Streamlining Registration Across Co-Located Events with RefTech at International Confex
International Confex, the UK's largest gathering of event professionals, took place at the Excel in London, attracting just shy of 10,000 attendees in 2024. The event is co-located with the Event Production Show (EPS), which focuses on outdoor and music events, and the PA Show, aimed at the executive support market. To manage the registration of attendees across these three distinct but overlapping events, Mash Media, the organiser, turned to RefTech for a seamless, efficient, and branded registration experience.
The Challenge
With three entry points for the three co-located events, Mash Media needed to ensure that attendees could retrieve their badges at any entrance while retaining the specific branding of the event they had registered for. For example, an EPS attendee should receive an EPS-branded badge with the appropriate show sponsors, even if they entered and printed their badge at a Confex or PA Show entrance. Additionally, exhibitors needed lead retrieval capabilities, provided by Grip, across all three events, meaning badge scans had to capture and relay relevant attendee information, regardless of where the attendee registered.
Mash Media had faced logistical challenges the previous year, when long queues and delays in badge retrieval negatively impacted the attendee experience. This year’s focus was on reducing wait times and ensuring a seamless flow of visitors into the halls. A crucial aspect of this involved smooth integration between multiple technology providers—RefTech for onsite registration and badging, HubSpot for CRM and on-line registration, ASP for the website, and Grip for networking and lead retrieval.
The Solution
To help alleviate the pressure of onsite registration, RefTech enabled attendees to print their badges at home before the event. By sending out print-at-home badges in advance, the organisers ensured that many attendees were able to bypass onsite registration altogether, significantly reducing wait times on the day.
For those who preferred to print their badges at the venue, RefTech placed PrintPods at all entry points. This allowed attendees to quickly print badges on demand using a barcode from their registration confirmation. The system was designed to handle multiple badge types, ensuring the correct event branding and sponsor information was included in the badge design, and therefore could be printed quickly and easily by any PrintPod and regardless of the entrance used.
RefTech’s system integrated smoothly with the other platforms, including Grip for networking and lead retrieval. To further reduce congestion, RefTech advised opening exhibitor registration a day early, allowing exhibitors to collect their badges in advance, which significantly reduced congestion on the morning of the event.
Implementation
Three distinct registration areas were set up for Confex, EPS and the PA Show, each featuring PrintPods. Exhibitors were given priority access to collect their badges the day before the event. The PrintPods enabled attendees to print their badges swiftly by scanning a barcode on their mobile devices.
RefTech’s system also prevented badge fraud, ensuring that only one badge could be active per registration and alerting organisers in the event of any discrepancies. This was particularly important at the PA Show, where attendees had paid for either a one-day or two-day pass for access to the conference streams.
Results
Thanks to the early opening of exhibitor registration, the availability of print-at-home badges, and the efficient PrintPod system, wait times were drastically reduced. Attendees were able to retrieve their badges in seconds, with each badge carrying the branding and sponsors of the show they’d registered for. Regular communication between RefTech, the organisers, and the other technology providers ensured smooth integrations, preventing the technological issues that had caused delays in previous years.
Additionally, the system’s fraud prevention measures successfully identified and blocked attempts to misuse badges.
Testimonial
"We were extremely impressed with how smoothly registration went this year"
Samy Shafeeq, Head of CRM & Digital, Mash Media.
"The PrintPods were a game-changer - attendees loved the convenience, and the early opening for exhibitors was a fantastic idea. RefTech's ability to seamlessly integrate with our other systems and their expertise in badge management made all the difference. Our goal was to eliminate the chaos we had last year, and RefTech helped us achieve that flawlessly. One of the key benefits of working with RefTech is their team, and their personal approach; everyone was really invested in us having a flawless event – from the pre-event support and meetings to the onsite crew – everyone worked together to make our event a success."