The door is the first session of your event
Nothing sours an event like a check-in queue crawling past printed lists while a volunteer squints at names. QR code check-in replaces the list with a scan: each guest's ticket or confirmation carries a unique code, the door team scans it, and entry takes two seconds. It scales from a forty-person workshop to a conference, and it produces an accurate attendance record as a by-product. This guide covers issuing the codes, setting up the door, and planning for the guests whose phones, codes, or names will inevitably cause trouble.Create your event badge codes →
Setting up QR check-in
The system is only as good as its guest list. Build the list first, then put a code on every name in it.- Issue one unique code per guest Generate the codes from your registration list so each code maps to exactly one attendee record. Unique codes prevent duplicates and let you see at a glance who has actually arrived. - Send codes in the confirmation and again on the day Guests lose emails. Send the code at booking, then resend the morning of the event so it sits at the top of the inbox. A wallet pass or screenshot-friendly image helps in venues with poor signal. - Staff the door for scanning speed One scanner per expected stream of arrivals, each with the check-in list loaded and working offline if possible. Test the scanners on the actual codes, in the actual entrance lighting, before doors open. - Run one manual lane Keep one lane for problems: dead phones, codes in a partner's name, walk-ins. Keeping exceptions out of the fast lanes protects the queue's speed more than any scanner upgrade. - Watch the arrivals curve Check-ins cluster in the twenty minutes before the start. Schedule your strongest team for that window rather than spreading staff evenly across a quiet morning.
Keeping the queue moving
Queue speed is mostly design, not effort. Small choices at the door compound into minutes saved per hundred guests.- Put a sign twenty metres out: Have your code ready. Guests who open their email while walking arrive ready to scan. - Set screen brightness expectations in the reminder message. A dim screen under bright entrance light is the most common scanning failure. - Print a small number of blank-badge codes for replacements, linked to a spare record you can rename on the spot. - For multi-day events, mark codes as multi-entry if guests re-enter, or issue day codes if they do not. Decide before doors, not during the first argument. - Record no-shows from the unscanned list the same evening, while corrections are still possible from memory.