The automation behind the Automation Fair.
How The Knotts Company's annual TechFair went from clipboards and patchwork tools to a check-in and lead capture app, one improvement at a time.
- Client
- The Knotts Company, automation solutions for manufacturers in NJ, NY and PA
- Event
- Annual Automation Technology Fair: a keynote, four breakout seminars, all-day live demos and 26 vendor partners
- Solution
- BadgeBird, customized for Knotts
- Connected to
- HubSpot landing page and registration form
- Timeline
- Five years of events, with the check-in system improved each year
Two audiences, one day.
Attendees want to walk in, get a badge and get to their sessions. Partners, the vendors paying to be there, want to leave with real leads, not a stack of business cards.
Since 2022, Knotts has hosted roughly 100 vendors and guests at its fair, bringing manufacturers from NY, NJ and PA together to see automation solutions for their biggest production challenges.
The brief was the same every year: keep it simple, keep it low cost, require zero learning curve, and make sure partners get real value from showing up.
From a patchwork of tools to one scan.
When we first talked about scanned check-in, the goal was to make it as simple as possible for staff and just as simple for partners. No new hardware, no new software to learn. After a few years of crafty multi-step solutions, I built an all-in-one app to do it.
Before
- Check-in and badges pieced together from several tools: Airtable, Softr, QR code generators and Canva
- Off-the-shelf event platforms built for large conferences, priced beyond what the day justified, and often needing scanners for every booth
- Staff with too much to track on event day and no time to learn a new system
- Partners asked to download an app, create an account and remember a password, which most simply would not do
- Partners leaving with business cards instead of leads
With BadgeBird
- Registrations pulled straight from HubSpot, including session choices and last-minute sign-ups
- Names and companies cleaned up automatically so badges look right
- A unique QR code for every attendee and print-ready badges in seconds
- One personal login code per partner and staff member, with no app to download, no account and no password
- One admin view of attendance, session turnout, show rate and partner lead activity
- Lead lists as a quick download, or an email sent straight from the app
BadgeBird debuted in a customized version at TechFair 2026 in October, with Knotts branding and settings built for their staff and vendors. HubSpot isn't required. Registrations from any platform can come in through a simple integration or a CSV import.
What everyone had to do.
The Knotts team
- Printed and stuffed the badges
- Scanned people in at the door with their phones, and again as they entered each breakout session
- Sent partners their lead lists after the event
That was it. No spreadsheets to reconcile on event morning, and late registrations were handled with a same-day print batch.
The partners
- Scanned one personal code to open the app
- Scanned attendee badges, rated each lead and added notes
No downloads, no account setup and no password to remember. Everything rolled up into a single admin view for Knotts, so check-ins, session attendance and every partner's leads were tracked in one place.
Partners talked to most of the room.
- Partner lead scans rose from 96 to 163. 22 of 26 partners scanned, and 127 of the scans include notes, so follow-up has context.
- 78% of attendees who checked in were scanned by at least one partner.
- The admin view showed check-in totals, session attendance, show rate and partner scans during and right after the event. It was easy to see who had registered for each session, and whether there was room for on-site session registrations.
- Partners got started on their own. There were no day-of tech support requests from staff or partners.
What this means for your event.
You can ditch the clipboard and Sharpies. Just because your event is smaller doesn't mean it can't be high-tech. A modest budget, a small team and no time to learn new software are exactly the constraints BadgeBird was built around. One registration source, one badge and one scan that works for everybody, so your check-in and lead capture feel as polished as the event itself.
Planning an event of 50 to 150 people? I'd love to hear about it.
