Glossary
Event management glossary
Plain-language definitions of the terms you'll meet when planning and running events — with links to learn more where it helps.
- Event CRM
- An event CRM is a customer-relationship system built around events: it tracks leads, sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees through their relationship with your organization, linking each contact to the events they registered for, attended, or paid for. It's the difference between a generic contact list and a record that understands event context.
- Explore event CRM
- Event registration
- Event registration is the process of capturing attendee sign-ups — collecting details, selling or assigning tickets, taking payment where needed, and confirming attendance. Good registration produces clean, structured data that flows into badges, check-in, and reporting rather than living in an isolated form.
- Explore registration
- Badge printing
- Badge printing produces the physical or digital identification attendees wear at an event — typically name, company, role, and a scannable QR code. Badges can be emailed as a PDF before the event or printed on demand at the desk the moment an attendee's code is scanned.
- Explore badge printing
- Check-in kiosk
- A check-in kiosk is a self-service station — usually a tablet — where attendees scan a QR code to check themselves in and, often, print a badge. Kiosks increase throughput at the door without adding staff, and the best ones keep working offline when venue Wi-Fi drops.
- Explore check-in kiosk
- RSVP
- RSVP (from the French 'répondez s'il vous plaît') is an attendee's response confirming whether they'll attend. In event software, RSVP status feeds headcount, catering, and seating estimates, and the gap between RSVPs and actual attendance is your no-show rate.
- Explore registration
- QR code check-in
- QR code check-in uses a unique scannable code, issued to each attendee in advance, to verify and record their arrival in a second or two. It's the fastest common check-in method because it replaces searching a list by name with a single scan.
- Explore check-in kiosk
- No-show rate
- No-show rate is the share of registered attendees who don't actually attend. It's a core operational metric: a high rate inflates catering and seating costs and signals weak reminders or low commitment. Tracking it lets you over-register deliberately and forecast headcount more accurately.
- Explore analytics
- Lead retrieval
- Lead retrieval is the on-site capture of attendee or prospect details — often by scanning a badge — so exhibitors and sales teams can follow up after the event. Clean lead retrieval turns conversations on the floor into structured records in your CRM instead of a stack of business cards.
- Explore event CRM
- Run-of-show
- A run-of-show is the minute-by-minute schedule that keeps an event on track on the day: who does what, when, and where, across sessions, staff shifts, and vendor deliveries. It's the operational backbone that turns a plan into a smoothly executed event.
- E-invoicing
- E-invoicing is the issuing of invoices in a structured, government-recognized electronic format rather than a plain PDF. For events that bill sponsors or attendees in regulated markets — such as Saudi Arabia's ZATCA regime — built-in e-invoicing keeps billing compliant without a separate accounting tool.
Put the concepts to work
Novex brings these capabilities into one platform — registration, CRM, check-in, badges, and reporting. Start a free trial and see how they fit together.