Have long lines at your conference registration made you cringe? Have your attendees complained about having to wait to check-in? If you follow CMP’s Best Practices to ensure smooth on-site registration you will avoid these negative first impressions of your event. Here are some tips on how to avoid this meeting blunder, wow your attendees, and impress your stakeholders.
- Communicate with your guests. Make sure all advance communication is clear and that your final email communication includes instructions on where and when to check-in.
- Reduce the morning check-in rush. Offer a pre-registration check-in the night before the conference starts. This allows those arriving a day early to check-in and cuts down the morning rush significantly.
- Plan the flow of your registration area for success. Think through and place registration in the most logical place for traffic flow, and with enough space to accommodate people during the peak registration times.
- Simplify check-in. Be strategic and simplify the information given to each attendee. Too much information may slow down check-in and may confuse your guests.
- Train your registration staff. Make sure all staff know the importance of being friendly and welcoming. Creating a registration cheat sheet with a list of FAQ’s will help ensure all registration staff are able to quickly answer questions and keep things moving.
- Create Clear Registration Signage. Reinforce how to get to registration and where to go once you arrive with bold and clear signage.
- Create a separate check-in for a specific group. When the information given or received at check-in is more in depth due to their role at the conference, consider a separate registration for a sub-group of participants, such as presenters.
- Provide a Self-Serve Walk-In Registration Option. If you plan to accept on-site registrations, offer a self-serve option offering computers for easy registration and payments in real time.
- Create a Solutions Center. Most attendees get their badge, conference materials and are on their way. But some attendees need more information. This can create a bottleneck at registration. Have a help desk for those who need more information, an additional service, or a little extra time.
CMP has been planning exceptional meetings worldwide since 1996!
Need an efficient and cost-effective registration system? Please contact us at meetings@cmpinc.net or 703-536-4993.
