Let’s talk about access control, the bane and the blessing of every event and of every event professional.
The bane, because it is a delicate stage that has to be fast and secure at the same time, holding effectiveness and efficiency together, and that is not always easy.
The blessing, because — as we have seen before in other articles — it can be an extraordinary asset for the success of an event, if only as a marketing tool or as proof of the audience’s real interest and engagement in what is on offer. And that is before counting all the cases where measuring entries to buildings and rooms precisely is the crux of the whole event, as happens with accredited training and professional development courses.
Over time, the way access control and check-in processes are managed has become far simpler: less infrastructure is needed (gates, turnstiles) and the tools have become more agile (QR codes, smart cameras), until, around the time of the pandemic, we reached the point of doing away with them altogether and allowing fully autonomous self check-in by individual people, more or less tied to additional services such as badge printing or personal mini-sites for networking and public relations. Technology has played its part too, putting everything needed to check people in inside a smartphone in check-in apps that are practical, agile and functional. Good-looking too, if you want, and open to being enriched with extra features.
The corollary of all this is that a new question has arisen: when they can virtually do everything and more, how do you choose the right check-in app? In our view, “the right one” must have at least three characteristics:
1. Ease of use
2. Scalability and customisation
3. Data security and privacy
Handling personal data is a crucial matter at any event, and the check-in app can be either the bulwark that keeps everything secure or the breach that brings the system down, given that most — if not all — of the most important data will pass through it: the data of the people attending the event. So we have left until last the characteristic that, obvious as it may be, is the most important of all: any check-in app, to be considered at all, has to be able to guarantee the highest level of security and privacy for attendee data. It must therefore be certified and compliant with data protection law, and should ideally offer advanced security options that add further layers of protection according to how sensitive the accessible data is. You know it well: the reputation of your event — and therefore your own — depends on protecting attendee data, so this is not the place for compromises.
Choosing the right event check-in app is a fundamental decision that can have a strong, direct influence on the success and the security of an event. Ease of use, scalability and data security are, in our view, the first three key characteristics to look for in an application: the foundations from which to go on and explore all the additional features that can turn the check-in app from a mere tool for performing a function — crucial though that function is — into a genuine strategic and operational asset. With the right choice and a matching implementation you can guarantee fast, efficient and secure access to any kind of event, and truly create memorable experiences.
Would you like to see it in action? Request a live demo of our check-in app and find out for yourself that everything, absolutely, is possible.