[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":223},["ShallowReactive",2],{"marketing-blog-blog\u002Fwhat-to-watch-while-the-doors-are-open":3,"marketing-blog-related-blog\u002Fwhat-to-watch-while-the-doors-are-open":204},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":182,"date":183,"description":184,"draft":185,"extension":186,"image":187,"imageAlt":188,"imageCredit":189,"imageCreditUrl":190,"meta":191,"navigation":192,"path":193,"readTime":194,"seo":195,"stem":196,"tags":197,"__hash__":203},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-to-watch-while-the-doors-are-open.md","What to watch while the doors are open","The CheckInHub team",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":172},"minimark",[10,14,17,20,25,28,31,45,48,52,55,62,70,74,77,85,88,92,95,112,115,119,122,148,151,155,158,166,169],[11,12,13],"p",{},"Doors open at nine. By ten past, somebody on your team has the check-in screen open on a laptop at the end of the desk, and they are watching the registration total.",[11,15,16],{},"It is the wrong number. It stopped changing at midnight. Everything useful on that screen is moving, and the total is the one part of it that is not.",[11,18,19],{},"Check-in is worth the attention. 89% of event planners name it as their top day-of-event concern (Dreamcast, On-Ground Event Statistics, 2026), which sounds dramatic until you have stood behind a desk at ten past nine with forty people in front of you and no idea whether that is normal. The live view answers that question. Here is how to read it.",[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"watch-the-rate-not-the-total","Watch the rate, not the total",[11,26,27],{},"The only number that tells you whether the door is coping is how many people you are clearing per minute against how many are turning up.",[11,29,30],{},"You can work out your ceiling before the day. A staffed desk clears roughly 60 to 80 attendees an hour. A self-service kiosk handles roughly 180 to 200 an hour per station (Dreamcast, On-Ground Event Statistics, 2026). Two staffed desks and one kiosk gives you somewhere around 300 to 360 an hour, on a good morning with a list that behaves.",[11,32,33,34,39,40,44],{},"Now put your arrivals against it. If 400 of your 600 registrations are going to walk in between 08:50 and 09:20, no amount of goodwill at the desk closes that gap, and you knew it a week ago. That is a lane problem, covered in ",[35,36,38],"a",{"href":37},"\u002Fblog\u002Fsplitting-the-door-into-lanes-when-the-queue-builds","splitting the door into lanes when the queue builds",", or a crew problem, covered in ",[35,41,43],{"href":42},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-many-people-you-need-on-the-front-door","how many people you need on the front door",".",[11,46,47],{},"On the morning itself, the rate is your early warning. A count that climbs steadily is fine at any speed. A count that climbs and then flattens whilst people are still visibly arriving means something has stopped, and it is almost never the software.",[21,49,51],{"id":50},"read-the-four-states-together","Read the four states together",[11,53,54],{},"Registered, Checked in, Departed and Absent only mean something next to each other.",[11,56,57,58,44],{},"At 09:40, Checked in against Registered is your attendance so far. Absent is not yet a problem, because Absent at 09:40 is mostly just people on a late train. Departed is the one nobody looks at, and it is the reason your room count and your check-in count drift apart by lunchtime. If you are running a session-based day, or anything with a capacity you have promised the venue, you need people counted out as well as in, which is the argument in ",[35,59,61],{"href":60},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcounting-people-out-not-just-in","counting people out, not just in",[11,63,64,65,69],{},"The other habit worth building is trusting the number rather than re-counting it by eye. A count you have to verify against a clipboard is not a count, it is a second opinion. ",[35,66,68],{"href":67},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcounting-people-in-and-trusting-the-number","Counting people in, and trusting the number"," goes through what has to be true for that trust to be earned.",[21,71,73],{"id":72},"look-for-the-gap-between-lanes","Look for the gap between lanes",[11,75,76],{},"Two lanes should be within a handful of each other. When one is at 120 and the other at 40, it is not chance.",[11,78,79,80,84],{},"It is nearly always one of three things. The signage points people at one door and not the other, which ",[35,81,83],{"href":82},"\u002Fblog\u002Frunning-two-entrances-without-losing-the-count","running two entrances without losing the count"," deals with. One scanner is slow, or one crew member is still finding their rhythm. Or somebody in the busy lane is solving every awkward case where they stand, instead of moving it aside.",[11,86,87],{},"The fix is the same in all three cases and it takes about ninety seconds. Move a person, move a sign, or move the exceptions.",[21,89,91],{"id":90},"keep-an-eye-on-where-the-exceptions-pile-up","Keep an eye on where the exceptions pile up",[11,93,94],{},"Walk-ups, passes that will not scan, a name that is not on the list, a colleague who has arrived with someone else's confirmation. Each one takes a minute or two, and a minute at the front of a moving queue costs far more than a minute does.",[11,96,97,98,102,103,107,108,44],{},"They need somewhere to go. One person, one tablet, slightly to the side, with the authority to register somebody on the spot. What that looks like in practice is in ",[35,99,101],{"href":100},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhandling-last-minute-registrations-at-the-door","handling last-minute registrations at the door",", ",[35,104,106],{"href":105},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhandling-a-double-scan-at-the-door","handling a double scan at the door"," and ",[35,109,111],{"href":110},"\u002Fblog\u002Fkeeping-the-queue-moving-when-a-ticket-wont-scan","keeping the queue moving when a ticket won't scan",[11,113,114],{},"What you are watching for on the screen is the exception count creeping. Three in the first twenty minutes is an ordinary morning. Fifteen means something upstream is wrong, usually a confirmation email that went out with the wrong date or a list imported after the passes were issued, and it is worth stopping to find out which.",[21,116,118],{"id":117},"the-things-that-die-quietly","The things that die quietly",[11,120,121],{},"None of these show up as a queue until they already are one.",[123,124,125,129,137,140],"ul",{},[126,127,128],"li",{},"Battery on the scanning devices. Anything under a third at half nine will not see you to eleven.",[126,130,131,132,136],{},"The venue connection. A device that has quietly dropped off will keep scanning if it is built to, but somebody has to know it happened. ",[35,133,135],{"href":134},"\u002Fblog\u002Fscanning-attendees-when-the-venue-wifi-drops","Scanning attendees when the venue wifi drops"," covers what should carry on working.",[126,138,139],{},"Badge stock and printer roll, if you are printing at the desk.",[126,141,142,143,147],{},"Loaned kit that has gone out and not come back, which matters more on day two than day one. ",[35,144,146],{"href":145},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftracking-loaned-scanners-across-a-multi-day-event","Tracking loaned scanners across a multi-day event"," is the multi-day version of this.",[11,149,150],{},"A ten-minute glance covers all four. Put it on whoever is running the desk, not on you.",[21,152,154],{"id":153},"know-when-to-stop-watching","Know when to stop watching",[11,156,157],{},"There is a moment, usually forty minutes after the advertised start, when the rate drops to a trickle and the live view stops being an operational tool. From that point it is a record, and the useful thing is to note two figures whilst they are fresh: your peak arrivals in a ten-minute window, and your Absent count at the point the doors quietened.",[11,159,160,161,165],{},"Nobody remembers either accurately a week later, and both of them size next year's front door better than anything you will pull from the platform afterwards. ",[35,162,164],{"href":163},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-numbers-worth-pulling-after-the-doors-close","The numbers worth pulling after the doors close"," is what to do with them once the room has gone in.",[11,167,168],{},"Then close the laptop and go and look at the room. The screen has told you everything it can by then.",[11,170,171],{},"The registration total tells you what you hoped for. The rate tells you what is happening. Only one of those is any use at ten past nine.",{"title":173,"searchDepth":174,"depth":174,"links":175},"",2,[176,177,178,179,180,181],{"id":23,"depth":174,"text":24},{"id":50,"depth":174,"text":51},{"id":72,"depth":174,"text":73},{"id":90,"depth":174,"text":91},{"id":117,"depth":174,"text":118},{"id":153,"depth":174,"text":154},"Registration & check-in","2026-08-07","The registration total is the number everyone stares at on the morning, and it is the least useful one once people start arriving. Here is what the live view is actually for, and the handful of things worth checking every ten minutes.",false,"md","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1785123059195-13accd32839b?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop","People gathered in a large room with registration tables along one side","Aaron Douglas","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@diggdomino?utm_source=checkinhub&utm_medium=referral",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-to-watch-while-the-doors-are-open",6,{"title":5,"description":184},"blog\u002Fwhat-to-watch-while-the-doors-are-open",[198,199,200,201,202],"check-in","registration","event day","front of house","crew","cGE5rbz_l4Jt_ornj2TaOk4uGzk43rPZuHNFtHHy-7A",[205,211,217],{"to":206,"title":207,"description":208,"date":209,"category":182,"image":210,"readTime":194},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhen-a-guest-sends-someone-else-instead","When a guest sends someone else instead","A registered guest cannot make it and is sending a colleague. Here is how to transfer the place cleanly, so the badge, the pass and the headcount all still agree.","2026-08-11","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1704269523788-f2bb9885e583?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop",{"to":212,"title":213,"description":214,"date":215,"category":182,"image":216,"readTime":194},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcancellations-and-a-waitlist-that-works","The place that comes free: cancellations and a waitlist that works","A full registration list is not a full room. A waitlist turns the places that come back into seats somebody else wanted, but only if you make cancelling easy and release the places early enough to be acted on.","2026-08-06","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1507878866276-a947ef722fee?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop",{"to":218,"title":219,"description":220,"date":221,"category":182,"image":222,"readTime":194},"\u002Fblog\u002Fchecking-in-exhibitors-and-sponsors-before-the-guests-arrive","Checking in exhibitors and sponsors before the guests arrive","Exhibitors, sponsors and stallholders arrive hours before your guests, in vans, in dribs and drabs, and usually without a pass. Here is how to run that first door properly so the second one is calm.","2026-07-28","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1761195689615-9469b65dac01?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop",1787334026263]