Registration Process: Getting it Right
Every event organizer knows registration process in an event is a crucial part to make sure your event is successful. Everyone knows if this process sucks, your event will be a catastrophe. This registration process is so crucial because it is the first touch point an attendee has with an event. We all know how important the first impression is. A longer queue in an event and hearing visitors complaining is a bad image for the event organizer and the event itself. If your registration takes a long times, have many hiccups or has a long waiting time, the attendees will feel impatient and frustrated and the words will spread in the industry on how bad your event is.
The registration process should be as quick and painless as possible. Do whatever it takes to ensure the registration is buttery smooth. Forget all the gimmicky stuffs and play it simple if you don’t have any efficient tools. For starters, make sure you have sufficient staff managing the registration process so that your guest don’t have to queue in long lines. These are a few tips that you can use to ensure your registration process will make a good first impression:
1. Registration Counter
This is your guest first impression and one of the vital stage in registration process. Open as many counter as you can (of course it depends on the number of attendees you’re expecting). I’ve been to many events where I can see long queues despite a quick registration process at the counter. Although, you have a quick registration process, a suitable number of registration counter also plays a big part in ensuring a smooth registration. Also don’t forget to furnish your counter so that the guest will feel welcome!
2. Use Technology
Technology have changed the way people run events today. We live in 2015 so you better scrap out that excel sheets or forgo the manual or traditional way. Advancement in technology gives benefits to event organizers the most. For best result, find a solution that offers you the most convenience. There might be additional cost, however it can be justified if the whole registration process can be simplified. There are a lot of software out there that can help you in terms of preregistration, automated invitation, RFID or QR Code check in and many more. All these will help the registration and speed up the process by a huge margin.
3. Pre register as much as possible
In this era, this is the key to ensure a smooth registration. Getting people to sign up online and delivering their packets ahead of the event reduce the time they have to spend at the registration counter. The culprit that usually slows down registration process are the onsite registration. Also keep your online registration as late possible as some people register in the last minute. The other thing that you need to remember is that don’t forget to send a reminder to them to bring along the packets or the ticket because some of them might forget about it.
4. Test, Test and Test
When you’re using any technology make sure that you test, test and test it again because you don’t want any hiccups to happen during the event. Another reason to do the test is to make sure that all your staff are properly briefed and you also can predict how the queue is going to look like and do some changes if it is necessary.