Online event registration has often given the illusion that it will streamline things on the event day but I rarely see it in action. Why is it that a registered and paid attendee still ends up waiting inline to “check-in”? Oh man that bugs me!

Okay – so let me play “opposite George” on this one and see if I can defend the value of the event-day check-in: How else will we know if they’ve arrived? What about their name badge? We have to get them their name badge! We need to give them their welcome package!

I can’t do it. I can’t defend the check-in. In short, it’s a pointless bottleneck. As an event planner, if you insist on giving away stuff, make it voluntary (staff a station and let people come to you), or if you have no shame, put stuff on peoples chairs. If you insist on using name badges then set that up near the coffee station (don’t worry, they’ll find you). Don’t make people line up to enter an event to collect something that’s not imperative to their experience. Besides, line-ups kill the mood every time. I think I’m grumpy today.

Download for FREE on iTunes

Enter my savior. Eventbrite Easy Entry offers eventholders a sleek digital replacement for traditional paper check-in. Yahoo! Now, this isn’t new technology but it’s now crazy affordable, check that… it’s FREE, and it’s connected to one of the simplest and cost-effective event registration systems out there.

The app features a digital list that grabs attendees as they register. It also syncs regularly with Eventbrite’s server, so you can offer multiple entry points for an event and each iPhone will be updated. And it allows you to review orders, so you can see each attendee’s payment total and method. It’s more reliable than a clipboard and simple to use!

Features:
- Log in with your Eventbrite user account
- Review orders for your event as they are placed
- Check in attendees at the event
- Sync attendee status across multiple devices
- Wirelessly updates attendance status in your Eventbrite charts and reports on Eventbrite.com

I’m over the moon about this app and I can’t wait to test drive it November 4th at CREATIVEMIX (bummer that I have to wait that long). If you’ve used it at your event let me know how it went!

Posted by: Corwin Hiebert