convention people counting

I've had someone mention that it's hard to count members in a space of a certain size. Counting crowds in a park or a beach, or an area where they can come and go freely and they don't have to pay or check in can be tricky. Counting people in a confined space, like a convention, is pretty simple, if you control the entrances or have competent registration people.

You should be getting everyone to fill out a small form to register – in counting these registrations, you have your numbers. This also gives you a database for contacting people for future events. This seems to take a bit of time at the tables when it’s busy, but a quick form can be processed quite simply with name and address. You can then count the forms and get your total of individual attendees. With Wincon, were had super-competent in charge of registration and were able to get super accurate numbers.

Failing that, you count the number of badges or wristbands used. This is less accurate as replacements and errors can skew the number slightly. There should be some way of tracking who is eligible to go into your convention and both of these have to be bought by the case anyways.

You can also count the number of people going in and out. This can be tricky as you are bound to miss a few in crowded periods. As well, it is a lot harder to avoid recounting the same people as they leave and re-enter.

This again comes down to the reasons why you are keeping track of your numbers. See my other rant on how conventions count memberships.