QR Codes for Events: Tickets, Check-In and RSVPs

Events use QR codes for three different jobs. For each code, ask who scans it, and whether everyone should get the same one.

For a save-the-date card, a static calendar code adds the event to the guest’s calendar; make one with the free event QR code generator. It can’t be edited after printing, so wait until the date and venue are fixed.

Ask only for what you will act on. Every extra field means fewer people finish, and every answer is personal data you have to look after.

• Name and email: the email is how the guest gets their ticket and any changes.
• Attending, yes or no: for invitations, a “no” is useful too.
• Party size, with a maximum, so one reply can’t claim ten seats.
• Ticket type or sessions, if capacity differs between them.
• Meal choice and dietary needs, per guest: a party of three can need three meals.
• Accessibility needs, as a free-text box.

Use conditional questions so people who decline skip the meal questions, and set a reply-by date that leaves time to give the caterer final numbers.

The RSVP form on CirculateQR’s wedding page template follows this pattern: attending yes or no, then, only for a yes, the number of guests, a meal choice for each and dietary needs, plus an optional message. You set the deadline, meal options and maximum party size. General forms take up to 30 fields across 6 steps, with conditional questions, an email to you per response and CSV export.

A ticket code works like a key: whoever shows it gets in. So it has to be unique, or the door can’t tell two guests apart, and unguessable. Sequential numbers fail the second test. Anyone holding ticket 1042 can make a QR code for 1043 in a minute, and it is probably valid.

Random codes fix this. CirculateQR’s ticket codes are 16 characters from a 32-symbol alphabet, which is 80 random bits: 2⁸⁰, or about 1.2 × 10²⁴ possible codes. With 1,000 tickets issued, a made-up code has roughly a 1 in 10²¹ chance of matching one.

What goes inside the ticket QR code?

A link or an ID, nothing else. The guest’s details stay in your database and appear on the staff screen after a scan, so a forwarded screenshot or a lost printout exposes nothing personal.

Group the characters in fours and leave out letters that look like digits, so a code can be typed when a camera won’t cooperate. CirculateQR’s alphabet skips I, L, O and U for that reason.

Email the ticket straight after registration and show it on the confirmation screen, so a guest who mistyped their email still has it. Enforce capacity here, not at the door: set a limit for each ticket type and each session with its own room, and stop registrations when one fills.

Staff open a check-in screen on a phone, point the camera at each ticket and get one of four results. CirculateQR’s check-in screen uses exactly these:

• Checked in, with the guest’s name and ticket type.
• Already checked in, with the time of the first scan. “7:42 pm” tells staff whether this is a guest back from the car park or a copy of a screenshot.
• Ticket for another event, common when someone holds tickets for two dates.
• Not found, for a mistyped code or one that was never issued.

Worked example: 600 guests, 2 doors

Assume about 5 seconds per guest when the ticket is already open on their phone. Time your own staff in a rehearsal.

• One scanning phone: 60 ÷ 5 = 12 guests a minute.
• Two doors: 24 guests a minute.
• All 600 guests: 600 ÷ 24 = 25 minutes of continuous scanning.

The peak is the problem, not the total. If 300 guests arrive in the 10 minutes before the start, that is 30 a minute against a capacity of 24, and the queue is 60 long at the start time. A third phone (36 a minute) clears it. Add a help desk beside the doors for guests who can’t find their ticket.

Online check-in checks each scan against the guest list on the server, which is what stops one ticket working at two doors at once. CirculateQR’s check-in screen works this way and needs a connection. Plan for the moment it fails:

• Test the mobile signal at the actual door. Basements and steel-framed halls are often dead zones; if it’s weak, put door phones on venue WiFi that guests aren’t using.
• Bring a power bank for each door and a spare phone, already signed in.
• If the camera can’t read a cracked or dim screen, type the code.
• Print the guest list with ticket codes, sorted by surname (CirculateQR’s response export includes both). If the connection drops, tick names on paper and type those codes in once you’re back online.

Posters stay up for weeks, so point their dynamic code at what people need at each stage:

• Before: the event page with the schedule and a registration or ticket link.
• On the day: a page with the room map, WiFi details and any last-minute changes.
• After: a feedback form, photos or recordings.

Each switch is an edit to the code’s destination and applies from the next scan (see changing where a QR code goes). CirculateQR’s routing rules can’t switch on a calendar date, so put a reminder in your calendar and change the destination yourself when each stage starts.

Give each placement its own code if you want to know which one brought people in (see how scan tracking works), size it with the QR code size guide, and print a line under it saying what it opens. A badge code is scanned by other attendees, so make it something they want, like the wearer’s contact card, and keep ticket codes off badges.

CirculateQR’s registration forms issue each registrant a ticket QR code linking to their ticket page, by email and on screen. The forms don’t take payment: for a paid event, link to your ticketing provider from a CirculateQR event page, which can show a “sold out” notice.

1. Create a form from the event registration template, and add ticket types and sessions (up to 12 and 40) with their capacity limits.
2. Keep the questions short: name, email, ticket type, and only what you will use.
3. Publish the form and put its code on your posters and invitations.
4. The day before, export the responses to CSV and print the guest list with ticket codes.
5. At the venue, sign in on one dedicated phone per door, open the check-in screen and test-scan a ticket.
6. Scan each guest, or type the code when the camera can’t read it. Send “already checked in” and “not found” cases to the help desk.
7. After the event, point the poster code at a feedback form or photos.