EP 18: Mastering Event Check-In

Jeff: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes. Two of our favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite people here to join us today.

Diana: Thanks, Jeff. I'm Diana DuPlanche.

Lori: I'm Lori Mackay.

Jeff: Right. So anyway, thank you guys for all the feedback you've been giving us, the questions that have been coming in. Please do help us out -- write a five-star review about us, download, and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And say something nice about us as well. We love that.

Diana: Y'all, I just want to share with all our listeners. The most exciting thing happened. I was talking to a prospective client. We had a Zoom meeting. And I felt like a celebrity for all of 10 seconds because she was like, "Are you Diana from the podcast?" And I said, "Why yes, yes I am." And she said, "I've listened to all 16 episodes of your podcast." And I said, "What?" And she said, "It's true. They're so informative." And she said that she and her committee are trying to come up with a question that they can pose that we can answer on the podcast. I said, "We are waiting for your question. That would be great. Send it in."

Jeff: And did you tell her if she signs up with us that you'll send her an autographed photo?

Diana: She did sign up with us. I should just send her an autographed photo. "It's me, from the podcast." That's right. I was so excited. I pretty much felt like a celebrity, y'all. It was a great feeling.

Jeff: Yeah. Thank you so much, listeners. And we're happy to be back in the studio today. We are going to talk about probably one of the most common questions that comes up, which is check-in. Now, we've covered some of these elements before. We've talked about what we call "how do you create a great guest entrance?" But let's really focus on the mechanics of check-in because it's one of those things that stresses the most people out, even prior to the event. And then at the event, it probably stresses them out even more.

Diana: Agreed.

Lori: Yep, number one.

Jeff: And of course, it wouldn't be a podcast without Diana and her notebook and her list of things she wants to cover.

Diana: Sorry, y'all. It's true. I walk around the office -- "What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts?"

Jeff: Yes. So we do have a list here. And I think Lori's the perfect person to have on because she goes to events a lot. And second of all, she does so much coaching and so much onboarding. And that's typically one of the first questions she gets asked on a new client call. I mean, you're meeting with these new clients, you're hearing these concerns. Where do you start in terms of addressing all these concerns?

Lori: Well, the first thing I address with people, mostly in onboarding and coaching, is "What is your biggest concern?" You purchased this new software package. You've run events before typically. What kind of things have you come across? And most of the time, the biggest concern is check-in, hands down. So the first thing I want to know from them is, well, what is your objective at check-in? What are you trying to accomplish? And trying to really narrow down what we need to accomplish here.

Jeff: And then coming up with the best strategy that we possibly can. Because I think it's important to open that subject up a little bit -- if it's a golf tournament, what is our objective? Give people their foursomes, make sure they have a card on file, make sure they have a login link, send them on to breakfast.

Diana: Yes.

Jeff: Tell some mulligans. Maybe you sell a mulligan, maybe you do that. And then if you're at a gala, what's your objective? Is it to make sure everybody has a paddle number? Do they need a table number? Are they going to have a card on file?

Lori: I mean, do we want accurate data?

Diana: Yeah, accurate data.

Jeff: What are these things? That's a question, right? For any event, one of the things that you can accomplish with software like Handbid or any other software out there is you can start to collect information about these people. And that is how you're going to reach out to them and build a relationship with them down the road. And that goes for new people as well as your existing donors who might have updated information -- and this is your opportunity to capture that. And it's tricky, right? Because there's a trade-off between capturing data and how smoothly and how quickly check-in can happen. So to your point -- what are you trying to accomplish? Do I need to make sure everybody has a card on file? How flexible am I going to be in that?

Lori: That's right. So when they tell me, "Heck no" -- am I going to let them in? Because we've had clients that have said, "Show them the door if they say no." I'm like, "No, you show them the door if they say no. We will not be showing the door."

Jeff: That's right. But outside of that, how much information do you want to capture? We've had people who have said, "I want name, email, phone number," which is what Handbid needs, but "I want their address as well." And that's going to add up. We have some quick tools to look up addresses on Google and auto-populate things, which makes it faster. But either way, that all adds up time-wise.

Lori: It totally does.

Jeff: Yeah. And then, do you even need a formal check-in? Do you just want to throw up --

Diana: No, shocking. Yeah.

Jeff: Do you really need it? A lot of times, yes. A lot of the time you do need a check-in. But sometimes you might want to do something different. Like you put up a QR code and have a text-to-register keyword.

Lori: Yep.

Jeff: That kind of thing is a totally different way of thinking about an event. Especially with these very casual "denim and diamonds" kind of events that we're seeing more of a trend around.

Diana: Okay. So what if they say, "Okay, Lori, my goal is to" -- well, let's stay traditional, right? "My goal is to get people in the door as quickly as possible. We're going to need to give them a paddle number, a table number, and make sure they have a login link and that they have a card on file." Is that too much to ask for check-in?

Lori: That's pretty basic. I mean, I've seen way worse.

Diana: I agree.

Jeff: Validate their parking, give them five gold tokens, two red ones, and then also find out whether they want chicken or fish or a vegetarian meal and give them the appropriately colored card for that. And also ask them their mother's maiden name.

Diana: That's right. Oh, it's way intense.

Lori: Very much a true story.

Jeff: And so, okay, so then we get back to maybe 75% of our clients are looking for a scenario like we just described.

Lori: Yes. A true paddle number, table number, card on file, login link for a silent auction on your phone. And I kind of bundle some of those -- like, register somebody in the party to bid. That's right. Which is going to give them the paddle number, the card on file, and the login link. A lot is going to be accomplished on one screen.

Jeff: Yes. In our software.

Lori: In our software.

Diana: Okay. So, Lori, what would be your advice for that client?

Lori: How many people do you have coming and how many volunteers are you going to put towards this? First thing. And are they mostly couples, not couples? Trying to get a feel for how many parties you're actually going to check in. How many people are actually going to come through check-in and physically get registered to bid? So the first thing I'd want to know is, how many volunteers? So if you have 400 people -- at Handbid, we recommend one check-in volunteer per 50 people. If you've got some good staff there or Handbid staff on-site support, you might be able to stretch that number significantly more just because we have a lot of experience at check-in and can do it a little quicker. But all in all, how many people can you put towards this? And I usually will walk through with them the process. So the person walks in the door. Are you going to have a big long table? Are you going to have stanchions set up? Are you separating alphabetically?

Diana: Ooh, no. Are you?

Lori: I would just tell them no on that one. I typically do.

Jeff: Yeah. And what device are you going to be using? And then we strategize a lot -- well, maybe we can -- and I've said this before -- do a tiered check-in process.

Lori: I love it when there's an organized process where people are not just coming and standing in front of a table, but maybe they come and they get checked in by somebody with an iPad, and they kind of have this flow or experience rather than lines with a check-in table and computers. I like people to be standing and maybe just have check-in number one, check-in group number one. You're going to try to get all these people, okay? Any overflow, you go back to check-in line two, kind of type of thing, or to the computer stations or to solutions -- anything like that. So we chat about what their guest experience and their flow has been like in the past and then stretch them a little bit to maybe consider using different devices to have that experience be a little more fluid.

Jeff: When you say devices, you're talking about breaking away from the traditional laptop-on-a-desk model and going towards using mobile devices to check in.

Lori: Yes.

Jeff: So I totally agree, right? We obviously support that and actually encourage it in the sense that it gives you a lot more flexibility. And I think what you're describing is kind of cool. So people come in the door, maybe you have five or six -- whatever it might be for your event. I call them the front line. iPhone people. And they're on their iPhones and they're just quickly checking people in and they've got a stack of paddle numbers in their hand. But if those people are getting bogged down, you've got -- I call them a line monitor. Kind of an elementary school term. But somebody who's there who's not necessarily your greeter, but just making sure that "Oh, Lori can help you over here." So then you've got another group that can handle this maybe on iPads and they're at a cocktail table. And then beyond that, if there's more complicated situations, you can push them over to a table. Because sometimes it's nice to have a laptop if you have to do some heavy lifting on a particular guest or something like that. But I like that idea. It's kind of an overflow.

Lori: And one thing I would add to that, which I think is an important question to ask up front, is how flexible are you willing to be in your check-in process? Because we get a lot of people that come in the door that have used either a different system in the past or they've done it a certain way even with paper, and they're unwilling to waver or bend on that. And that makes it tough. Doesn't make it impossible, but a lot of times what we'll say is, "Okay, I understand. In the situation you were in before, that might have made sense to do it that way. But now that you're using a different software package, we'd encourage you to lean on our expertise and be open to trying it another way." Because a lot of times what you'll find is that people try to fit that square peg in a round hole and they just create challenges.

Diana: Yeah. Well, it's also this idea of being modern. It's about adapting to what's available to you. And maybe the new way is a better way of doing it. So I think you have to keep your guests on their toes. It might delightfully surprise them. That's kind of what I'm seeing out there too.

Jeff: Right. And look, we've been doing this a long time, right? So we'll give you a lot of our "I wouldn't do it that way" examples. And you can take them or leave them. But we say those things not because our software is limited in how it works, but because even logistically, these things just are not helpful. Right? Splitting the line by last name -- not a good idea. Now, you could be super creative and thoughtful and say, "I'm just going to take the stack of names in my event and go through and evenly divide them." And then you just get these weird splits. I've seen it, right? Like A-A through C-E. And then C-F -- it's like, what? It's too confusing to your guests. Your guests, when they walk in, should be greeted the same, have the same experience, and they should easily be able to get checked in. They shouldn't have to figure out what line to be in.

Diana: Well, and the reason they're doing that is because they've got these packets.

Jeff: So that's the second thing. Packets. Lori loves packets.

Lori: Packets were a thing.

Jeff: They were a thing where it's like, "I am going to --"

Lori: Not as much anymore.

Jeff: Well, and yes. And hopefully, because we like to try to talk clients out of them. But they were the thing, right? I get it. It's like, "I can put everything together. I know Lori Mackay is coming without a Mac guy. I'm going to pre-assign them a paddle number. I know they're VIP. I'm going to put their two bracelets in there. I'm going to put their drink tickets. And this is going to be amazing. They're just going to show up and we're going to hand them their packet." Right. The problem with that is, first of all, you have to have an incredibly good guest list completely filled out and know everything.

Diana: Very accurate.

Jeff: And these packets have to be accurate. And when they're not, it is a total disaster. Right. We were at one event. I remember it's about two or three days before the event started and we get on this call because the client is frantic. They want to preload paddle numbers into our guest list. Unfortunately, we allow that. So we're trying to talk them out of it and she's like, "Well, this is how we do it. We've been doing it this way for" -- I forget how many years. And I was like, "Okay, well, there is a way better way to do this than what you're doing, but you've already done it this way. We're just going to have to suffer through it." And "suffer" was an understatement because what ended up happening was they had these boxes of folders behind the check-in area and they were all paddle numbers, okay? So they already knew who was what.

Lori: Right. So, oh, Lori Mackay is paddle 235. So anyway, in there is everything that she bought. Except in this case, a lot of the time it wasn't true. And so we'd be checking people in and the guy would be like, "I'm a VIP." I'm like, well, you're... actually not. According to what's in this packet, you're not.

Jeff: And what would happen sometimes is that every person got a paddle number, which is also not highly recommended, right? Because most people like to bid as couples. So it might be in the couple's -- it might be in their spouse's or their date's packet, but we didn't check in their date because their date didn't come up to check in because they're like, "My date's going to the bar, I'm just going to get our stuff." So then I'm like, okay, now we have to go back to the guest list and say, "What paddle number would your guest have been had we checked them in, go find that folder?" Why? Why don't you just give me a stack of VIP bracelets? Why don't you just give me a stack of drink tickets? Why don't you just give me a stack of paddle numbers? And I'll deal with it right there. Mark them in the system. And I'll know what to do. I check them in. It says he's a VIP. I hand him two bracelets. It says he gets four drink tickets. I hand them four drink tickets. Done.

Diana: Yeah.

Jeff: This podcast is powered by Handbid, mobile bidding and auction software that makes every event a smash. Visit handbid.com to learn more and schedule your free demo today.

Jeff: But these are the things where, a lot of you folks listening on the podcast, if you've done it a certain way for a certain period of time, be open and willing to try things differently, right?

Diana: Yeah.

Jeff: And pre-registering people and making them bidders in advance is actually going to make it worse on you, not better.

Lori: Yeah, agreed.

Diana: Yes. We would like you all to forget about the packets. Let's just say it. Okay, so if you do name tags, do a different table for name tags. Get name tags away from check-in.

Jeff: I remember an event that we did --

Diana: Yeah.

Jeff: -- in a country club on the East Coast.

Diana: Yep, I remember.

Jeff: And so the first year we were there, this was the first year they were using mobile bidding. And look, we crushed check-in, but after the event was over, we said, "We have a way better idea for you." Because in the city, even if it's a country club, the area -- the location of check-in was very small. So we were all sitting down on these low tables looking up to the guest and trying to get them checked in. And then we also had to find their name tag. So in that check-in process, we got through it that night. We did it, we passed out paddle numbers and the whole thing. But the advice for the next year was to get cocktail tables and put -- I think we did four cocktail tables, two laptops on each cocktail table -- and we had a line marshal. And the line marshal would direct people as they came in the door. And then name tags were on the other side of the little check-in area. And it was revolutionary.

Lori: It was. Because when you're looking eye to eye at somebody in a small, crowded, loud room, you can hear them better and you just have more of a rapport with them.

Jeff: Strolling on up to my table. I don't know if I actually said that, by the way. But anyway, then they had to go find their own name tag. And that was the instruction. They weren't having to say, "Hello, my name is John Smith." And so those things were so helpful.

Diana: Yeah.

Jeff: And look, it's not a bad idea to give people stuff like drink tickets at check-in because it makes them check in, right?

Diana: Yeah, that's true.

Jeff: Otherwise, people will skip it if they feel like, "Oh, the only thing I have to do over there is register to get a paddle number. I'll just skip that and do that later. I don't want to wait in that line." So some things that you can do that will help with that. First of all, maybe give them a drink when they come in the door. I mean, if you don't have alcohol at your event, totally understand. But if you are going to serve alcohol, one of the things that people tend to want to do is get to the bar quickly and then go meet and chat with their friends, maybe browse the auction area. And check-in is standing between them and the bar. So you really can diffuse a lot of issues if you just hand them a drink when they walk in the door. So that's one. Giving them drink tickets if you're doing a paid bar -- that's something that will also help. They'll say, "Oh, well, I can get two free drinks if I just stand in this very fast, quick, efficient line to get my drink tickets."

Jeff: But have someone that also greets people at the door and tells them what you need them to do. Because if they're going to -- say you have a line of four or five people, that's only going to take a few minutes. That's not a big deal. Lines happen because lots of people show up at once. So the "I don't want a line at my check-in" -- that isn't possible. Even if you had 100 people doing check-in, if 200 people all show up at once, there's going to be a line with two people in each line. It just happens.

Jeff: But either way, you can say, "Hey, here's what we need you to do. We need you to get your phones out, do these things, get prepared. Because when you get up there, you can have all these things done already and check-in will be very smooth. Get your credit card out." I mean, how many people walk up and you say, "Will that be Visa or MasterCard tonight?" And they're like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I want to put a card on file." And then they're fumbling for their wallet and they're flipping through trying to figure out what card they want. All of that stuff takes time and you can kind of prep them for that.

Jeff: And then I think a very key thing you mentioned is a line monitor. I don't know what you call it -- line marshal, line monitor -- but people chitchat in line and they're not paying attention, and then you've got somebody who's a check-in agent waving their hands wildly saying, "I'm available over here." That's what that person's job is -- just to make sure that the line is moving and flowing.

Lori: No one at this table will be surprised to know that I am often assigned the line marshal duty.

Jeff: Shocking.

Diana: Shocking.

Jeff: Yeah. So it's important because it keeps your attendant from having to stand up and wave their arms. Instead, "Oh, ma'am, we can take you at station number five." "Diana's available to help you."

Diana: So one thing I want to throw out -- one concept -- is if our listeners are kind of new to all this, this idea of solutions. Can y'all speak a little bit about how you've seen that done really well in the past? And first of all, what is it? Let's describe that to our listeners.

Lori: So I consider solutions to be a station or an area where if there's anything out of the ordinary -- for instance, maybe they're not on the guest list, maybe they're not on the sponsor list, or --

Diana: Maybe they're at the wrong event.

Lori: I've had that too. I've had that happen. I have had people come to the wrong event.

Diana: Yes.

Lori: I mean, anything that's just kind of out of the ordinary. One that comes up all the time inevitably is, "I don't want to sit at that table," or "I want to move to this table." Or "I decided to bring five extra people to this table. Can you guys get us five place settings?"

Jeff: Anything out of the ordinary. We put place settings --

Diana: He's that guy.

Jeff: I'm just going to throw out all the things we've had to deal with. We're solutions people here.

Diana: We're totally solutions people.

Jeff: But have a station or an area for people to go with those questions, or for check-in attendants to be able to say, "Why don't you go see Diana over there? She'll help you out with that." And have all that stuff ready to go for them right there. For tables, for sure.

Lori: Yeah. I mean, we were at one event and they must have had 60 tables.

Jeff: Yeah, that's a lot. And so it was big. But what works well, by the way -- a little side tip on tables -- is going serpentine with them. So you go like one through 10 and then 11 should be right next to 10 and go back the other way. Because when you give people tables 10 and 11 and 11 is at the other end of the ballroom from 10, they're going to come tell you they want to move, because they're together. They want their tables together. So we saw a lot of that at this event. And so basically the easy fix is to go into the ballroom and swap all the end tables. Just mirror them, right?

Lori: Right, right.

Jeff: And anyway, it was a little bit of an effort versus trying to sit there on the guest list and mass move people's tables. So anyway, all of those -- you definitely need a solutions person, because they'd be like, "Hello, you put me with the Mackays?"

Diana: We can't sit with the Mackays. They are so obnoxious.

Jeff: In the best possible way.

Lori: Yeah, I think that's something that if you're new to event planning, especially if you're new to mobile bidding, it's something to think about. Because it's going to be that troubleshooting person who is just very good at solving -- cool as a cucumber.

Jeff: Yep. So there's guest list for sure, right? So we're talking about a solutions person who knows the guest list, knows the table assignments, knows the sponsors. It will not be somebody from your mobile bidding company most likely. They don't know your guests. They don't want to make table decisions for you. You need to be making those. That means you have to have somebody authorized to make those in the check-in area.

Jeff: And then I would say one person that could be your mobile bidding company would be some sort of bidder technical solutions person. Okay?

Lori: I have fixed iPhones, I have helped people -- I mean, you name it. And it's not even related to necessarily an app. I mean, you're just helping people figure out how to get up and going. I once was standing at a cocktail table at an event and someone said, "I can't get this to work." And I cleared over 50 apps that they had open. I said, "Sir, want to try again? I just gave your phone a big break. It needs a rest from you and your apps." So now you only have one open.

Jeff: And he was like, "Oh, I didn't know how to do that." I'm like, "I'm here for you."

Diana: My favorite was the guy that showed up with the flip phone from 1992 or whatever. The one where you typed in the number and hit send?

Lori: Oh, yeah. He's like, "How do I get this to work?" I'm like, "Ooh, I don't know. You don't. Here's an iPad. Here you go."

Lori: You work some of these events and there's people that come to the event, and you'll send them the login link, give them the information, and say, "Okay, have a great night." And they will stand there in front of you and download the app, click on the link, make sure everything's working. They want to stand right there because they want the help right then. And so typically with those kind of people, I say, "Hey, why don't you step over there to that table, they can help you work the app or figure out the software or your phone."

Jeff: Or the Apple Store. I think what you're trying to say is you would like to move people in a sophisticated way from the check-in line over to what we might call a volunteer who's helping people get set up on their phones. And that's a genius idea. It's helping the check-in line move through. It's being able to capture that person who's a little nervous about what they're doing and wants some security to make sure they understand things. I mean, if you've got an analytical person, why wouldn't they want to understand how to bid? That totally makes sense. So I love that idea. I often recommend that as well.

Lori: Yeah, get them out of the line where they're still being taken care of.

Diana: Yes, they're feeling loved.

Jeff: And one thing I'll also mention -- because you mentioned the concept of staggered check-in, which is really in your case describing how people can go to various areas to check in -- but you could also stagger times.

Lori: Yes.

Jeff: And I've seen this work well, especially if you have a VIP reception beforehand. Please, if you have one of those, check them in there.

Lori: Oh, yes, please.

Diana: Oh, this is a great opportunity. This is a missed opportunity if you're not doing this. And it creates a mess. I'll tell you why. Because what's going to happen is, say you have 50 VIPs. And so you do a VIP reception at, let's say, 5:30 until 6:15. Well, what's happening at 6:15? You're kind of in the heart of general check-in. You send 50 people into that room to get checked in. Not cool.

Lori: Not cool. Now they're mad. Now the VIPs are not so VIP.

Jeff: Well, they're like, exactly. It's like, "Wait a second. I was drinking upstairs. I'm just going to go back there." "I was doing much better five minutes ago."

Jeff: Check in all your VIPs. And I've seen people say, "We would like --" like, we'll do events, and there'll be 800 to 1,000 people at a luncheon. Well, luncheons happen fast, right? And so you can't have an hour check-in because people can't spend two, three hours at lunch. So say your luncheon is from 11:30 to 12:30, you can give people times to check in. So they'll say, "Your preferred check-in time is 10:30." Or "Your preferred check-in time is 11. Please come at 11." And they're just giving groups of people staggered times to spread it out. Otherwise, trying to get 800 to 1,000 people -- I mean, you have to have a lot of volunteers. And they might have 10 or 15 people doing it, but still, if 800 people show up and you have 10 people doing check-in, it's going to take a little bit.

Diana: Yeah. And I would like to say -- in my mind, I'm imagining this VIP experience that's happening upstairs from 5:30 to 6:15 -- great opportunity for people, like your check-in team, to walk around with their phone and check those VIPs in. I mean, what a very casual, very social way to do that without making them feel intruded upon.

Jeff: Where is this going, right? Because we're talking about how you can make these things better now. But I think where you're going to see this go is more and more towards the concept of self-check-in. If you just think about how airports work, very few people these days are actually walking up to an agent to check in. Right. There's agents there to help. But for the most part, we're all getting trained to be able to do this ourselves. Our software is moving in that direction. We've got air codes now. And air codes allow you literally to split up your guest list and not force your sponsor to enter all the data. Your sponsor can turn around and hand out these codes to all of their guests. Their guests can register themselves. We know exactly who they are.

Jeff: And you're going to start seeing the ability to walk into a venue, scan some code, or just -- literally because we know who you are or we know where you are and you tell us who you are -- we can figure out where you belong, what table you're at, and who your sponsor is. So I think that's going to make it better in the future and it's going to relieve some stress off of that. In the meantime, a lot of us are still kind of wrapped in the traditional check-in methods, everything from "I'm going to put all the laptops out, I'm going to give you a short interview, I'm going to give you a script, an entire script that we expect you to read and follow."

Lori: Yes.

Jeff: So anyway, there are gotchas around that. And we've talked about a couple of the gotchas -- the splitting the line by last name, or pre-registering people. If you want to know why that's a bad idea, just write a comment on the podcast asking why it's a bad idea, and we'll do a whole podcast on what a mess it creates later.

Diana: Yeah, it really does.

Jeff: But other types of things that can really get you is when you take the method you've done in the past and you refuse to let go of some of it. I mean, we did an event and every year when they do it, they have these contact cards. So they go to the CRM and print out these contact cards, and it would be the "Lori Mackay" contact card. And they would say, "Can you read through this and just mark off things that aren't accurate and hand it back to me?" So there's Lori in her beautiful dress and her handbag and her hair is just so, and she's being handed a card to edit. Edit? No.

Lori: Yes. The best is when they drop all the cards, which happened. And now they're no longer in alphabetical order. And you've got 300 cards in your lap and you're flipping through them. And we're like, "Can we kill the cards? Can we just kill the cards? Can we just do this in the software?"

Jeff: Yes. A lot of those things, they just need to go.

Diana: Yeah. And I just want to come back to air codes a second because I think all our listeners are probably like, "Wait a minute, what did he just say?" And I would say we'll probably do a podcast on air codes and the product and the best practices around it and we'll explain it to y'all. But in the meantime, I think this is a really good example of how Handbid is trying to think of better ways of doing check-in and better ways of doing events in general. And this is one of the solutions that we're presenting to you all as our clients and hopefully potential clients for the future.

Jeff: And so today's conversation, I hope that it's been helpful. What else do we need to say? I mean, we've talked about --

Diana: We've gone through a lot. We've talked about the objective, we've talked about volunteers, the number of volunteers, the kind of device you're using.

Lori: The flow.

Diana: The flow, the tiered check-in.

Jeff: The timing.

Diana: The timing. The location of check-in.

Jeff: And also, we're really asking you to expand your thinking around what is the best way to do check-in. Is there anything that you can do differently this year that you did last year? What is one or two components of your check-in that you can rethink to make better?

Diana: So what are your thoughts? Have we covered everything? Is there anything else?

Lori: Yeah. The only thing I would end with on this is the goal -- understanding what do I want to have accomplished when the person walks away from the check-in desk. And I would tell you, it is not that they have to be completely up to speed on bidding. If you want that, open your auction a week early and get them all in it. Everybody ramps up to things in different periods of time. And so what I tend to do, depending on what kind of line is behind me -- if I have time to spend extra time with a guest, I will, if they want it. But if I don't, the best place to do that is the solutions table or the auction area.

Lori: And what tends to work well is saying, "Download this app," or "Go to this web page," or "Just click on this link and it will take you from there." And if you have any questions, find a volunteer in the auction area and they will help you.

Jeff: And it helps when your volunteers are proactive, walking around. If somebody's on their phone, ask them if they're doing okay. "Sir, ma'am, are you okay with bidding? Do you understand how it works? Do you have any questions?" It's not that the software is complicated or not complicated -- that all depends on the user. So the question is, they'll come up and say, "I think I need to get set up," or "I don't think I did this right," or "I don't really understand X, Y, or Z." And that's your perfect opportunity to kind of finish it off, give them some strategies, show them how the software works.

Jeff: The other thing I would want to say is that this isn't an app versus web thing, right? We have both, and people are entirely entitled to use whatever interface they want. None of that slows check-in down. Right. In 2011, when you didn't have Face ID and Touch ID and everything else, maybe it was a different issue. But in 2023, I'm telling you, everybody walking in that door -- I don't care how old they are -- has put an app on their phone. And so if that's the route you want them to take, I encourage that because I think it's actually easier for people to use. And I'm not trying to downplay our web software. I think our web interface is amazing. But either way, that's not going to be the issue.

Jeff: What's going to slow down check-in is if you have problems with your guest list, you have incomplete data, you're having to capture that data. You've made an appropriate business decision to capture information, which means "I do want your info." The other thing that significantly slows down check-in is when you have your check-in staff do a whole bunch of stuff maybe they shouldn't be doing.

Lori: Yeah. Like validating parking and coat checks and what else? I mean, we've seen it all.

Diana: Oh my gosh. You're right.

Lori: I think the other thing that slows check-in down is when the volunteer doesn't really understand how it works themselves. So a lot of times it's good to go through a volunteer training and have them experience it as a guest themselves so that they feel more comfortable with the process.

Lori: And also, too many words. What I've found works really well for volunteers is to keep it really simple. Like, the first thing they want to do is, "Well, hi Bob and Betty Smith. Welcome! Bob, would you like to be the bidder, or Betty, would you like to be the bidder?" "What do you mean? What's a bidder?" "It's the person that's going to be involved in the silent auction and the live auction, and we've got 45 items in the silent auction and you can do the paddle raise and you can do the heads or tails" -- and it turns into this world's longest explanation.

Lori: When I teach check-in, I just say keep it really simple. Assume the people coming to your fundraiser are there to give. So one of them needs to be a bidder -- whoever takes the lead, that person's the bidder in my world. So if Jeff and Kerry walk up and Jeff is like, "I need to check in" -- Jeff's the bidder. I'm not going, "Oh, Carrie, would you also?" No. Too many words. Keep it really simple. Assume they want to bid. I never, ever ask somebody if they want to bid.

Jeff: No. And I 100% agree with you. And typically, I like to check in parties, right? And Handbid lets you do that. So you walk up and it'll be like, "Hi, can I get your last name?" And they'll say "Porter." Okay. So I type that in, I search, I find it, and say there's two. That's really easy, right?

Lori: Yeah.

Jeff: I'll say, "Jeff and Karen?" Like, "Yes." Check them both. Yep. "Jeff, are you going to be the bidder tonight?" "Yes." Okay. We're moving on. We're not talking about the auction, anything else.

Jeff: Now, sometimes what I'll see is I'll look up somebody and there will just be one of them. And then the next question is, depending on the charity, I like to get at least an accurate guest list. So if the other one says "Guest Porter," I'm probably going to ask them, "What is your guest's name?" I'm not going to probably grab their email unless they insist on it. But I at least want to get their name so you know who came. And I think that helps the charity out. And that's easy. That's fast. I can retype, replace "guest" with whatever.

Lori: But you're right. That's about it.

Jeff: Yeah. It doesn't need to be this big long diatribe of what's going on for the whole evening and how it all works. Or going through the -- I've seen people go through the program with somebody and be like, "Well, we're starting here and then we're going to have dinner at seven o'clock" -- and I'm like, "What are you doing? We have 500 people we've got to check in. Let's go."

Diana: There's a line marshal in you. See, you could be like -- Diana, you'd be a line marshal. You're like, "Roll on, here." And you've had enough time, so -- we're running out of time on this podcast, and I have a couple of other things I want to cover.

Jeff: So just on that same topic -- when people are like, "Who wants to be the bidder?" and the response is "Well, what is that?" -- I was like, "Who wants to pay the bill at the end of the night?" And then typically they laugh and then they'll say, "Oh, it's going to be me" or "It's going to be her." And I'll say, "Look, if you guys want to bid separately, I can set that up. If you don't --" "Well, what's the advantage of that?" And I'll look at the guy and say, "Well, I mean, your wife probably won't know what you're bidding on if you want to hide it from her. If you want the Yeti cooler and she wants the eyelash extensions, no judgment."

Diana: That's right.

Lori: Yeah, for sure.

Jeff: So anyway, I think those types of things help, right? Just having a little bit of banter, but understanding -- to your point -- you cannot belabor the conversation at check-in.

Diana: Yeah. And Lori said it best. Assume that the guests at your event are coming to donate. They're coming to give you money. So figure out the easiest way for them to do that. It should be very quick, very easy.

Jeff: Yeah. I agree.

Diana: Did you have one more? I feel like you said a couple more things.

Jeff: Oh, well, I mean, I think at this point I've given --

Diana: Sorry, I'm keeping track, Jeff. Jeff said he had two things and he only said one.

Lori: Right. That's what I'm hearing.

Diana: Well, I agree with Jeff. I think you're setting the stage for the rest of the evening. Put time and effort into planning your check-in. Walk through it yourself as a guest so you know what their experience is going to be like. Is it clear? Does it make sense? Is it casual? I'm all about the casual check-in. I mean, you guys know that. I definitely don't want to sit at a table like this.

Lori: And have good data on your guest list -- at least first name, last name -- so that they feel welcome.

Jeff: Yeah. And I know the second thing I was going to mention. Okay. Now I can sleep.

Diana: Okay.

Jeff: So we get asked this question every once in a while. What kind of volunteers do you need? And should I hire staff? And we've always had a position on this because when we got into this industry, most of our direct competitors were more staffing companies than they were mobile bidding companies. I mean, their objective was to bring six or eight people to your event and make it run smoothly. And look, for the most part, they probably did, right? I mean, those staff are used to the software, they've done it before. And so it's a little bit less stress than "Are my volunteers going to be able to pull it off?"

Jeff: And we've always had the position of, for the most part, your volunteers are going to be able to pull it off. And that doesn't mean that you shouldn't hire staff. I'm just saying that you probably don't need eight experienced staff people at your event from Handbid, or any mobile bidding company. So what I would suggest is, if you're kind of new to this, hire one or two professional staff. And in our experience, if you find people that are personable, that know how to use technology -- one or two Handbid staff or one or two mobile bidding company staff can make the rest of them very effective.

Lori: Yeah, this is so true. I mean, I think all of us have worked events where maybe over 700, 800 people, one or two Handbid people are there. There's maybe 14 or so volunteers showing up to get trained. And the volunteers can get the tutorial from us before people arrive -- that's what the Handbid staff does, or any mobile bidding solution staff should do. And then if your volunteer has a question, you're there for them. You're there to help mitigate that one little question that will come up. But most of the time, after they get through two or three people, they've got it. They've got it.

Jeff: And we did a podcast on volunteers that's worth listening to in terms of what types of people to recruit for that type of role. Don't ever shift change in the middle of check-in, by the way. That was in that podcast. But the whole point is, you don't even have to train them a week in advance. You don't have to send them videos -- they're going to forget it all anyway. Just show up, make sure they're on time, minimum of 30 minutes before. You can do that training and then let the professional people stand behind them, walking behind them, answering questions. And you're right, three people in and they've got it down.

Jeff: So I think that's just another important consideration. It's going to give you a lot more flexibility in how many staff you bring in because of your budget, because now you're using volunteers, and volunteers are free. Right? You have to feed them, so maybe they're not entirely free.

Diana: Please feed your volunteers.

Lori: Yes. And give them water at check-in, by the way.

Diana: Oh, yeah. That was also in that podcast. And mints. They're talking to your guests, and sometimes they get close.

Jeff: So breath mints and water.

Diana: Ooh, yes. Lord have mercy.

Jeff: Yeah. So don't feed them the Greek garlic chicken dinner right before check-in.

Diana: With a bunch of spinach that's in their teeth.

Jeff: That's right.

Diana: Oh, my gosh. Make them smile in the mirror before they walk out to do check-in. So it's all good.

Jeff: All right. Well, we've been over time on this one. This is a good one. This is a topic. And I'm sure --

Lori: I've enjoyed this. Thank you.

Jeff: Yeah. And I think leave some comments, specific questions, and we're happy to answer those in a future podcast. But anyway, thank you, Diana. Thank you, Lori, for attending today.

Diana: Thank you for inviting us.

Lori: Thank you.

Jeff: Thank you guys for listening to the Elevate Your Event Podcast. We wish you all the best in your next event check-in. Bye.