Illumina Ventures streamlines high-volume visitor event check-in and improves guest flow with Envoy

Illumina Ventures is an independently managed venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in genomics, life science tools, diagnostics, therapeutics, and digital health. The firm partners with innovative companies developing breakthrough solutions across healthcare and life sciences.

To support large-scale events with hundreds of attendees, Illumina Ventures needed a faster and more efficient way to manage guest check-in and on-site badge printing. Their existing manual processes required significant administrative effort, created bottlenecks during peak arrival times, and made it difficult to maintain a smooth and organized guest experience.

Operating high-volume events with complex logistics required careful coordination from a small administrative team responsible for ensuring accurate registration, timely badge distribution, and reliable attendance tracking across large guest lists.

Challenge: Manual, time-intensive event check-in

Before Envoy, Illumina Ventures managed event check-in painfully, with a lot of manual processes that ate up critical time that could be spent connecting with guests and creating a great visitor experience.

“We had to manually do it all. Checking people in on a printed list, then thumbing through badge boxes to find their name. Myself and another admin had to oversee the entire check-in process. We couldn’t walk around and support anything else.”

Event preparation required extensive effort, with two admins spending up to two full days organizing pre-printed badges and attendee lists. On the day of the event, staff were tied to the check-in desk, unable to support other event operations.

This manual process also led to delays, missing names, and handwritten badges for walk-ins, creating inefficiencies and long guest wait times.‍

Solution: Streamlined event check-in with Envoy Visitors

Illumina Ventures implemented Envoy Visitors to modernize and streamline check-in for large-scale events. A key improvement was on-demand badge printing using multi-device, multi-printer support.

“With Envoy, we signed up for the premium plan to use the visitor management platform for our 600+ person event. I was able to have three printers set up with three iPads. This piece was huge to ensure our check-in time was cut tremendously.”

Instead of manually searching lists and sorting pre-printed badges, guests were checked in and badges printed in real time, significantly improving speed and accuracy.

Results: Faster check-in, fewer errors, and clear ROI

After implementing Envoy, Illumina Ventures saw immediate improvements in both operational efficiency and guest experience.

“The ROI of working with Envoy was phenomenal. The reduction of manual administrative steps was huge."

Manual administrative work was significantly reduced, eliminating time previously spent preparing badge lists, organizing printed materials, and managing check-in stations. What once required two admins and up to two full days of preparation was eliminated. Errors in badge printing and registration decreased, reducing wasted effort and improving accuracy during live event check-in.

Check-in speed also improved significantly:

• From approximately 3 minutes per guest to 1 minute per guest
• Resulting in smoother guest flow and shorter lines during peak arrival periods

“We finally got a reliable process during high peak arrival times,” Nakamoto said.

For the first time, the team was also able to generate an accurate post-event headcount using Envoy reporting, replacing manual estimates.

“Before, we had to guess,” she said. “Now we actually know.”

Most importantly, the time savings allowed the team to focus on higher-value event support instead of managing logistics.

“The time back on my plate is priceless,” Nakamoto added.

Experience with Envoy

Beyond the product itself, Illumina Ventures emphasized the strength of the partnership and support during implementation.

From the first call, they heard exactly what I needed, and showed me how Envoy could solve our most critical needs.

This hands-on support helped ensure a smooth rollout and successful execution during their next high-volume event, and all the ones that followed thereafter.