Real setup, names changed
A city-to-city marketing tour that checks in without reliable internet
Education consultancy running admissions seminars across India and the Gulf · Google Sheets add-on
Northstar Admissions (name changed) tours cities with seminars for families of university applicants. Hotel ballrooms and school auditoriums do not come with reliable Wi-Fi, and guests register up to the last minute.
The situation
Venue internet is the recurring failure: staff phones lose signal exactly when the queue is longest. The team needed check-in that keeps working through a dead spot.
Their audience lives on WhatsApp, not email — confirmations and reminders had to go where families actually look.
The setup
Offline check-in mode
Before doors open, each staff phone downloads the guest list. Scans are validated locally and sync back to the sheet when signal returns. A connectivity dead spot no longer stops the queue.
Guides: Offline check-in · What offline check-in can and cannot promise
Name lookup as backup
Guests who registered minutes ago or lost their ticket are found by name and checked in on the spot — no 'sorry, you're not on the list' moments in front of a family.
Guide: Attendee summary format
Tickets and reminders on WhatsApp
Tickets are sent by WhatsApp with the family's name and the seminar city, then a reminder the day before. Open rates are visibly higher than email in this audience.
Guide: WhatsApp sending modes
One project per city, one recipe
Each city stop is a copy of the same sheet. The tour manager clones it, changes the venue and date, and the local team takes over.
What happened
Tours run through connectivity problems that used to stall the entrance queue; check-ins recorded offline sync automatically afterwards.
Registration-to-attendance rates per city are visible in one place, which shapes where the next tour goes.
Features used in this example
More examples
Next step
Set up the same thing for your event
Free for your first 10 attendees. After that, pricing is per attendee — and unused check-ins never expire.