How TechMeet India Generates 40 Speaker Promo Links and QR Codes with Make.com

The problem

Three weeks before TechMeet Pune 2026, Aisha Patel opened her confirmed speaker roster in Airtable. Forty engineers, founders, and community leads had agreed to speak across four tracks. Each speaker wanted a personal registration link for LinkedIn and a slide-ready QR code for their closing deck. In previous editions, generating those links meant a grueling two-day spreadsheet chore. A coordinator manually opened the dashboard, typed speaker handles, built UTM parameters, copied short URLs back to Airtable, and uploaded downloaded QR images one by one.

Inevitably, manual copying created mistakes. A volunteer miskeyed two speaker slugs, pointing attendee signups to the wrong tracks. Another speaker received a generic link missing UTM attribution entirely. With 1,800 attendees expected and speaker promotion driving nearly a third of early-bird velocity, Aisha needed an automated pipeline. Building Make.com Airtable short links would connect TechMeet's speaker base directly to SimpleURL, creating 40 personalized links and QR codes in one automated run.

What Aisha needed

• Automated link generation from Airtable: The ability to query confirmed speaker records in Airtable and generate unique links without manual data entry.
• Slide-ready QR codes created simultaneously: A single automated action that returns both a clean branded link and a downloadable QR code image URL for keynote slide decks.
• Automatic write-back into the database: Every generated short URL and QR asset must sync directly back into the corresponding speaker row in Airtable.
• Repeatable execution: A scenario that can be re-run whenever CFP submissions are accepted or speaker changes occur, without duplicating existing links.

How Aisha set up Make.com Airtable short links in SimpleURL

Using SimpleURL's verified Make.com app and Airtable integration, Aisha designed an automated workflow that generates links on her connected custom domain, go.techmeet.in, appending clean tracking parameters for every speaker.

1Structuring the Airtable speaker directory and views

Aisha started inside TechMeet's Airtable workspace. In the Speakers table, she added three dedicated fields: a single-select Status field (Draft, Invited, Confirmed), a URL field named Promo Short URL, and an attachment field named QR Code Asset. She then created an Airtable filtered view named Confirmed - Pending Links with two filter criteria: Status is Confirmed and Promo Short URL is empty. This ensured that only confirmed speakers without generated assets would be processed during scenario execution.

TechMeet Pune 2026 — Speaker Directory Grid: Confirmed

Filter (2) Sort

Speaker & Track	Status	Generated Promo URL	QR Asset
VR Vikram Rao CloudScale · Systems	Confirmed	go.techmeet.in/speaker-vikram	Synced SVG
PD Priya Deshmukh FinTech Pune · Microservices	Confirmed	go.techmeet.in/speaker-priya	Synced SVG
RM Rohan Mehta DataFlow Labs · Streaming	Confirmed	go.techmeet.in/speaker-rohan	Synced SVG
AI Ananya Iyer DevOps India · Kubernetes	Confirmed	go.techmeet.in/speaker-ananya	Synced SVG

2Connecting SimpleURL to Make.com

Next, Aisha logged into Make.com, created a new scenario, and selected SimpleURL from the app directory. For authentication, she pasted her personal API key from SimpleURL account settings. Because SimpleURL is an officially verified Make partner application, connecting required no custom webhooks or manual headers. With credentials saved, Make gained direct access to her registered branded domain, go.techmeet.in.

3Building the 4-module scenario

Aisha assembled the automated workflow using four core Make modules:

1. Airtable · Search Records: Connects to the TechMeet base, pulling all records from the Confirmed - Pending Links view.
2. Flow Control · Iterator: Receives the array of 40 speaker bundles and passes each record through downstream modules one by one.
3. SimpleURL · Create Short URL with QR Code:
   • Domain: Selected go.techmeet.in from the dropdown.
   • Custom Back-Half: Set dynamically using speaker-{{lower(1.FirstName)}} (e.g., speaker-vikram).
   • Destination URL: Standardized with UTM parameters: https://techmeet.in/register?utm_source=speaker&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pune2026&utm_content={{1.SlugName}}.
4. Airtable · Update Record: Maps back to the original Airtable record ID, writing the generated short URL into Promo Short URL and saving the QR code generator image URL into QR Code Asset.

Detailed module configurations are also documented in SimpleURL's Make.com integration guide.

4Running the scenario and distributing speaker kits

Aisha clicked Run once in Make. Within four minutes, the scenario processed all 40 speaker records without hitting API rate limits. In Airtable, every row updated instantly with its corresponding short link and QR asset. Aisha then connected an automated email workflow that inserted these assets into personalized speaker onboarding templates, delivering custom links, social copy, and slide-ready QR graphics to each speaker.

The results

By automating link and asset generation through Make.com, TechMeet India replaced days of repetitive manual work with a reliable 4-minute execution. Speakers enthusiastically shared their personalized links across developer communities, and the marketing team monitored engagement in real time.

Make it work for your events

• Standardize back-halves in advance: Define a clear slug convention such as speaker-<name> or keynote-<name> before generating links. Clean, memorable back-halves improve click-through rates when speakers post them to social channels.
• Filter Airtable views before executing: Always point your Make trigger to an Airtable view that checks both confirmation status and empty asset fields. This prevents unintended re-runs or duplicate operations on already-processed speakers.
• Package links and QR codes together: When sending speaker prep kits, provide both the copy-paste short URL for social media and a high-resolution QR image for presentation slides. Speakers appreciate having ready-to-use visual assets.
• Maintain a friendly referral leaderboard: Share weekly click counts in speaker WhatsApp groups or Slack channels. Healthy competition motivates speakers to amplify your event across their professional circles.

FAQ

Do I need a paid Make.com plan to automate speaker promo links?

Make.com includes a free plan with 1,000 operations per month, which easily accommodates a 40-speaker batch run that uses roughly 120 to 160 operations. On SimpleURL, API and automation integrations are available on Pro and Team plans.

What happens if two conference speakers share the same first name?

If two speakers share a first name, SimpleURL automatically appends a short unique suffix if a custom back-half is already claimed. Alternatively, you can configure your Make scenario to build back-halves using full names or unique speaker record IDs.

Can the Make scenario run automatically whenever a new speaker is confirmed in Airtable?

Yes. While Aisha ran a scheduled batch scenario after closing speaker selections, you can configure Make to watch Airtable records continuously, generating branded links and QR codes as soon as a speaker row transitions to Confirmed status.

How are the generated QR codes delivered to speakers for their presentation slides?

The SimpleURL Make module returns high-resolution QR asset URLs alongside the short link. Make writes these asset URLs directly back into an Airtable attachment or URL field, allowing event teams to embed them into automated speaker onboarding emails.

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