How Onsite Registration Layout Impacts Visitor Flow
How Onsite Registration Layout Impacts Visitor Flow
If you’ve worked in events for a while, you’ll know that ensuring seamless onsite registration is a must. After all, how well the flow of attendees is maintained directly impacts their event experience. Thinking about your onsite registration layout might seem like common sense and perhaps even a bit tedious, but the truth is, you can never be too prepared when it comes to anything onsite-related — things just aren’t guaranteed to go according to plan. This is why it’s important to set aside time to prepare thoroughly, ensuring you’ve considered all the details of your registration layout to increase the chances of your attendees having a great event experience from start to finish.
But how do you go about creating an onsite registration layout strategy when there are so many factors to consider? From estimating the number of attendees and planning the ratio of collectable or printable badges to setting up onsite terminals — it can all feel overwhelming.
To gain expert insight, we turned to Krissy, our Account Director and tenured member of #TeamJET. With us since 2002, Krissy knows the ins and outs of event registration better than anyone, making her the ideal person to share wisdom on this critical aspect of event planning. We’ve asked her to give some useful tips about the registration layout planning process so keep an eye out for her words of wisdom throughout this article.
How Event Registration Layout Impacts Visitor Flow and Event Experience
Your event’s registration layout is directly linked to visitor flow as your visitors will be the ones coming and going from this designated area. If your registration layout isn’t well-planned out, it’ll naturally slow down the flow of visitors, sometimes even to a screeching halt in the form of long queues — no one wants that.
⭐ Krissy’s Top Tip
“The best registration process is so smooth that visitors don’t even notice it. That’s when you know you’ve done it right. It’s hard to make the registration process essentially invisible if people are stuck in long queues for ages.”
Key Considerations for an Effective Onsite Registration Layout: Queue Management
Queue management is probably the first thing that comes to mind when considering onsite registration. After all, what’s the first thing you notice before entering any event? More often than not, it’s a line of people. However, as an organiser, you can determine whether that queue will be slow or fast-moving.
Event Entrances
Before deciding how to manage your queues, you need to consider the size of your event and who is registered to attend. Is it a small conference with 100 delegates? Is it an international exhibition with over 5,000 attendees and exhibitors? Are all your visitors collecting badges on the day or are they bringing pre-printed ones? Factors like these directly contribute to how big or small your potential queues will be on the day.
Once you have your rough estimate of attendees, it’s time to turn to your venue. How many entrances does it have and how many of those are available for your events registration area? Do you need to build your own registration area or will your chosen venue provide one?
⭐ Krissy’s Top Tip
“One common mistake is underestimating the number of entrances needed. During peak times, having a limited amount of entrances can cause major delays, which can annoy visitors trying to get in. If you can use multiple entrances in your registration area, take advantage of that. However, make sure that you avoid any confusion with plenty of signage so no one gets lost! Remember to have it up along the main walkways — not just the initial entrance.”
Badge Collection
As part of your initiative to manage the queues at your event, so that it does not impact your flow of attendees, you will need to also think about your badges i.e. how your badge collection will work on the day. Typically, you have the option to go for various badging options such as PDF badges or onsite collection badges.
If you have decided to go with onsite badge collection for your event, then you will need to focus on the number of terminals, badge printers and onsite staff that you will need on the day. However, if you chose PDF or pre-printed badges, then naturally the amount of onsite equipment will be reduced.
One way to speed up the badging process and therefore, streamline the flow of attendees in your event’s registration area, is by using digital tickets, a feature we offer as part of our registration forms solution. This fulfilment method lets visitors download and store their tickets on their phones, either in their digital iOS or Android wallets. With digital tickets, there’s no need to search for registration emails – your attendees can simply open their digital wallet, scan the barcode, print out their badge, and enter your event without delay.
⭐ Krissy’s Top Tip
“From my experience, 60-70% of [industry dependent] attendees will pre-print and bring their badges with them, if that is an option that is provided to them. This means fewer terminals but it also means that there should be a separate line for pre-printed badges to keep attendees moving.
A way I like to suggest clients do this is by using ropes and poles to make it clear that there are two different ways to check in to the event. Lanyard trees are also a good idea to keep the flow of attendees moving since it helps keep your registration area nice and organised.”
Payment Set-Up
Lastly, your payment set-up (if applicable) on the day of your event will also greatly impact your flow of attendees. Not all events require payment terminals but if your event does, you will need to consider how best to incorporate this into your onsite registration plan. For example, if people need to pay to enter and most of them register on-site, you might face long, slow lines. Handling payments can take a lot of time, especially if a lot of attendees need to pay at once.
One of the ways to avoid congestion is to steer away from handling cash on-site since it can slow down the flow of attendees. To do this, it’s always a good idea to offer online payment options through your registration forms as your event’s primary payment gateway. Alternatively, you could also use QR codes on-site, to make it easier and quicker for attendees to pay without causing a long queue or needing extra on-site staff to oversee the payments.
⭐ Krissy’s Top Tip
“Based on my 20 years in the industry, the majority of attendees will usually arrive within the first 2-3 hours of the event for a standard exhibition, for example. This means that sorting out things like payment set-up is a must to get right from the get-go as that’s when it’ll be busiest.
When working with clients, we suggest that most payments be done online, pre-event since it is usually easier to do so for both parties involved. However, if an organiser would still like to include onsite payment facilities, we are happy to assist. “
Conclusion
A well-planned onsite registration layout can significantly enhance the attendee experience by ensuring a smooth flow of visitors. By considering factors like queue management, event entrances, badge collection, and payment set-up, you can create a seamless registration process for your attendees. Industry experts like Krissy understand that there are a lot of things to consider when planning out your event’s onsite registration layout, which is why we are here to help.
If you’d like to talk to Krissy about optimising your event’s onsite registration layout for your next event, book a call with her today.
