What is event lead capture?

It is the process of collecting attendee details at an event, adding qualifying information, and getting the result into a CRM so sales can follow up. In practice it usually means badge scanning plus a short form plus an automatic sync.

Does Ahoyy do event lead capture?

No. Ahoyy has no lead capture mode, no badge scanning, no qualifiers, no lead scoring and no CRM sync. It shares your digital business card, scans printed cards, and remembers where you met each person.

Why can most apps not scan event badges?

Because the data behind a badge belongs to the event organiser and access is sold as a lead retrieval licence for that show. It is a commercial restriction, not a technical one.

How much does lead retrieval cost at a show?

It varies by show and is set by the organiser, usually per event and sometimes per device. Ask the organiser directly rather than trusting a general figure, because the range across shows is very wide.

Can I do event follow-up without lead capture software?

Yes, and most small exhibitors do. Collect the contact, write down one line about the conversation, note where you met, and send a personal message within a couple of days. The software matters when volume and team size make that impossible by hand.

What should I use if I need CRM sync?

A product built for it. Popl and Blinq both offer CRM integrations. Our comparison pages describe what each publishes about its own product, checked on the date shown on those pages.

Is Ahoyy free for events?

Yes. The card, the QR code, card scanning and saved contacts cost nothing, and there is no per-event charge.

a.Ahoyy

Events

Lead capture, explained by someone who does not sell it

Event lead capture is the machinery a sales team uses to turn people walking past a stand into rows in a CRM. Scan a badge, answer a few qualifying questions, tag the lead hot or cold, and let it sync overnight so the follow-up sequence starts on Monday. It is a real category, it is well built, and several companies sell it properly.

Ahoyy does not sell it. We have no badge scanning, no CRM sync and no lead capture mode. We are writing this page anyway, because most of the pages ranking for this term are written by the people selling it, and a straight explanation of the moving parts is genuinely hard to find.

Read it, work out whether you need the full machinery, and go and buy it if you do. If it turns out you needed something much smaller, we have that part and it is free.

See what Ahoyy does Compare with Popl

The five pieces of a lead capture setup

People use "lead capture" to mean anything from a scanner to a whole revenue process. It helps to separate the parts, because you can buy them independently and most teams do not need all five.

Badge scanning	Reading the barcode, QR or RFID chip on an attendee badge. The data behind it belongs to the event organiser.
Lead retrieval licence	What the organiser charges for permission to read those badges. Priced per event, and often per device.
Qualifiers	The short form your staff fill in on the spot: budget, timeline, product interest, hot or cold.
Enrichment	Filling in company size, job title and other details automatically from the scanned name and email.
CRM routing	Pushing the finished lead into Salesforce, HubSpot or Dynamics and starting a follow-up sequence.

The bit nobody tells you about badge scanning

Badge data is not public. When you scan an attendee badge you are reading a code that resolves against the organiser’s registration database, and the right to do that is sold, usually as a lead retrieval package for that specific show.

This is why no independent app can simply add badge scanning. It is not a technical gap, it is a commercial one. Any product that scans badges at a show has either bought into the organiser’s system or is reading a public QR that the organiser chose to print.

So when you are comparing tools, the question is not just which app scans badges. It is which app works with the lead retrieval licence you are already paying the show for.

Who actually needs the full machinery

If three or more of those are true, buy real lead capture software. Popl and Blinq both sell it, and our comparison pages say plainly where each of them beats us.

• You exhibit at several shows a year and the marketing budget is justified by lead numbers.
• More than a couple of people work the stand and the leads have to end up in one pool, not in five phones.
• There is a CRM behind you and a follow-up sequence waiting for the records.
• Someone will ask for cost per lead by show, so scans have to be attributed to an event and a person.
• You need qualifying answers captured in the moment, because nobody remembers budget conversations two days later.

Who does not, and usually thinks they do

The other group is much larger. One or two people, going to a handful of events a year, meeting people who might matter later. No CRM, or a CRM that nobody updates. The follow-up is a personal email, not a sequence.

For that group, a lead capture platform is heavy and expensive, and the honest failure mode is worse than the cost: contacts sit in a system nobody logs into after the event, and the follow-up still does not happen.

What that group actually needs is faster sharing, a way to keep the cards they are given, and enough context to write a follow-up that does not sound generic.

What Ahoyy does instead, in plain words

To repeat the important line: none of that is lead capture. There is no badge scan, no qualifier form, no lead score, no CRM sync, no team pool and no per-event reporting. If you need those, the comparison pages will point you at the right product.

• Your card is a free web page with a QR code. Any phone camera opens it. The other person installs nothing.
• You scan the paper cards you are handed. The reading happens on your device, so it works in a hall with no signal.
• Every contact you save records where you met them, and you can pin the exact spot. A follow-up that opens with the coffee stand in Hall 2 gets read.
• Contacts live in Ahoyy, not in your personal phonebook, so a busy event does not wreck your address book.
• Sharing over WhatsApp is one tap, which is often how the first real conversation after an event starts.
• A free business page can sit behind your card, with your services and prices on it, and enquiries from that page land in one inbox.

Common questions

What is event lead capture?: It is the process of collecting attendee details at an event, adding qualifying information, and getting the result into a CRM so sales can follow up. In practice it usually means badge scanning plus a short form plus an automatic sync.
Does Ahoyy do event lead capture?: No. Ahoyy has no lead capture mode, no badge scanning, no qualifiers, no lead scoring and no CRM sync. It shares your digital business card, scans printed cards, and remembers where you met each person.
Why can most apps not scan event badges?: Because the data behind a badge belongs to the event organiser and access is sold as a lead retrieval licence for that show. It is a commercial restriction, not a technical one.
How much does lead retrieval cost at a show?: It varies by show and is set by the organiser, usually per event and sometimes per device. Ask the organiser directly rather than trusting a general figure, because the range across shows is very wide.
Can I do event follow-up without lead capture software?: Yes, and most small exhibitors do. Collect the contact, write down one line about the conversation, note where you met, and send a personal message within a couple of days. The software matters when volume and team size make that impossible by hand.
What should I use if I need CRM sync?: A product built for it. Popl and Blinq both offer CRM integrations. Our comparison pages describe what each publishes about its own product, checked on the date shown on those pages.
Is Ahoyy free for events?: Yes. The card, the QR code, card scanning and saved contacts cost nothing, and there is no per-event charge.

If the smaller thing is what you needed

A free card, a QR code any camera reads, and a memory of where you met.

Create my card free