Event Check-in aims to streamline delegate management says Kate Resnick, group events manager for broadcast at ITV
Event Check-in is a new iPad and web app that allows busy event organisers and marketers to quickly create a guest list, check guests in and analyse data post event. The app can be used at events of all sizes, multiple iPads can be used simultaneously to seamlessly scale up for larger events or for those with multiple points-of-entry. Event Check-in uses an enterprise grade iOS certified wireless QR code scanner from SocketMobile to check people in by scanning QR codes on their invitations and as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) portal that syncs with the app to create and manage multiple events.
Design
One of the great features of the app is the design as it can be customised to include branding and different colours and themes to suit the style of the event. The user interface is simple and smart with the top of the app home screen showing how many guests have arrived and are absent, as well as tabs to view the entire guest list and to add a new guest if required.
The entire guest list is shown as a simple, scrollable alphabetical list with separate tabs so users can view arrived guests, absent guests and VIPs. Guests can be deleted or added from the app in a few clicks. When a guest is checked in using the scanner the guest’s details flash up on the screen and if they’ve already been checked in you’ll get an alert pop up on screen. The user experience is incredibly simple and intuitive so that anyone can use the app with minimal training and without having to involve the IT department or requiring additional support on site.
Our team has found Event Check-in extremely easy to use and the system looks really good. Our guests have commented on how quickly our queues now move, which is just fantastic. It’s really helped us to streamline the process of creating, implementing and analysing event attendance and with new functionality in the pipeline we’re looking forward to what it will allow us to do next.
Functionality
What’s great is that the app can be integrated with other existing software. In ITV’s case, it can be combined with our existing Cvent event management software to allow our team to quickly import existing guest lists into the Event Check-in portal and then create individual QR codes for each guest that we can print on to invitations or include in email invites. This allows us to securely check-in guests at our events using the wireless QR code scanner from SocketMobile that works with the app. The scanner is small, quick and most importantly, completely accurate.
If guests forget their invitations (and they often do) they can easily be found and checked in manually using the check-in button next to their name on the app. There’s no need to scroll through the guest list as you can search by company, first or last name, or even a fragment of a name, making it almost as fast as using the scanner. You can set the app to sync manually or automatically with the Event Check-in server and any other iPads being used at the event. The app can be used offline but to sync you need to be online and to keep an accurate real-time tally of the attendees who have arrived at your event location has to have wireless broadband. Event Check-in also allows you to keep an accurate tally of who attended and who didn’t and export this information back into Cvent to use when creating guest lists for future events.
Another great feature is the app’s SMS functionality. As we have a lot of VIP guests the app allows us to set up automatic SMS triggers that send a text message to the VIP’s host when they arrive. We can then ensure our VIP’s are well looked after the moment they arrive.
Overall opinion
There are a few additional features that would improve the functionality of the app. It would be great if Event Check-in integrated with Salesforce so you could automatically record whether or not a guest attended an event. It would also be useful to have the app integrate with printing equipment on site so that name badges could automatically be printed when a guest is checked in if it hadn’t already been pre-printed.
