A Guide to Conference Badges
An on-site conference badge printing system is the simplest way to print a personalised conference badge and mark the attendee's arrival in a matter of seconds.
Why are badges for conferences so important?
Conference name badges are a great way to introduce your attendees to a room full of strangers; they take the edge off when it comes to networking with other professionals.
And for the event organiser, colour-coded conference badges can categorise badge types, so each category of attendee can be recognised by colour. Conference badges can also include important stylistic elements such as personalised agendas, session choices and barcodes so that attendees can be tracked into their sessions.
Pre-conference registration
Before you even begin to think about your conference badges, you’ll need to consider your pre-event registration options. After all, with no attendees, there won’t be any badges!
We offer a premium white label registration service, where we design a microsite that ensures seamless branding and acts as though totally under your company - there’ll be no mention of Event Connections at all.
If you decide to go with an alternative registration provider, such as Eventbrite or Eventsforce, we can connect our system with theirs via an API, creating a direct data sync. When the data is synced to our system, we can print the badges on-site in real-time.
How our conference badge printing solutions work
Printing conference badges doesn’t have to be complicated. Our badge printing system is designed for ultimate simplicity, regardless of which check-in option you choose.:
1) Data is pre-loaded onto our system, either via one of our registration microsites, a direct data sync from your registration provider or a simple data import sheet pulled from your system.
2) When guests arrive, they can check in using one of our many check-in options such as hotel-reception style, self-service kiosks or hand-held QR scanning.
3) Badges print in a matter of seconds, designed to your bespoke specifications.
Create your bespoke conference badge
Starting with the base, you can choose your badge size and material depending on the style you’re aiming for. At Event Connections, we have a wide variety of badge sizes and materials on offer, including our fully recyclable and sustainable badging options.
Once you’ve chosen your badge, our design team will work with you to add your bespoke company branding and style on to the badge. Either you can send your artwork to us, or we’ll use your brief to design everything behind the scenes. And on the day, our high-tech badge printers will print branding and attendee information onto a blank badge, in real-time.
What to include on your conference badge
After the basics of your badge such as shape, size, material and branding have been chosen, the rest is yours to play with. As a general rule, we suggest that all badges include:
> Basic event information (the name of the event and the dates it spans across)
> Basic attendee information such as full name, company and job title
> The badge type for that particular person, e.g delegate, exhibitor, staff, VIP
Additional options that you can add to your badge could include:
> Attendee photographs
> QR codes or barcodes for lead generation scanning
> The event schedule (our badges are double-sided, so we often see the event schedule on the back of the badge)
> Individual breakout sessions, chosen by the attendee
Our Top Tip: Always print your conference badges on-site
Whilst some services may offer bulk conference badge delivery before the event, we know that it’s not always that simple. Changes happen on site all the time, including new additions, alterations and basic data changes like company or job title. We think that having a provider on-site gives you more flexibility and our conference badge printing system gives you the option to print your conference badges in real-time.
At Event Connections, we offer our clients a fully managed on-site registration solution, meaning our team will oversee the badge printing on-site. We always recommend on-demand badge printing on-site as opposed to pre-printing badges. We use industry-leading technology to print badges in real-time as guests arrive. They only need to give us their name or show us a QR code to scan, and we can have their badge printed in seconds.
Concerned about queues? Don’t be!
Our technology prints branding and attendee information onto a blank badge in seconds. We’ve provided this service at events with multiple thousands of attendees, and our tech guarantees a swift and easy check-in every time.
Conference Badging Case Study - Microlise Transport Conference
Microlise Transport Conference was a 1-day conference focused on technology in the transport industry. Microlise was held at Coventry Building Society Arena, with over 1,200 attendees, 40+ speakers and 50+ exhibitors.
We had a team of staff using our iPad check-in technology to name search attendees as they arrived. We also provided the Microlise exhibitors with our simple barcode scanners as a method for lead retrieval and networking.
We’ve provided badges for conferences, exhibitions and many other events for over 20 years - we’d love to help you with your next one.
For an introduction to our conference badge printing system, get in touch with our team today. We’ll start with a no obligation proposal, where we can discuss your requirements and create a conference badging solution tailored to your event.
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