Check-in staff

This chapter is for event support staff and anyone running the registration desk on the day. It explains how to open the check-in desk, check people in, work alongside other stewards, and keep going if the internet fails. Event admins and directors use the same desk, so it applies to them too.

Get access to an event's check-in desk

You need to be on the event team. The usual role for door staff is Event support staff, which an event admin or director gives you by inviting you.

1. Look for an email from Sympozium saying someone has invited you to be event support staff for the event.
2. Open the link in the email. Sign in, or create an account, using the same email address the invitation was sent to. If you're signed in with a different address, the page tells you so and offers to sign you out.
3. Press Accept.
4. The page says you're now event support staff for the event. Press Check-in desk to go straight to the desk.

What support staff can and can't do

As event support staff you can:

• check attendees in, undo your own check-ins and mark no-shows
• see each attendee's ticket: name, email address, phone number, place of work, job title, ticket type, reference and groups
• see accessibility and dietary notes (see "Accessibility and dietary notes" below)
• see today's programme and open the Presenter view
• print the check-in sheet and download the resilience pack
• release a certificate of attendance by hand, once the event has finished

This changes 24 hours after the event finishes. You can still look things up at the desk, but you can't change check-ins or attendance or release certificates, and you can't see accessibility and dietary notes any more. If something needs changing after that, ask an event admin or director.

You can't open the event's management pages. If you follow a link to one, Sympozium takes you to the check-in desk instead. Changing the event, its programme, tickets or team is for event admins and directors.

Open the check-in desk

Event support staff:

1. Sign in on your phone, tablet or computer.
2. Go to Dashboard.
3. Next to the event, press Check-in.

You can also open the event's programme page (Programme next to the event on your Dashboard) and press Check-in at the top.

Event admins and directors: open the event (Dashboard → Manage) and press Check-in desk in the row of buttons at the top. To get back, press ‹ Manage event at the top left of the check-in desk.

Find your way around the desk

The desk has three tabs along the bottom of the screen:

• Tickets: the check-in list. This is where you spend most of the day.
• Programme: today's sessions.
• Help: the event's contact email and phone number (if the organiser has added them) and Sympozium's support address.

At the top of the Tickets tab you'll see:

• CHECK-IN and the event title, with the organiser's logo beside it on a wider screen
• a status light: Live means the list is updating by itself; Connecting…, Reconnecting… or Offline mean it isn't, for now
• the arrivals count, for example "32 of 48 arrived", how many are still to go, and a progress bar
• the Find a delegate search box
• three filters, each with its count: All, To arrive and Arrived

The list shows everyone with a confirmed ticket, sorted by surname. Each row shows the person's name, their ticket type and any groups they're in. Someone who has arrived has a green tick and the time they were checked in.

At the top right are Presenter view (if the event has sessions) and the ⋯ (More actions) menu, which holds Print check-in sheet and Download resilience pack.

Find someone

Type into Find a delegate. You can search by:

• Name: first name, surname or both, in any order. Accents and capital letters don't matter: "zoe" finds "Zoë".
• Email address: all or part of it.
• Ticket reference: with or without the prefix and dashes. For example, "SYM-2026-DGCQ8Q" and "dgcq8q" both find the same ticket.

Use To arrive to hide people who are already in, or Arrived to see who's here. If nobody matches, the desk says "No delegates match" followed by what you typed.

Check someone in

1. Find the person in the list.
2. Press Check in on their row.
3. The button shows Saving… for a moment. When the check-in is saved, the row shows a green tick and the time, and a message at the bottom of the screen says, for example, "Dr Anjali Mehta checked in".

Only the green tick means they are checked in. If a row shows Not saved – try again instead, the check-in didn't go through: see "When the internet fails" below.

You can also press the person's name. This opens a small panel (a sheet from the bottom on a phone) showing their status, with Check in, View ticket and details and Cancel.

Why check-in matters

Check-in is the record that someone attended. Attendees only get access to the event's handouts once they're checked in, and certificates of attendance depend on it. Please make sure everyone who comes is checked in, even if you have to enter them later.

Undo a check-in

Straight away: press Undo in the message at the bottom of the screen. It stays for about 5 seconds. The message then says, for example, "Dr Anjali Mehta: check-in undone".

Later:

1. Press the person's name, then View ticket and details.
2. Press Undo check-in. You can do this at any time until 24 hours after the event finishes. If the person had been marked as a no-show before you checked them in, that's put back too.

Undo only reverses a check-in you made at the desk, and only if nobody has changed that ticket since. Otherwise you'll see a message such as "Can't undo: Dr Anjali Mehta has updated this ticket". To change someone else's check-in, use the pencil on the ticket page (next section).

Mark a no-show or correct a status

Each ticket has one of three statuses: Checked in, No-show or Not arrived.

1. Press the person's name, then View ticket and details.
2. Next to their status, press the pencil (✎).
3. Choose Checked in, No-show or Not arrived (side by side on one line). The current status is greyed out.

The status shows Updating… while it saves. Use this to mark someone who didn't come as a no-show, or to correct a check-in made by someone else. A no-show shows as No-show under the person's name on the list.

To return to the list, press ‹ Back to check-in at the top. Your search, filter and place in the list are as you left them.

Work alongside other stewards

Several people can run the desk at once, on different phones or computers.

• The list updates by itself. When anyone checks someone in, the row changes on every steward's screen without refreshing. New bookings appear too.
• Recent changes are highlighted for about a minute, with a note saying what happened and who did it:
  • "Just now · by you"
  • "Just now · by Dr Anjali Mehta" (another steward)
  • "Just now · self check-in (QR)" (the attendee scanned the registration screen)
  • "Just now · self check-in (joined online)" (the attendee joined an online session)
  • "Just now · marked no-show" or "Just now · check-in undone"
• No double check-ins. If someone has already been checked in and you press Check in, nothing changes. You'll see who did it and when, for example "Dr Anjali Mehta: already checked in by Dr Jo Bloggs at 08:52".
• Pressing a name shows the full status, for example "Checked in at 08:52 · by Dr Jo Bloggs".

If the status light says Reconnecting… (poor Wi-Fi), the list catches up by itself when the connection returns.

People who checked themselves in

Some attendees won't come to the desk:

• By QR code: if the organiser has set up a registration screen, attendees can scan its code with their phone and check themselves in. The desk shows them as "self check-in (QR)".
• By joining online: attendees who join an online event or session are checked in automatically. The desk shows them as "self check-in (joined online)".

You don't need to do anything for these people. They appear as arrived on your list straight away.

People who were invited but haven't booked yet

Below the list, Invited, not registered yet shows anyone with an invitation to the event who hasn't accepted it. It appears from 2 hours before the event starts.

If one of them is here (or has joined an online session another way), press Mark attended. The row says Marked attended, with your name and the time. When they accept their invitation, their place is checked in, recorded as checked in by you at that time, so they can give feedback and get their certificate. Press Undo if you marked the wrong person; you can undo it until they accept. You can mark or undo until 24 hours after the event finishes. Once they accept, they leave this list and appear on the main list as arrived.

Accessibility and dietary notes

When they book, attendees can share accessibility needs and dietary requirements so the event team can support them on the day.

1. Press the person's name, then View ticket and details.
2. Any notes appear as Accessibility needs, Dietary requirements and Allergies. Allergies shows the allergens the attendee ticked and anything they wrote.

Only the people with a role on the event (support staff, admins and directors) and the attendee themselves can see these notes. Sympozium's support team can also see them if they need to, for example to help with a booking. The organisation's other directors and admins can't, unless they also have a role on the event. Support staff stop seeing them 24 hours after the event finishes. They're shared only to support the person at the event: don't copy them elsewhere. Sympozium removes them 30 days after the event; after that the ticket shows "Accessibility and dietary notes: Removed 30 days after the event".

The notes aren't on the printed check-in sheet or in the resilience pack.

Release a certificate of attendance by hand

Normally certificates are issued automatically. Occasionally someone misses out for a genuine reason, for example they had a technical problem with the feedback form or weren't checked in. You can release their certificate by hand.

This is possible only when the event is published, has finished, offers certificates, and the person doesn't already have one. You can do this until 24 hours after the event finishes.

1. On the Tickets tab, press the person's name, then View ticket and details.
2. Press Release certificate at the bottom of the ticket.
3. Confirm. The message reminds you that this works even if they weren't checked in or haven't submitted feedback, so use it only for genuine exceptions.

Once a certificate exists, the ticket shows "Certificate issued on" and the date. Support staff can release a certificate but can't re-issue one: ask an event admin or director if a certificate needs to be issued again.

See today's programme

1. Choose the Programme tab at the bottom of the desk.

It shows today's sessions only, as a timeline: times down the left, finished sessions dimmed and the session that's on now outlined. Each session shows its room and speakers. Breaks appear as slim rows in a softer colour. Sessions running at the same time share one time slot, with a line such as "3 sessions at once"; they sit side by side on a wide screen and one under another on a phone. Faculty-only sessions are labelled Faculty only, and sessions for particular groups show the group names.

A small icon marks sessions with Feedback required; a key above the timeline explains it.

A speaker who hasn't accepted has Invited, not yet accepted or Not invited yet beside their name. Attendees don't see those speakers.

On a day with no sessions it says "No sessions scheduled for today". To see the whole programme, open the event's programme page from your Dashboard.

Open the presenter view

Press Presenter view at the top right of the desk. It shows each room's sessions for the day, in order, with every session's slides and handouts ready to open. It only appears if the event has sessions.

When the internet fails

Venue Wi-Fi drops, and websites occasionally go down. The desk is built so that nothing looks checked in unless it really is.

On the day

• If a row says "Not saved – try again" after you press Check in, that person was not checked in. The row goes back to its Check in button within about 8 seconds.
• A warning, Offline – check-ins aren't being saved, appears at the top until the connection is back. It tells you to tick people off on paper, and says what time the list on screen dates from. It clears by itself.
• Tick people off on the printed check-in sheet while you're offline.
• Pressing Check in again later is always safe. If the first try was in fact saved, it simply shows as checked in by you.
• Undo works the same way: if it can't be saved, you'll see "Undo not saved – try again" and the check-in stands.
• Don't reload the page while offline. The list you have keeps working, but a reloaded page needs a connection to come back.
• The Programme and Help tabs, and the ⋯ menu items, need a connection. If you tap one while offline, the screen says, for example, Offline – Programme can't be opened. Your list is still there underneath: press Back to the check-in list (or the Tickets tab).

Afterwards: enter the paper check-ins

As soon as the connection is back, go through the paper sheet and check in everyone you ticked. Handouts and certificates depend on check-in, so anyone left off will miss out on both.

Prepare for internet problems: print the sheet and download the pack

Do this the evening before, or before doors open on the day.

Print the check-in sheet

1. On the check-in desk, press ⋯ (More actions) at the top right.
2. Choose Print check-in sheet. A PDF downloads; this works on a phone or a computer.
3. Print it and keep it at the desk.

The sheet lists everyone with a confirmed ticket in surname order under A–Z headings, about 30 a page, with their ticket type, ticket reference, groups (if the event uses groups) and an empty tick box. People already checked in when you made it are shaded, with the time. For a multi-day event, print a fresh sheet each evening so earlier arrivals show as already checked in.

Download the resilience pack

The resilience pack is a zip with the check-in sheet, the programme and every session's files, in a folder per room and day, so presenting can carry on without Sympozium. Contact details are deliberately left out, to keep people's data safe. If you might need someone's number on the day, save it yourself beforehand.

1. Use Chrome or Edge on a computer. The pack can be large, and only those browsers can save it straight to disk. In other browsers, or on a phone, you'll see "Use Chrome or Edge on a computer for the full pack" and can press Get the two PDFs (the check-in sheet and the programme) instead.
2. On the check-in desk, press ⋯ (More actions), then Download resilience pack.
3. Under What to include, choose Whole event or, for a multi-day event, one day. Each choice shows how many files it holds and roughly how big it is.
4. Press Download and choose where to save the zip.
5. Keep the tab open while it downloads. The panel shows progress, for example "File 12 of 57 · 340 MB of 1.2 GB". Cancel stops it.
6. When it says Saved, open the zip and check it.

If any file couldn't be downloaded, the panel lists it and the zip includes a Missing files.txt. Press Try the missing files again to get a small second zip with just those files, then copy them into the pack's folders.

The pack contains:

• Check-in sheet.pdf
• Programme.pdf: each day's programme on its own page, including faculty-only sessions
• Rooms: a folder for each room, with a numbered folder for each day, holding every session's slides and handouts in running order. Sessions with no room are under No room.
• Contents.txt: a list of everything in the pack and when it was made

Copy each room's folder onto that room's computer or a USB stick. The pack is a snapshot: speakers can still add or replace files until their session starts, so check on the morning whether anything has changed.

For more on the pack, see On the day in Running an event.

Keep it confidential

Every download of the check-in sheet or the pack is recorded, with who made it and when. Neither contains email addresses, phone numbers, or accessibility or dietary notes.

The registration screen: what attendees see

Some events have a screen at Registration that lets attendees check themselves in. Event admins and directors set it up from the event's management page; as support staff you can't create one, but it helps to know how it works so you can point people to it.

• The screen shows Check yourself in and a QR code that changes every minute.
• An attendee scans the code with their phone's camera, signs in if asked, ticks a box confirming they're attending, and presses Check me in. They then see "You're checked in".
• Self check-in opens 2 hours before each day's first session and closes at the end of that day. Before then, the screen says Self check-in isn't open yet and when it opens.
• Attendees can only check in their own ticket. If someone sees "No ticket on this account", they're probably signed in with a different email address from the one they booked with. Check them in at the desk.
• If someone sees "That code has changed", they should scan the screen again.
• Anyone without a phone, or who has trouble, can simply come to the desk.

People who check themselves in this way appear on your list straight away as "self check-in (QR)".

Get help on the day

Choose the Help tab on the desk. It shows the event's contact details, if the organiser has added them, and Sympozium's support address, admin@sympozium.co.uk.