Mobile apps for attendees are hot, but did you know that apps can help you, the planner, with onsite registration? While a great web-based onsite registration system can take care of most of your check-in issues, mobile onsite apps can address even more needs, including some unusual situations. These apps should work well on both Apple and Android devices, from smartphones to tablets.
Here are some features a first-rate mobile app for onsite registration should have:
- List of attendees with at least basic contact information.
- Even better, you should be able to easily view what each attendee purchased as well as answers to questions such as emergency contact.
- The app should work with scannable codes on the badge such as QR codes for tracking attendance.
- At a minimum, the codes should be scannable by the app to record attendance at the meeting.
- Even better, you should be able to scan these codes at your various sessions to track attendance.
- The tracking software should be able to report the time when the attendee entered the room. If you are tracking for CEU credits, you should also be able to record room exits.
- A great app would let you assign room monitors to each of your sessions so they can manage their specific scanning assignments.
- Onsite registration is an added plus, especially if you have tablets. This is especially useful if you have the event in an outdoor locale or where you need to sign up someone when you are not sitting at a computer.
- The other part of registration is taking payments. While tools like Square might help you record payments, they are typically not tied to your app directly. This means that after the show you will need to manually reconcile the Square payments with your registration data. A better solution is your app working directly with software services such as PayPal Here so your app process is seamless.
- The app should also be able to record other forms of payment such as checks or cash. It would be also be nice if you can record complimentary purchases.
- The other part of payments is add-on purchases. You should be able to go into each attendee’s account and add items with payments, such as an optional networking event. Also helpful is adding additional registrations to an account.
By using a great onsite registration and session tracking app you can make sure you have accurate reporting while providing a seamless attendee experience with increased revenue.
