Offline events · multi-entity · tickets & currencies · on-site · close & comply
How to use it: nothing here is sequential. Each topic stands alone — use the phase guide below to jump, and hand single topics to the people who run them.
Three marks recur. Colour tells you the phase. ≈ marks a converted figure — read-only, always dated, never what anyone is paid. A time without a timezone is venue-local; everything else carries its zone.
Where the law appears — pricing mechanics on Pricing mechanics, and everything in Comply — it is a summary for operators, current to 8 Oct 2026, and not legal advice.
A free, phase-by-phase manual for teams running large offline conferences across legal entities, currencies and time zones, from the first brief to the closed books. Nine rules it keeps coming back to:
T−12 to T−8 weeks
Five answers that cost nothing now and a great deal in week eleven.
| Decision | Locked by | Cost if it moves | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Settlement entity | First sale | Refund and re-issue every order | |
| Pricing currency | Publishing | Prices move under buyers | |
| Tax and place of supply | First invoice | Corrections across two tax years | |
| Ticket categories | Badge sign-off | Reprint, and rebuild every access rule | |
| Time zone of record | Schedule published | Speakers arrive an hour out |
Fixed costs divided by paying attendance, plus variable cost per head. Paying attendance, not attendance — speakers, staff, press and guests eat and pay nothing.
A refund returns the whole ticket price, and the payment fee does not come back with it. Model refunds as a cost line, not as reversed revenue.
Two fees get confused. The payment fee goes to your payment provider; Stripe publishes its rates at stripe.com/pricing. A platform fee is what a ticketing platform takes on top. bagevent takes none: 0% on every plan. Compare the two in the ticket fee calculator.
| Event | Entity | Account | Status | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Corvess Berlin Forum 12–13 Mar 2026 · CET |
Corvess GmbH | Stripe · EUR | settled | €58,200 |
Corvess Singapore Summit 4 Jun 2026 · SGT |
Corvess Pte | Stripe · SGD | settled | S$96,400 |
Corvess New York Roadshow 23 Sep 2026 · EDT |
Corvess LLC | Stripe · USD | pending | $142,800 |
Nothing is held in transit between the attendee and your account.
Back to the company that took the money. No inter-company balance.
The German accountant does not wait for New York.
| Layer | Decides | Example | Set by | Defect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | What the buyer is quoted | €890 | Per ticket type | Derived from a live rate |
| Settlement | What lands in the bank | EUR | The owning entity | Converted before it lands |
| Tax | What the invoice declares | 19% DE VAT | Place of supply | Follows the card country |
| Display | What head office reads | ≈ $1,041 | A view, with rate and date | Shown as if it were a balance |
| Objective | The number | Capture on the day | Or else |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead generation | Qualified conversations | Stand and session scans | A list with no interest signal |
| Retention | Attendance by account | Check-in matched to CRM | Nobody can prove who came |
| Revenue | Net per entity | Order-level settlement | Finance rebuilds it by hand |
| Sponsor delivery | Footfall and leads | Zone scans per sponsor | Renewal becomes an argument |
| Brand | Who came, not how many | Seniority at registration | Only a headcount survives |
T−10 to T−6 weeks
Venue, date, programme, speakers, tickets. Everything here has a price and a deadline.
Theatre seats the most · classroom about half of theatre · banquet low and wide.
Herringbone for workshops · reception standing · U-shape for negotiation · boardroom closed.
Quoted capacity is usually theatre. Confirm the layout you need, in writing.
Registration ninety minutes before the first session.
Something worth arriving early for, in that window.
Exhibitors and VIP ahead of the general audience.
Any chance you will translate, dub or clip the talk with AI? Get written agreement at invitation stage.
Asking afterwards means refusing something already made — and the disclosure duty on What you must disclose applies to whatever you publish.
| Category | Unlocks | Invoice | Trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attendee | Main programme | Standard | Price tiers modelled as categories |
| VIP | Reserved seat, own lane | Standard or comp | Promised by email, not on the badge |
| Speaker | Green room, all sessions | None | Added after access rules exist |
| Exhibitor | Early access, lead scanning | To the exhibitor | Hours nobody told the door |
| Staff | All areas | None | Agency given the client's badge |
| Press | Accredited areas | None | Embargo never recorded |
| Sponsor | Contracted allocation | To the sponsor | Tracked in the contract only |
| Custom | Whatever the contract invented | Case by case | Absent — so Press absorbs it |
Resetting timers · decorative scarcity counts · exit-intent popups · confirm-shaming · prices that differ by who is looking.
In several platforms these are ticket types in the data model, not a front-end setting. The Digital Fairness Act proposal — The audit — targets exactly this list.
T−8 to T−1 weeks
Every registration should arrive already knowing where it came from.
| Link opens | Did they send it |
| Registrations | Is it your audience |
| Approved and paid | Does quality survive |
| Checked in | Was any of it real |
A source is a campaign, an outside partner, or one sales rep. Each gets its own link. If a partner earns commission, agree which of the four numbers it is counted on before the links go out.
| Seat | Can do | Cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Inviter | Submit or forward; sees own list only | See other lists, approve their own |
| Reviewer | Approve or decline; holds the quota | Change the quota, act across teams |
| Administrator | Final confirmation; sees every entity | Approve a name the reviewer has not seen |
| Settle before the first invitation | The rule to write down |
|---|---|
| Two reps, one prospect | Who keeps the credit, and who rules on a dispute. Decided once, not per deal |
| A free seat | Always goes to a reviewer. Nobody approves their own invitee |
| A request nobody answers | Passes to a named person after a fixed number of days |
| Message | Sends | Contains | Answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirmed | On approval | Reference, e-ticket, calendar file | Did it go through |
| Pending or declined | When the reviewer acts, or at 48 hours | The state, and what happens next | Am I in |
| Doors open soon | 60 min before start | Entrance, lane, what to bring | Where do I go |
| Not yet arrived | 5–20 min after start | Location, and the cut-off time | Still reachable |
| You assumed | Now | Do instead |
|---|---|---|
| A human read the criteria | Answers are complete, plausible, sometimes invented | Verify at approval or payment |
| The campaign tag survives | No referrer; partners show as direct | Lean on checked-in, not clicks |
| The registrant is the attendee | Weaker than it was — and the door is where it shows | Confirm to the attendee's own address |
| Blocking bots protects you | It refuses a real assistant's agent | Mark valid but unverified; do not block |
Agree the reporting format before the event.
A sponsor who gets a number they did not expect will discount it. One who agreed the definition will quote it internally for a year.
On-site
The day itself. Every page here is something you can hand to a volunteer who arrived an hour ago.
| Cover this | How long | Led by | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scripts, posture, escalation | 30 min | Event lead | Day before, 15:30 |
| Device and system, hands on | 60 min | Technical lead | Day before, 16:00 |
| Spot check — everyone scans once | 15 min | Supervisor | End of the hands-on session |
| Group chat live, all points | — | Coordinator | Day before, 14:00 |
| Shift plan issued, by name | — | Coordinator | Day before, 18:00 |
| Materials counted in at each point | — | Point lead | Day before, by 20:00 |
Need the sheets to hand out? The check-in lane calculator exports a free Excel manual built from your numbers: a dated countdown, a lane-by-lane staffing sheet, the kit list, volunteer scripts and an exceptions sheet for every desk.
| Attendance | 4,000 |
| In the peak window | 55% → 2,200 |
| Window | 45 min |
| Per lane, per minute | 3 |
| Window cut to 30 min | 26 lanes |
Run your own numbers in the free check-in lane calculator. It allows about 25 seconds a person, greeting included, so it sizes more generously than the 3 a minute used here, which is a pre-printed badge handed over without a word.
| Lane | For | Needs | How many |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-registered | Ticket held, badge printable | Scanner, printer, a pair of hands | The formula, Size the door against the peak |
| Walk-up | No ticket, or a question | Form, payment, print, a supervisor | Own desk, off the flow |
| VIP and press | Met by a host | Badges held by name | One desk per cluster |
| Exhibitors | In before public doors | Different hours and rights | Opens earlier |
| Registered, unpaid | Signed up, never paid | Card terminal, and a way back into the lane | One desk, next to walk-up |
| Groups | One leader, many badges | A table and a manifest | Booked into a slot |
Signage before the queue sorts people while they walk.
Scan, confirm, release. Nothing over five seconds.
Bag, lanyard and questions, off to one side.
Two thirds of the team is needed for about ninety minutes. Book that, pay the overlap, and brief every role together in one room.
| Moment | Say this | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Greet | “Do you have your QR code, or shall I look you up by name?” | Look up before they reach you |
| Verify | “Could you spell your surname for me?” | Spell it back. Never guess |
| Issue | “Here is your badge, Ms Ortega.” | Say the name once |
| Direct | “Hall 2 — straight ahead, then right.” | Open hand, not a finger |
| Not found | “Let me check one spelling — and could you scan this code?” | Point at the on-site code |
| Name wrong | “Let me correct that and reprint it.” | In the system, not by pen |
| Declined | “The organiser's desk behind me can explain.” | Never give the reason |
| Someone else's badge | “I can only release it to the person named on it.” | Escalate; do not decide |
Not to a printer — so a jam reroutes instead of orphaning three devices.
A deliberate ceiling. Beyond it, one failure takes down too much door.
Desks reconcile with each other, then upstream when the link returns.
| Where | Gate lanes | Manual fallback | Staff | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main hall entrance | 3, each in and out | 1 in, 1 out | 2 on gates, 2 scanning | Always staff a manual lane |
| Breakout, capacity capped | — | 1 | 1 at the door | A phone is enough below 300 seats |
| Breakout, open | — | — | 1 roaming | Capture only, never block |
| Exhibition zone | — | — | Fixed tablet | No blocking, no queue |
| Catering and gala | — | 1 | 1 per service point | Entitlement, not attendance |
| Where | Answers | Device | Blocks | Staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main entrance | Arrived, and when | Desk scanner and printer | Yes | Who stands where |
| Track doors | Which sessions | One phone per door | If capped | One each |
| Exhibition zones | Which part of the floor | Tablet at the mouth | No | None |
| Stands | Which exhibitor | The exhibitor's device | No | The exhibitor's |
| Workshops | Capacity enforcement | Phone at the door | Yes | One each |
| Catering and gala | Entitlement | Phone at the service point | Yes | One each |
The check-in desk allocates a room only when the system does it automatically.
Everything else — a change, a specific floor, a late arrival, a no-show release — belongs to the accommodation team. Without that line, the attendee is sent back and forth between two desks.
| If this happens | The operator | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Venue link down | Carries on; checks the count clears later | Nobody |
| Printer jam | Clears it, releases held jobs | Nobody |
| Wrong person scanned | Undo, rescan | Anyone on the door |
| Already checked in | Decides on the spot; both records kept | Anyone on the door |
| No ticket at all | Records why | Supervisor |
| Session full | Turn away, standing, or overflow room | Supervisor |
| Stop scanning entirely | Records start and end time | Event lead |
T+1 to T+14 days
Two closes in forty-eight hours, counts then money, and the debrief inside a week. Skipping the first turns the rest into arguments.
A scan at the entrance, a scan anywhere, and a steward marking present are three different numbers.
Pick one. Put it at the top of the report. Use the same one next year. Sponsors will quote it for three years.
| Step | Check | Common failure |
|---|---|---|
| Payout per entity | Orders in that currency match the payout | A converted figure taken as the payout |
| Refunds assigned | Each sits with the company that took the money | An inter-company balance |
| Invoices issued | In each country's format | One template across three jurisdictions |
| Sponsor allocations | Delivered against the contract | Discovered at renewal |
| Suppliers paid | Venue, AV, catering, staffing | A late invoice after close |
| Variance note | Budget against actual | Skipped — and it wins the next brief |
Small things the same day · multi-city after each city · everything within a week.
The most common finding — we do not know which channels worked. That is One link per source, not done.
Plan · attendee list · inventory · speaker decks and releases · photography with rights · coverage · final report.
Could somebody who was not there find last year's floor plan in five minutes? If not, it is storage, not an asset.
| Ask | When | Of whom | Why then |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two questions on the badge | At the exit | Everyone leaving | The highest response rate all year |
| Six questions, maximum | Within 48 hours | All attendees | After that, memory becomes narrative |
| Session ratings | End of each session | That room only | Later, it measures the speaker's fame |
| Sponsor review | Within a week | The named contact, by phone | A form collects politeness |
| Client review | Separately | The person who signs | Their concerns are not the attendees' |
Applies from 2 Aug 2026
What changed in 2026, and the audit that takes an afternoon.
| What you do | Owns it | Disclosure | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| An assistant answers questions | Provider builds, you configure | A line in the first message | Site and app |
| Generated imagery | Provider marks, you publish | Machine-readable mark, plus a visible credit | Campaign |
| A recap that manipulates real speakers | You | Prominent, on first view, inside the video | Post-event film |
| Synthetic voice or dubbing | You | Stated before playback | Multilingual replay |
| Inferring how the room feels | You | Told to the people exposed, before exposure | Audience analytics |
Summary only, not legal advice.
| Question | Design for this answer |
|---|---|
| What crosses the venue network | The ticket identifier, nothing else |
| Where names and contacts live | On the desk that issued the badge |
| What a stranger learns from a badge | Nothing about its holder |
| How long you keep the list | A period decided in advance |
| Who can export it | Named people, logged |
| What sponsors receive | What the attendee consented to |
| Who appears in the attendee directory | Only those who chose to be found; contact details after they accept |