Interview
Q&A with an event ops lead who was tired of tote-bag archaeology
Maya K., freelance event operations · Two days after a 1,200-person summit
“Lost-and-found shouldn’t be a scavenger hunt powered by Slack screenshots.”
Q
What was the old process?
A
Photograph the item. Post in a staff Slack channel. Guess the owner from a lanyard if we were lucky. Half the time we shipped things to the wrong company office.
Q
Why QR tags instead of more staff?
A
Staff don’t scale at teardown. Vendors and venue crews do the finding. They won’t install our event app. They will point a camera at a code.
Q
Privacy concerns from attendees?
A
We were clear: tags stay private unless you enable public mode. Contact toggles are on them, not us. That conversation is easier than explaining a public Google Sheet of phone numbers.
Q
Where do you put tags?
A
Speaker gift bags, AV pelican cases, and anything we’d cry about replacing. Not every free tote — dignity matters.