a guest registration and on-site badge printing area
You must familiarize yourself with the appearance of the room where the registration area can be organized, its
size, how many tables and desks it can accommodate. How many entrances/exits there are to this area, where
guests will be entering from, and whether there's a chance of random passersby (e.g., a hotel lobby where guests
will be walking through). You need to consider technical nuances: lighting, internet, 220V power, whether there are fixed desks or if you need to bring your own,
etc.
How many registration points will you need
There are a number of factors that affect the speed of registering one participant. But if you don't delve into them,
roughly:
-
1 point can comfortably handle 100-130
people per hour. Although, in reality, most of the time is spent on
greetings, getting the phone out of the bag and finding the ticket, asking where the cloakroom and restroom are, while the
check-in itself takes about 7 seconds.
-
1 point can handle - 200
people per hour , but your hostesses will be running around like squirrels in a wheel. Or such a scenario
is possible if you are not giving out anything else besides the badge.
-
the record is 260 people per hour. We conducted such a registration
at the Olympic Stadium, but there was a person who asked guests to get their tickets out in advance, directed them to a
free desk so that everyone wasn't queuing at the same table, and overall the hostesses worked very
quickly and professionally.
Furthermore, you need to understand how many ticket categories you have at the event. Sometimes
organizers ask to separate them because different handout materials are given out at different tables. And if
your tickets include VIP tickets (a premium segment), you must have a separate desk for them
even if there are few of these people! Otherwise, you devalue the whole point of the VIP package.
HELP Desk
This is a separate desk next to the registration area where you do NOT issue badges! Here you resolve all
participant issues: who is not on the lists, who came but their accounting department has not yet paid the invoice, why the
message "Participant has already entered" appeared, who came instead of a colleague, and so on.
Especially if you have sponsor exhibition areas at your event - they love to bring
promoters and hostesses to the stand on the last day who were not previously listed as participants. If you invite
famous bloggers and celebrities to the event, they will also 100% bring some +1s, +2s who shoot their
content, figure out how the star should pose, or carry their things.
The regular hostesses you hired for registration can't know who will come with whom, who is behind the stand,
who paid for their ticket, and who didn't. And they cannot make decisions about the participation of new people and add them to
your database. Technically, this is done on purpose to avoid situations where hostesses invite their friends for
tasty free lunches or afterparties.
Only the organizer or their representative who knows all the nuances can make such decisions in non-standard situations.
Therefore, a separate Help Desk helps to solve all such issues and improves the quality of the entire registration process.
Registration desk dimensions
Some venues have fixed desks. And it's not always possible to set up your own separate desk in the registration area;
you'll have to use the one that's already there.
Therefore, it's essential to know the dimensions and the physical possibility of installing the desired number of
registration points. If you want to order 8 registration points for your number of guests, it may turn out
that only 5 physically fit. But knowing this in advance, you can come up with a way to speed up the process.
Sometimes venues offer just regular tables with tablecloths, which they have in abundance.
This option is quite feasible, and you can always add more tables if necessary.
You can bring your own desks and set them up if the space allows and you know where and which ones
you can rent.
Fixed desks
Be sure to check the dimensions of the desk, or even better, measure everything yourself at the location with a tape measure. This way you
will know exactly how much equipment can be placed there and of what kind, and how many people can
work there at all.
Rental registration desks
Here too, it's important to know their size. Because visually, an organizer might think that
2 sets of equipment can fit on such a table, but in reality – only 1.5.
And even if you push 2 tables together, you can ideally fit 3 sets, not 4.
Of course, there is the option of using smaller laptops or placing printers on top, but this is risky, as
a guest might lean on it and the printer could fall.
Standard tables for registration
Most often, they are available at the location, and they will likely even offer you tablecloths. But you can
find out in advance what they are like and either make your own with branding or just nice white ones. To highlight the registration area.
Desk height
This is an important factor. If you have a high, two-level desk, you don't have to worry about the
connecting cables from the equipment - they will be hidden behind the edge. In fact, it doesn't matter what the equipment
looks like. It will be convenient for the hostess to work standing, as the computer will be closer to their eye level.
Here is an example of a good desk solution that accommodates 1 set of equipment. Two people can
conveniently work behind it if you need to speed up the badge distribution process. It's high, and all the equipment, cables,
handout materials, and even the hostesses' personal belongings will not be visible to the guests. Even if there's a chaos of badges and
lanyards - for the guest, everything always looks beautiful.
But you need to consider not only the height but also the depth of the tables, because there might be very little space on them,
and there's simply nowhere to put even laptops.
Whereas on regular open tables or low open desks, you need to arrange all the wires as
compactly as possible, and you can order branding for the equipment so that everything is covered with event logos
and looks neater.
At low desks, it's better for hostesses to work sitting down; firstly, they will have a better view of the registration
database, and secondly, guests won't see their bent backs.
Non-standard venues
There are venues where there is practically no space for a registration area, or it is a long corridor. For
such venues, a separate approach is needed. For example, if the registration is set up in a long line, and the approach
to the table is from the end, participants will unconsciously form a single queue for the first table.
A similar situation will occur if you have 2-3 tables spread out at a distance. In that case, you
need a separate person to greet guests and invite them to a free desk. Because
sometimes it happens that the first 2 tables are swamped, while the girls at the last 2 are bored.
Or at some venues, you can even provide for scanning at the entrance and from there
remotely sending to print, and by the time the guest goes up, a hostess will be waiting for them with a ready-printed
badge. This can even be implemented on different floors, greeting guests and scanning tickets for printing on the 1st floor,
and on the 2nd, their ready badges are already waiting.
