Onsite Check-in Calculator
No one remembers a smooth check-in — but everyone remembers the line out the door. Size your stations, staff and printers to clear the arrival rush.
Your arrivals
We size the desk to your busiest moment, not the average.
Sized so the average person waits no longer than your target during the busiest window. Add a little slack for VIPs, badge jams and no-shows.
Email me this check-in plan
Get the station, staff and printer counts sent over — handy for your run-of-show or a supplier quote.
Sizing the desk
How does it estimate the wait?
It models arrivals as a queue (Erlang-C, the standard method for staffing service desks). It takes how many people arrive in your peak window and how long each check-in takes, then finds the number of stations that keeps the average wait under your target.
What is a realistic peak window?
For most conferences, 60–70% of attendees arrive in the 45–60 minutes around the opening session or keynote. If you have a hard start time or a keynote breakfast, the peak is sharper — shorten the window.
Self-service kiosks or staffed desks?
Kiosks are faster per person and scale cheaply, but need a few roaming helpers. Staffed desks handle exceptions better. On-demand badge printing adds time per person but removes pre-printing and mis-matches.
A planning estimate based on queueing theory and your inputs — real venues have quirks. We run onsite check-in and badging for events of every size with Cvent OnArrival. See how or talk to us.