Which code where
| Job | Code type | Static or dynamic | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ticket and check-in | URL (serialised) | Dynamic | E-ticket, printed ticket, badge |
| Schedule and venue map | URL | Dynamic | Lanyard, signage, welcome slide |
| Feedback | URL | Dynamic | Closing slide, exit, lanyard after the event |
| Sponsor and exhibitor links | URL | Dynamic | Stands, sponsor slides, programme |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi | Static | Tables, entrance, registration desk |
| Speaker slides and resources | URL | Dynamic | Room signage, last slide of each talk |
Tickets and check-in
Every ticket gets its own code. Generate them in a batch from your attendee list, with the ticket ID in the link, and give each code a scan limit of one. At the door a steward scans, the page shows the attendee’s name and a large green “admit”, and the code is marked used. A second scan of the same code, or a screenshot passed to a friend, shows red. Read the batch generator page for the format.
The check-in flow that does not queue has three parts. First, the code is on the attendee’s phone as well as on paper, and the confirmation email tells them to have it ready. Second, stewards use a phone with the camera app open and a good torch, not a laptop with a webcam. Third, a separate lane for people whose code will not scan, with the list on a tablet, so one dead battery does not hold up two hundred people.
The schedule, the map and the feedback form
One dynamic code, repeated on the lanyard, the welcome slide and every signpost, that opens the live schedule. Rooms change, speakers cancel and lunch runs late; a dynamic code means the printed material stays right. On the morning of the event it points at the schedule. After the last session, repoint the same code at the feedback form. Everyone already knows where the code is.
Keep the feedback form to three questions and no login. The response rate falls with every extra field.
Sponsors, Wi-Fi and lanyards
Sponsors want to know what they got for their money. Give each sponsor a dynamic code of their own for their stand, their slide and their programme page. After the event you can tell them how many people scanned it and when, which is a better report than a footfall estimate.
The Wi-Fi code goes on every table and at the entrance, with the network name and password printed beneath for people whose phone does not offer to join. Lanyards carry two codes at most: the attendee’s own check-in code on one side and the schedule code on the other. Anything more and stewards scan the wrong one.
Getting the lanyard and the banner right
- Lanyard badge: 3 cm, level M, black on white, name above, nothing else on that side.
- Table cards: 3 to 4 cm, level Q, laminated so spilled coffee does not end them.
- Pull-up banners and stage screens: read from 3 m or more, so 30 cm or more. Use the size calculator.
- Slides: a code on a slide is scanned from the back of the room. Make it a quarter of the slide height, on the last slide, and leave the slide up for thirty seconds.
- Lighting: stage lighting causes glare on gloss. Print signage matte.
Do this
A 3 cm level M check-in code on a matte badge, the attendee's name above it, scanned by a steward with a phone in a bright entrance, pointing at a serialised link with a scan limit of one.
Not this
One shared 2 cm code printed on the bottom of every ticket in the sponsor's yellow, scanned by a webcam on a laptop under a spotlight, pointing at a page that anyone with a screenshot can open.
In practice
Run the check-in flow once with your own team as the attendees, a day before. Scan from phones with low brightness, from a printed ticket, and from a cracked screen. Whatever fails then will fail at 8.55 on the morning.
Security note
A ticket code is a bearer token: whoever holds it gets in. Keep the ticket ID unguessable, mark codes used on the first scan, and never put the attendee’s name or email in the code itself, only in your database behind the link. Sponsor and schedule codes are public and can be photographed, so make sure the page behind them is one you are happy for anyone to see.
Try it yourself
Paste your attendee list as one line per person, with the ticket link and ID, and the batch generator returns a sheet of unique codes. QR Studio can make the same list as dynamic codes with a scan limit of one each.