There’s a lot that goes into making an event feel effortless. Most of it happens behind the scenes, and some of the most important bits are the things nobody should really notice.
Take the front door.
It’s probably not the first thing you think about when you imagine an event. But it’s the first experience every attendee has. Get it right and people barely give it a second thought. Get it wrong and you’ve created a point of friction before the evening has even started.
At our December 2025 edition, ticket allocation was slow and check-in became a bottleneck. People were left waiting to get inside in a narrow tunnel, which wasn’t exactly the welcome we wanted to give them.
So, ahead of TecTonic Night Summit 2026 at BAaD, we decided to do something about it.
A simple question, and a bit of curiosity
We went to our events platform partners, Forumm, with a fairly straightforward idea:
Could someone arrive, give us their name and walk away a few seconds later with a printed badge?
No pre-printed badges. No searching through piles of names. No unnecessary faff.
Forumm’s cofounders, Dan and Hilary, were up for the challenge. Working alongside Lesley, who leads attendee ticketing for TecTonic, and Paul, the Forumm developer behind the feature, they built a new on-demand badge-printing process directly into the platform.
The idea was simple, but it solved a few problems at once.
- Print when people arrive. No time spent pre-printing badges for people who might not turn up, and no box of unused badges at the end of the night.
- One source of truth. Check-in and the attendee list sit within the same system, giving us a more reliable picture of who actually came through the door.
- Make changes as you go. If someone’s details needed updating, the team could amend them in Forumm and print a replacement badge there and then.
Less admin, less waste and, hopefully, a much better welcome.
The real test happened at 6pm on a wet Thursday
Of course, building something and putting it in front of a few hundred people are two very different things.
TecTonic was the first proper outing for the new feature. Three laptops, three DYMO printers and a steady stream of people arriving at BAaD on an authentically wet Thursday in Glasgow.
In the normal run of things, someone gave their name, was checked in and had their badge in their hand in around five seconds.
And then, as these things tend to go, real life happened.
One of the printers jammed. Hilary found herself holding a torch while one of the check-in crew reached in to free the label. The badge was reprinted, the attendee got on their way and the queue kept moving.
It’s not necessarily the sort of product demonstration you’d put in a sales deck, but it’s probably a better test of whether something works.
Forumm Founders Dan and Hilary were there on the door themselves, in the wind and rain, because there’s a lot you only learn when a new system meets a real event. What happens when people arrive in waves? What breaks? Where does the process slow down? What do the people using it actually need?
You can’t learn all of that from behind a laptop. And that feedback goes straight back into what Forumm builds.
Good ideas are built in the open
One of the things we enjoy about TecTonic is finding opportunities for people and organisations to work together in ways that have a practical benefit.
This was a great example.
Forumm brought the platform and technical expertise. Lesley and her team brought the ticketing experience and operational knowledge. Our TecTonic team trusted a new process on a busy evening, and our volunteers helped keep everything moving.
A big thank you to:
- Dan, Hilary and Paul at Forumm, for building the feature, testing it in the real world and getting stuck in on the door.
- Lesley and our Event Support Team from Strathclyde Inspire; Amrita, Caitlin, Chandan and Katie — for running check-in and getting to grips with the platform so quickly.
It’s a small example of what can happen when people bring different skills to the same problem and are willing to try something together.
What we’d change next time
We’re pleased with how it went, but we’re not going to pretend it was perfect. That’s the point of trying things out: you learn, make adjustments and improve.
A few things are already on the list for next time:
- Have a second laptop and printer ready for exceptions, so badge edits and queries don’t interrupt the main queue.
- Improve directional signage, particularly around the two entrances.
- Add QR codes beside the queue so walk-up attendees can buy a ticket on their phone without holding everyone else up.
- Build in a larger volunteer buffer in case of last-minute dropouts.
- Explore QR scanning that automatically triggers badge printing, with a separate collection point.
Nothing particularly revolutionary. Just a series of practical improvements that should make the experience even smoother.
The little things make a difference
A five-second check-in isn’t going to be the headline attraction at TecTonic. Nobody is buying a ticket because they’re particularly excited about a badge printer.
But the details matter.
A smoother arrival means less time queuing and more time meeting people, exploring the Innovation Market Square, catching up with familiar faces and getting stuck into the evening. It also means better attendance data, giving us a more reliable picture of the people and communities we’re bringing together.
Forumm is now rolling the badge-printing feature out to other event organisers, which is great to see. If you’re organising events and want to move away from pre-printing badges for people who may never arrive, it’s worth having a conversation with the Forumm team.
And to everyone who came through the door at BAaD on 10 September: thanks for being part of it. We hope the check-in was the least memorable part of your evening, for all the right reasons.
Read the full TecTonic Night Summit 2026 Impact Report: [link]
