QR codes for events and conferences

Codes from registration to wrap-up

• Registration and tickets. Your event page on posters, invitations and social posts. Individual ticket codes come from your ticketing system, since each one is unique to an attendee.
• Schedule and map. One mobile page with sessions, room numbers and a venue map. Put its code on every hallway sign.
• WiFi. A WiFi QR code on the registration desk and table tents. Networks that need a username can't be joined from a code, so set up a simple guest network.
• Session feedback. A code on each speaker's last slide that opens a three-question form. Ask while people are still in their seats.
• Speaker contact cards. A contact card QR code on speaker badges, so attendees can save the speaker's details on the way out.
• Your hashtag. An X post QR code opens a ready-made post with your event hashtag and link. Attendees add a photo and send.

Where to place them

• The registration desk, for WiFi, the schedule and the event app
• Hallway and room-door signs, at eye height, about 15 cm (6 in) wide
• Badges, printed on both sides because lanyards flip. See QR codes on event badges.
• Meal tables, on table tents with WiFi and the feedback form
• Sponsor booths and signage, opening the sponsor's offer or demo page

Codes on stage screens

A code on a slide needs time. Leave it up for at least 30 seconds, and say out loud what it opens. Make it fill a third of the screen's height so the back rows can read it, and put it on a white panel even if the slide is dark.

The distance rule applies here too: roughly 1 unit of code width for every 10 units of distance. Someone 15 m (50 ft) from the screen needs the code about 1.5 m wide, which is why a big code on a big screen works and a small one in the corner doesn't.

Print a short web address under the code too. Someone at the back with an older phone can type it in.

What to avoid

Pages that need a strong signal. Ballrooms and basement halls are notorious for weak reception, and a code is only as good as the connection behind it. Test every page on mobile data in the actual room before doors open, and keep pages light: no giant images, no PDF schedules.

Crowded signs. Four codes side by side on one sign means people scan the wrong one. One code per sign, with a clear label, works better.

Pages that die with the event. Badges and programs go home in bags. After the event, update the schedule page with recordings or next year's date so those codes still lead somewhere.

Start with the schedule

It's the page attendees open most. Build it, make the code, and tape a full-size print to your office wall. If you can scan it from where an attendee would stand in the hallway, order the signs.