The Definitive Guide to Event Check-In

Contents Introduction !!!!!

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Pre-Event Planning !!!Planning for Safety !!Before the Doors Open !!Conclusion

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s a guest list app ourselves, we know a lot about check-in. We work with event professionals every day, helping them make sure their guests and attendees get in as quickly and as efficiently as possible and now we want to share all our knowledge with you! !The check-in procedure often gets little attention when compared to the great importance of the process itself. How you run your door is really essential. It’s the first interaction your guests have with your event and if it doesn’t go well it can negatively impact how attendees feel. If it goes poorly, you’re behind the 8-ball and your event hasn’t even begun! !Guest check-in begins long before guests arrive. Unfortunately, event planners often leave planning of the check-in process till the very end and give it little thought past just having someone standing there asking if you’re on the guest list. At zkipster, we know the check-in process begins the minute you select your venue. !

Introduction

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The key to being a great event planner is having the ability to really put yourself in your guest’s shoes, to visualize how they will experience the event. You need to be good at anticipating how things will unfold. !

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Begin with the Venue Walkthrough!

great first place to start is during the venue walkthrough. Keeping in mind how many guests you’ll be expecting, familiarize yourself with all the areas leading in and out of the event. When you’re going through the walk-through, you’ll want to look specifically for areas that could become bottlenecks the more people enter. You’re goal is to make the check-in process as smooth and painless as possible.

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Put Yourself in Your Guests’ Shoes I encourage you to walk through the space from beginning to the end as though you were a guest arriving. Visualize where they will go, what they will do. Ask, where will guests arrive? How is the flow of the room? And most importantly, where will there be bottlenecks and how can you keep them to a minimum? So, for example if you’re having a coat check, check the placement. If it’s very close to the check-in area it could cause people to block the entrance and force the check-in to slow.

After you have walked through the entire space, it never hurts to ask yourself once more, what is the goal of this event? Is what you're planning satisfying your purpose? It may seem like an easy question, but it's always good to re-focus oneself.

Another important part of planning is to decide whether or not your staff will need extra help managing all the people you anticipate will attend. You may have VIPs with special needs and requests, your may have concerns about event crashers, or you may have so many people to be in attendance that for insurance purposes it’s best to have a professional on site.

!!!!!!!!When compiling a list of things to ask of your potential security contractor, the main consideration was to find transparency. The security of your guests is tantamount and if you are to trust someone else with their safety, it's best to know everything you can about them. A good security company will be able to provide you with everything listed, and if they aren't forthright, you should consider finding someone else.

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Planning for Safety

here are plenty of reasons to hire a security contractor. Knowing what questions to ask when looking for the perfect event security services team can be a bit more difficult to figure out. To help you, we've compiled a list of information you should be requesting, from any potential event security company.

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Hiring Security*

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Financial History • Audited financial statements

for past year • Proof of adequate bonding

and insurance• Any history as debtor in

bankruptcy cases

Company Employee Relations

• Any and call violations of employees’ freedom to form a union

• Any and all violations of minimum wage laws

• Any and all unfair labor practice charges or complaints against the company

• Any and all violations or penalties under the Federal Labor Standards Act and the Service Contract Act

Business Integrity  • Any and all investigations,

convictions or liability related to firm making false claims or material misrepresentations 

• Any and all owner or officer convictions in crimes involving the bidding, awarding or performance of government contracts, or crimes of fraud, theft, embezzlement, perjury or bribery 

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Compliance History  • Any and all investigations,

citations or penalties assessed against company owners, partners or officers by relevant government agencies 

• Any and all violations of licensing laws, or any investigations, citations, penalties or disciplinary action taken against company by a licensing agency

Performance History  • Any and all previous contracts

with agency• Any and all contract terminations  • Any and all debarments or

determinations of non-responsibility 

• Any and all court disputes over past five years, outstanding judgments against the contractor, or damages assessed on any contracts

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Site Safety Plan

A site safety plan will come in handy for when you are planning a large outdoor event, like a concert or fair. It combines a description of all the potential hazards of the site, structural safety calculations and drawings, as well as a detailed description of site safety rules, any site crew managers and safety coordinators.

Crowd Management Plan

The key to a good crowd management plan is to first understand the characteristics of the people that will be in attendance. Map out your plans for event admittance and denials in advance and make sure to coordinate a chain of command. Always make sure to remain communicative with your staff and with your guests. 

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Event Safety Plans

nything that happens around the entrance to your event should also be considered part the check-in process. You should have plans for all of it. This includes site safety, crowd management, transportation, first aid and a plan in case of an emergency. How people will arrive affects your check-in set up, how people are asked to wait in line also affects check-in, even first aid can affect check-in, as guests with no one to ask often find the only area of apparent authority: your check-in team. Here is a list of the safety plans you should consider:

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!!First-Aid Plan

Accidents happen and people fall ill. Always make sure you have the basic services for first aid provided at any sized event. Be prepared with the numbers of all important emergency services that you can distribute to your staff. Depending on whether you have a large number of people in attendance you will need to find first aid provisions suitable enough, like having a medical officer on staff. Make sure you're doing the most for event safety, not the minimum, or you may find yourself in a position you really don't want to be in.

!Emergency Plan

Always, always have a contingency plan. It's always better to hope for the best but plan for the worst. Get together a plan detailing how you and your staff will deal with a major incident or disaster. How will you make announcements? How will people exit the premises? If exiting is not possible, what resources do you have to keep people calm?

Transport Management Plan

Figure out how guests will be arriving and departing. Ask yourself, what do you need to provide your attendees so that this process can go as smoothly as possible. If your event is serving alcohol make sure you have on hand lists of ways your guests can make it home. Detail all parking arrangements as well as, any that have to be made with the local traffic authorities in case of road closures.

Before Doors Open!

ne hour before the event starts meet with your check-in team and go over any and all procedures. Getting everyone on the same page will keep the lines running smoothly. The first thing we recommend going over is the guest list app semantics. Make sure everyone knows how to check guests in quickly, add guests, edit guests, re-organize columns by last name, or first name, or company, etc.

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Not all digital guest list apps are created equal, but usually the main operating principle is the same. So, here are a few tips that will allow you to maximize the benefits your guest list app.

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How to Maximize Digital Guest List App Benefits

When searching for a guest's name, use our 4-letter Rule. This means only search the first 4 letters of the person’s last name, as that is all you need to find someone quickly. Don't waste time spelling the whole name out.

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2.5s We recommend you have one tablet device per 150 expected guests. This will keep your wait times low.

Average check in time per person is approximately 2.5 seconds. 

In addition to First Name and Last Name, use extra columns to your advantage and title as you please. Choose the information you will be recording in these columns wisely. !Some examples of column titles are: VIP Access, Seat No., Table No., Invited By, Paid/Unpaid, Dietary Restrictions, etc.

Use the Notes section to add any extra important information when all other columns are filled.

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!! ext, you will want to address any procedures that are specific to the event you’re running. This includes:

• Where to send people not on the list • How to deal with event crashers i.e. what signs to look out for • Address any PNGs or Persona Non Grata • Can substitutions be made • Can new guests be added by staff or does a senior member have to approve • Where are the bathrooms and coat check located !!!

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How to Maximize Digital Guest List App BenefitsTo make things more time efficient, we also recommend coming up with internal codes or shorthand in advance, to record as much important information as possible. !

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Make use of the internal alerts system. You can set it so that when an important guest arrives, people on your team are notified. !

If you are not connected to Internet during check-in remember DO NOT log out of your account until you re-connect all the tablets to Wi-Fi or all your data will be lost.

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you’re worried about guest list security a great tip we always offer clients is to inform staff to keep the guest list to themselves. It's human instinct that a guest will want to lean over and look at the guest list, themselves. You ask for their name and they will normally scan and point, "There I am." Do not let them do this. If he or she is a guest, it's fine, but they could just be searching for a name to say in order to get in. It's better for to guard the iPad or tablet and keep it close to the chest. If this is difficult, there are some great privacy screens available that will darken your screen from prying eyes. This will physically give you a secure guest list. !!

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How to Maximize Digital Guest List App Benefits

you’re hosting a large event, it helps to have someone on hand directing the flow of traffic. This person can guide guests to staffers as they enter. We find that this helps, as most people aren’t used to people checking them in on tablets. (Yet!)

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If!It’s also a great idea to have a separate area to direct people who are having issues getting in. If someone is not on the guest list app, your staff can direct him or her to the Information or Help Table where someone with guest list knowledge and deciding power can sort everything out. If the event is seated with many numbered tables you may consider having someone with a seating chart helping people find their seats.

!Contact !1-888-ZKIPSTER (+1-888-954 7783) sales@zkipster.com !!

Every event and meeting professional wishes that, on game day, they could be everywhere at once, but unless the laws of physics have changed recently, its not going to happen. You’re going to have to delegate and one of those places you’ll definitely be delegating is at check-in. This is why the most important thing you need to do to have a smooth check-in process is to have a properly trained and properly equipped check-in team. !!!!!!!!!!Don’t wait for problems and questions to arise. They invariably do. With event planning, it’s always best to anticipate and the same is especially true for check-in. There will always be someone whose name isn’t on the list, or someone who has one more plus one than allowed, someone who RSVP’d late. How you handle the situation is what’s most important, and more like than not, it won’t be you handling it, it will be your staff, and the only way to guarantee they represent you well is if you train and equip them well! !Happy Planning!

The most important thing you can do is to give the people on your frontline everything they need to succeed, like using the event planning technology available to your advantage. Equip your team with a dependable and easy-to-use guest list app. Don’t have your staff searching through pages and pages of names, wasting their time and more importantly your guests. Do everything digitally.

!About the Author

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Christina Olenick is the Content Marketing Coordinator at zkipster – Guest List Solutions, the fastest and most reliable guest list app for non-ticketed events. She also helps manage guest check-in at countless events all over New York City. To read more on event planning, check her out on the zkipster's blog - The Grand Planner!

Christina Olenick

!Contact !1-888-ZKIPSTER (+1-888-954 7783) sales@zkipster.com !!

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