A photo team that finds out what it is responsible for as each moment happens is a team that misses the moments that mattered, not because anyone was careless, but because nobody wrote the checklist down in the first place.

This is a checklist, not a philosophy, split into the four phases that actually happen around an event: the week before, the morning of, during the day, and the hour after the last guest leaves. It follows what actually happens on the ground, so whoever is holding a tablet at the door knows what to check before doors open, and whoever is watching the uploads knows what finished actually looks like.

Print it, hand it to whoever is running stations on the day, and tick off each phase as it passes. Drop the sections that do not apply to a particular event; a single-day corporate lunch does not need the multi-day hand-over note, for instance.

Key takeaways
  • This is a checklist in four phases, the week before, the morning of, during the event, and the hour after, so nothing is only remembered once it is too late to fix.
  • The access mode is locked once the event is published, so decide it the week before, not at the door.
  • A check-in station and a kiosk both need a test run on the morning of, before the first guest arrives.
  • If guest uploads are held for approval, someone needs to be checking that list through the day rather than only at the end.
  • The last job of the day is a final upload push and clearing anything waiting for approval, so the gallery reflects the whole event.

The week before

Most of what goes wrong on the day was actually decided, or left undecided, the week before. The access mode, open, registration, a pre-approved guest list or a PIN, has to be chosen and published in advance, because it cannot be changed once the event is live without unpublishing, changing it and publishing again. Branding needs the same check: banner, logo, colours, and the event name, date, venue and description all need to be right, because the event page is the first thing every guest sees, whether they arrive by link or by QR code.

Whoever is actually going to be on the door or behind the kiosk on the day should see this list before the day itself, not receive it as a surprise that morning. A station nobody has been briefed on is a station somebody has to improvise, which is exactly where a line at the door starts to build.

The checklist at a glance
WhenWhat the photo team owns
Week beforeAccess mode locked, branding checked, stations set up, upload approval decided
Morning ofCheck-in station tested, kiosk test print run, photo wall live, badge flow briefed
During the eventUploads going up continuously, approval list watched if it is on, guests pointed at the QR code
Hour afterFinal upload push, approval list cleared, stations switched off, attendee export sent

The morning of

This is the last point where a problem is cheap to fix. Log into the check-in station and run a real lookup by name and by QR code before the first guest is standing in front of it. If there is a print kiosk, run one photo through it end to end rather than assuming it works because it is switched on. If there is a live photo wall, put it on the screen guests will actually see and confirm it is showing something; it never shows a secret album on its own, though a private one will appear if that has been switched on for the event, so check that setting matches what you actually want on screen.

The same applies to the badge station if one is in use: print an actual test badge rather than only confirming the printer has power, since a badge with a font too large for the card or a logo cut off at the edge is a problem better found at eight in the morning than in front of the first guest of the day.

Brief whoever is on the door on the badge decision made the week before: does printing a badge check the guest in automatically, or are the two kept separate. Getting this wrong at the door is the fastest way to slow guests down in the first ten minutes.

The morning of is the last point where a fix is free. After doors open, every fix costs a guest something.

During the event: check-in and badges

Check-in runs on lookup by name or by QR code, and staff should default to whichever is fastest for the guest in front of them rather than insisting on one method for everyone. Badge printing follows the decision made in the morning briefing: printed and checked in together, or printed with entry handled separately. Either is fine; a station where staff are unsure which one they are running is what actually slows guests down at the door.

If staff are rotating through a station across a long day, whoever takes over needs the same information the first person had: which lookup method guests are actually using most, and whether the badge decision from the morning briefing has changed. A hand-over that is just a shrug and a walk away is how a smoothly running station starts making mistakes an hour before closing.

During the event: uploads, the kiosk and the wall

Photos should be going up through the day, not held back for one upload at the end. If guest uploads are switched on and held for organiser approval, that list needs a person checking it periodically through the event rather than only once at the close, or approved photos back up and guests are left wondering why nothing has appeared yet, even though they submitted something hours ago. None of this needs a dedicated staff member glued to the station all day, just someone whose other duties keep them within sight of it.

The kiosk and the live wall both work best when guests actually know they are there. A kiosk left entirely to signage works for a confident guest, but the first hour of the day usually goes more smoothly with someone nearby to point at the screen for the first few people who try it. After that, most guests manage the rest on their own.

Signage and a short prompt from staff at the right moment do more for scan rates than the QR code on its own, and the specific placement and staff-briefing tactics that raise how many guests actually scan a code are covered in a separate guide.

During the event: the moments a station will not catch

None of the stations above are watching for the handshake with a sponsor, the moment a speaker walks on, or the arrival everyone will ask about afterwards. Those need someone with a camera pointed at the right place at the right time, on a short list agreed with whoever organised the event before the day started, not improvised once things are already under way.

None of these moments show up in what a check-in station or a kiosk is doing, because neither one is watching the room, only the door or whoever is standing in front of it. A fuller pre-event conversation with the photographer, covering exactly this list, is worth having in advance, and a template for that conversation covers the ground this run sheet does not.

The hour after the last guest leaves

The last job is a final push: everything shot during the day actually uploaded, not left on a card for tomorrow because the room is emptying and it is tempting to call it done. If uploads are held for approval, clear that list before leaving rather than picking it up the next morning, since every hour it sits there is an hour a guest is waiting for a photo that has technically already arrived.

Switch off the kiosk and the photo wall, and log out of the check-in station once entry is genuinely finished for the day, or between days if this is a multi-day event. Send whoever needs it the attendee list and its export while the day is still fresh enough to answer a question about it.

A short note back to the organiser covering anything that did not go to plan, a station that struggled, a guest who could not get in, a badge that jammed, is worth writing while it is still remembered rather than reconstructed a week later when the same event comes round again next year.

What the checklist is actually for

None of this depends on a single clever feature. It depends on somebody knowing, before the first guest arrives, who tests the kiosk at the start of the day and who is watching what is waiting for approval in the middle of it. A checklist is what turns a list of stations into a list of people responsible for them. None of the stations replace it; they are only as useful as the person who was told, in advance, that one of them was theirs to watch.

If any of the stations named here, check-in, badges, the kiosk, the wall, guest uploads, are new to whoever is running them, the features page and the step-by-step walkthrough cover what each one actually does before event day is the first time they see it. The free plan, 300 photos a month across unlimited events, no card needed, is enough to rehearse this checklist on a real event first, and to reuse as a template for the next one. Start a free event and run it against this checklist before the one that actually matters.

Frequently asked questions

Can we change how guests get into the gallery on the day, if the door is busier than expected?
No. The access mode is fixed once the event is published, so that decision needs to be made and tested the week before, not improvised at the door.
Does someone need to sit and approve guest uploads all day?
Only if the organiser has turned approval on. If it is on, the list needs checking through the day rather than only at the end, or approved photos stack up and guests wonder why nothing has appeared.
Do we need to worry about the photo wall showing something private?
Not a secret one. The live photo wall never shows a secret album, so there is nothing to configure for that. A private album is different: it only appears on the wall if that has been switched on for the event, so that setting is the one worth checking alongside pointing the screen at the right event.
What is the very last thing the photo team should do before leaving?
Push the last upload, clear anything still waiting for approval, and switch off the kiosk and check-in station, so the gallery reflects the whole day rather than everything up to whenever the last upload happened.
Is a printed checklist really necessary if the platform handles most of this?
The platform runs the stations, but somebody still has to decide who tests the kiosk at the start of the day and who watches the approval list in the middle of it. That is what this checklist assigns, and it works as a template you can reuse for the next event too.
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