In-person events can have a number of logistical challenges that need to be worked around, and one of the most difficult is the check-in process. While it might sound easy to simply greet a guest with a smile and a check-in sheet, the reality is a lot more time-consuming and stressful.
If you have ever been to a large event with a physical check-in location, you know that the lines can seem endless, and the wait times are sometimes hours long. But if you are hosting an event of your own, then getting a third-party badge printing kiosk can make a massive difference.
What are Badge Printing Kiosks?
In simple terms, a badge printing kiosk is a small machine that you can place in line with other check-in materials, like name tags. With these devices, you do not need a separate volunteer or person to physically print badges for every single attendee once they swipe their ticket or other form of ID.
This makes it significantly easier for each attendee to check in and get a badge while also ensuring that random people can’t walk in off the street and get a badge printed for themselves. Not only does this make it more secure, but it also reduces the manpower needed to handle the check-in process, leaving event staff and/or volunteers free to handle more important tasks.
Many of these kiosks also allow for some customization, meaning that you can have the badges specifically designed to suit your company or event. Whether it is including a logo, creating different badge colors for different events in the same space, or adding specific instructions for guests to follow, you can tailor the appearance to fit your needs.
Why Should You Use Badge Printing Kiosks As An Event Host?
There are a number of reasons why badge printing kiosks are worth using, whether that is for small local events or large-scale international conferences. While they seem like just another optional way to handle check-ins, there are some strong advantages to using them.
Convenience and Staff Availability.
By allowing guests to check themselves in, these kiosks save a lot of time and energy for everyone involved. Rather than having to wait for a volunteer or staff member to type in their information and print their badge manually, guests can do it themselves in just a few minutes.
This means that lines move faster, guests are checked in more rapidly, and less time needs to be dedicated to getting people into the venue and properly identified. It also ensures that guests are able to quickly receive a badge simply by scanning their ticket, meaning that there is no chance of pre-prepared badges being mixed up or lost ahead of the event.
In many cases, these printers directly take information from the ticket, which also removes the potential for human error. In events where security is paramount, even something as small as a misspelling could be enough to cause unnecessary problems and delays.
If you are hosting an event in person, these kiosks offer a quick and easy solution for properly identifying and checking in your guests. Not only do they save time and effort for everyone involved, but they are also easy to set up ahead of an event and reliable enough that you can often leave them unattended and let guests check themselves in unsupervised.
Check-In Speeds
Whether running a conference, a corporate event, or something else, these kiosks are a great way to make the check-in process faster and easier while taking the pressure off the staff. Most importantly, they remove a lot of the logistical issues that come with check-ins, such as having to pre-prepare badges or use a conventional printer to slowly make a badge for each attendee on-site.
With these machines, you can easily print hundreds of badges in a matter of minutes, saving everyone time and effort. If you are running an event with multiple check-in stations, these machines can also be used to ensure that all attendees get checked in and have a badge to enter the venue, significantly cutting down on check-in times.
While it is a good idea to have more machines if you are expecting a large number of attendees, they are far faster than many other check-in methods and remove the need for a team of volunteers or staff to handle the process manually.
Badge Customisation
One of the main benefits of these machines is the ability to customize each badge. Depending on the type of machine you use, you can choose everything from the colors and designs to the information included on the badge. This means that you can have badges designed to fit the theme of your event or even include specific instructions or reminders for guests to follow.
If you are hosting a conference, you can easily print the names of each speaker and their presentation times on each badge, ensuring that attendees can easily find them and get to their sessions on time.
This has the added advantage of creating unique badges for different events or venues rather than just having one generic type of badge for each attendee. This can help if you run multiple events in the same venue in one week.
You can even use different colors or styles to distinguish between different attendance types, such as VIP guests or speakers – especially if each has a distinct check-in machine at a specific place in the venue.
Portability
There is also the fact that these kiosk machines are portable and easy to move, both between different events and within the event venue itself.
This allows for more flexibility when handling early and late check-ins that might have to use different entrances. It also ensures that the machine can be re-used across different venues without requiring high transport fees or extra work planning a vehicle that can carry it.
If you are hosting an event in person, a badge printing kiosk offers a quick and easy solution for properly identifying and checking in your guests. Not only do they save time and effort for everyone involved, but they are easy to set up ahead of an event and reliable enough that you can often leave them unattended and let guests check themselves in unsupervised.
Whether you are running a conference, a corporate event, or something else, these kiosks are a great way to make the check-in process faster and easier while relieving the staff of pressure.
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk