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What's the point of your name badge?

I hate conference name badges.


Don't get me wrong, I would like to know your name ('cause I probably won't remember it), but that's not what conference name badges are being used for these days, is it?


Instead, conference managers are using the name badge for:

  • Event branding (don't they already know what event they're at?)

  • Sponsor branding (Do you really want your logo on a non-sustainable event item?)

  • Security (lanyard colors or stickers to grant access to things)

  • Ego labels (speaker, sponsor, board member, volunteer)

  • Badge scanning (why does the QR code have to be SO BIG?)

  • Labeling (are you an important brand attendee or an unimportant supplier?)

  • Networking ("Ask me about ____" conversation starters)

  • Information (the conference agenda at a glance on the back!


What if - hear me out - we used name badges just to tell people our name?


Here are a few other ways you can accomplish the additional things you're trying to make a name badge do:

  • Subtle branding by using conference colors, not the name, date, location, and image of the conference.

  • Use the sponsor money to give them something more valuable than their logo on a lanyard. Explore lanyards from companies like Colors for Good that make lanyards that can be reused as sunglass holders.

  • Need to label people for access? Consider wristbands/bracelets that can be kept as gifts or donated at the end of the event.

  • You don't need the ego labels. You just don't.

  • As for badge scanning, I get the need for it, but going back to the bracelet idea, you can do RFID bracelets or make the QR code much smaller. Scanners can read them as small as one inch!

  • As for networking, if your program design is dependent on the name badge getting people to network, then you're eventing wrong.


What's your take on conference name badges?


P.S. Your Club Ichi name badges are first name only. You have to actually talk to each other to learn the rest.


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