QR codes for events
What makes an event code different
An event code is scanned once, at a door, in bad light, often by staff rather than the person holding it, with a queue behind them. A poster can be scanned again later. This cannot, so the margin for error that a poster enjoys is exactly what an event code does not have.
Everything below follows from that. It is not a harder design problem than a poster, it is a different one, and the failures happen in a different place.
One code, four destinations
An event moves through phases and a printed code cannot. Registration matters until the doors open, the schedule matters on the day, the venue map matters for an hour, the recording matters afterwards. A static code has to pick one and be wrong for the rest.
A dynamic code is re-pointed as the event moves, so the same symbol on the same badge is useful at every stage. That is the strongest argument for using one here, and it costs nothing extra to plan for.
Where a link stops being enough
Being plain about the boundary, because getting it wrong is discovered at the door.A short link is not a ticket. It resolves the same way every time it is scanned, so it cannot be marked used, cannot be tied to one person, and cannot stop a screenshot being shared with fifty people.
Klip issues links, not tickets. For admission, use ticketing software that validates once and records it. For the programme, the map, the sponsor page, the feedback form and the slides, a link is exactly right and considerably cheaper.
What actually breaks on the day
- Lamination under a spotlight. Gloss plus a hard light is a mirror, and a camera cannot read through the reflection. Matte laminate, always.
- Badges curling in sleeves. A code on a bent surface loses the geometry the finder patterns depend on. Print it in the middle of the panel, not near the edge that curls.
- Phone screens at low brightness. If attendees show codes from a phone, expect auto-dimming, and tell staff to ask people to turn brightness up rather than re-scanning six times.
- The network. A thousand people on one cell is a slow page, and a scan that resolves in a second but then loads for twenty reads as a broken code. Point at something light.
Size, and the thing that eats it
Door scanning happens at 20 to 30cm, so the maths says small. The conditions say otherwise: 25 to 30mm square gives back the margin that angle, light and curl take away. Check it against the distance with the size calculator.
The quiet zone is outside that measurement, and on badges it is usually the lanyard sleeve that crops it rather than the designer. Hold the printed badge in the sleeve before signing off the artwork.
Questions
The things people ask before they commit something to paper.
How do I create a QR code for an event?
Point a dynamic code at the event page, print it on whatever people will be holding or walking past, and re-point it as the event moves through its phases: registration, then the schedule, then the venue map on the day, then the recording afterwards. One printed symbol, four useful destinations.
Can I use a QR code as a ticket?
Only with a ticketing system behind it. A short link is the same link every time it is scanned, so it cannot be marked used, which is the one property a ticket needs. Klip issues links, not tickets: use it for the programme, the map and the feedback form, and use ticketing software for admission.
How big should a code be on a badge or lanyard?
Bigger than feels necessary. Door scanning happens at 20 to 30cm but often at an angle, in poor light, on a curled or sleeved badge, so 25 to 30mm square gives the margin those conditions eat. The quiet zone is outside that, and lanyard sleeves are the usual thing that crops it.
What breaks event codes on the day?
Glossy lamination under a spotlight, badges curling inside plastic sleeves, screens at low brightness when the code is shown on a phone, and network congestion in a full hall. The last one is worth planning for: a destination that is a heavy page will fail when a thousand people are on one cell.
Should each attendee get a unique code?
Only if something is going to read it as an identity, which means a ticketing or check-in system. If the code just opens the schedule, one code for everybody is simpler, cheaper to print and impossible to get wrong at the door.