Open Forum

 View Only
Back to discussions
Expand all | Collapse all

An Essential Guide to Event Badges

  • 1.  An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-16-2023 11:01

    Happy Wednesday everyone! Let's kickstart with our next edition of the Tip of the Week discussion! An event badge almost acts as a crutch in today's world, having a badge with the attendee's name and other details provides an icebreaker and a conversation starter in itself. 

    What are the benefits of event name badges? 

    • Event badges serve as an attendee's preliminary introduction to a room full of strangers 

    • Having an event name badge means you don't have to worry about memorizing names and can focus on having a fruitful conversation instead. 

    • Color coding event badges for different categories of attendees can help distinguish people with different pass types. It also helps an attendee spot a member of the event organizer's staff or a VIP without any hassle.  

    Ideas for event badges 

    • Make sure you use fonts that highlight the most important information and don't clutter the badge to the point that it fails to serve its primary purpose. 

    • Utilize the back of the event badge by including the agenda or program, customizing it for each attendee depending on what pass type they hold.  

    • You can even get creative with the lanyards that go hand-in-hand with the event name badges by using recycled material. 

     Benefits of on-site badge printing 

    On-site badge printing makes all these worries go away in a split-second. Check out a few other benefits of using event technology and on-site printing - 

    • Gone are the days of registration desks filled with alphabetically organized event name badges. Cvent's OnArrival provides attendees with a self-service kiosk that allows them to register, check-in, edit their information and print badges all on their own.  

    • With OnArrival, you can use wireless scanners to scan barcodes and oversee who attends which session 

    • You can also track the check-in and check-out times of your attendees  

    On-site badge printing is a surefire way to elevate the experience of your event participants and will add value to their event attendance.  

    Questions for you: 

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?

    As always, feel free to drop in your suggestions in the comment section below! 

    #CventTip


    #ManagingVirtualEvents

    ------------------------------
    Megha Jetley
    Manager
    Cvent Marketing Department
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-18-2023 06:09

    I've done the old-fashioned way of having badges printed by a local printer, shipping and assembling on-site. We had a badge holder where we displayed them in alphabetical order to distribute. As our event got larger, we moved to OnArrival with Event in a Box, which was a game changer and received favorable feedback from our attendees. It also enabled us to make sure that everyone who checked in didn't have any outstanding balance. 



    ------------------------------
    Tori Martinez
    Event Technology Specialist
    Creative Group Inc.
    United States
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-18-2023 09:26

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? We use On Arrival which has worked well for us and the participants comment on the techy look. 

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? They check in on the Ipads, we tear the badge off the zebra printer, stuff it in the holder and hand it over with any other collateral. 

    One downside is that registration check in is completely dependent on electricity and internet. What do you all do to be prepared for possible electric outage/internet outage?



    ------------------------------
    Erica Lovercamp
    Conference Coordinator
    Curators of the University of MissouriUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-18-2023 09:58

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? for our big events we use on arrival with badge printers to print them on site.  For smaller events, we will preprint them and stuff them in badge holders

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? for big events, they get the badge once they check in and print it.  for smaller events, they will pick it up while checking in. 



    ------------------------------
    Robin Wiley
    Senior Medical Education Coordinator
    ZimVie, USA
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-18-2023 10:10

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events?  on-site printing (typically), occasionally pre-printing and shipping to the venue

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?  reg desk where they check-in and pick up the badge



    ------------------------------
    Julie-Michelle Davis, CMP
    Meetings Manager
    Amex GBT - USA
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-18-2023 11:53

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 

    Our team currently uses the Cvent website to get names of attendees and print off of Zebra printers. 

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?

    We use Cvent OnArrival to allow attendees to checkin on iPads, then it sends to our zebra printers where we can tear off the badges and place them in badge holders. 



    ------------------------------
    Katherine Nichols
    Event Coordinator
    Conscious DisciplineUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-18-2023 14:35

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? Onsite printing or we will pre-print and bring onsite with us.  

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?  check in at registration and pick up the badge.  



    ------------------------------
    Susan Harrison
    Meeting & Event Manager
    Atlas Travel Meetings & IncentivesUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-19-2023 16:12

    Questions for you: 

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? We use a homegrown system of printing by local printer and assembling in advance of the event. We have a label maker to create badges on-site for day-of registrants.

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? We staff a check-in table either at a specific event or in a general location for multi-program events and advertise the hours of operation.



    ------------------------------
    Cate Liverman
    Director-Constituent Relations
    UVA Medical Alumni Association and Medical School FoundationUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-21-2023 08:12

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? It varies by the meeting planner and type of event. For some events we print with a printer and distribute onsite, for some events we print onsite with event in a box.

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? If printing onsite the attendee stuffs their own badges after it is printed on demand. If pre-printed, they are arranged in alphabetical order and provided at a registration desk.



    ------------------------------
    Amy Lum
    Senior Systems & Tools Specialist
    Boston Scientific CorporationUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-21-2023 10:45

    Cvent OnArrival with the Event in the Box is the only way to go. Depending on the client and their needs, we use the kiosk mode or admin mode. Many badge suppliers offer sustainable/recyclable namebadge holders & lanyards which only increases the event's sustainability. 



    ------------------------------
    Michelle Thomas
    Sr. Project Manager, Attendee Experience
    Meetings & Incentives Worldwide, Inc.United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-21-2023 10:50

    Name badges are crucial to many events that involve outside parties or parties from different division. We usually have a list of attendees before the event to have the badges made up so we never really need to print last minute badges. If we do we use avery.com and use our company printer to print the last minute name badges. We use badge displays to distribute them for bigger events, and hand them out personally for smaller events. 



    ------------------------------
    Meghan Payne
    hybrid
    Corning Incorporated
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-21-2023 15:59

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 
      I just use Avery badge stock.  And I either build the template in Cvent or Word, depending on what I want to do.

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?
      For our smaller events we just lay the badges on the table, and four our larger events we hand them to the attendees in an envelope along with any tickets and invites they might have.



    ------------------------------
    Justin Spears
    Conference Coordinator
    Virginia Military Institute - Center for Leadership and EthicsUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-21-2023 17:24

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? OnArrival or print in advance

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? Reg desk 



    ------------------------------
    Kayla Sisco
    Program Manager
    Meetings & Incentives Worldwide, Inc.United States
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-22-2023 07:44

    We use OnArrival for most of our events with attendee check in on the app. For smaller events we preprint using OnArrival, however for larger events the badges print out when the attendee checks in. 



    ------------------------------
    Elizabeth Rathje
    Assoc Events Coordinator
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-22-2023 10:28

    We use onarrival for our badging needs! We set up a registration area with 4-8 ipads depending on number of people and 2-4 printers and we have everyone coming check-in to our event before they can get in.



    ------------------------------
    Rachel
    NJ
    ------------------------------



  • 16.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-22-2023 11:56

    I was able to experience the high-quality badges at CVENT Connect 2023 that were given out. I think they look great for larger-scale events. We are still using avery style badges for our smaller events but love the ability to create badges that look way better than a "Hello, my name is..." sticker badge!



    ------------------------------
    Alex Cunningham
    Veterinary Relations Program Coordinator
    BluePearl Veterinary PartnersUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-23-2023 09:12

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? Event in a box from Cvent

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? as the attendees check in on the system the badge is printed, stuffed into a badge holder and handed to the attendee.



    ------------------------------
    Mary Ann Hall
    Event Specialist
    Federal Reserve System
    ------------------------------



  • 18.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-23-2023 09:18

    We've done just about everything imaginable. I find that organization and staffing in line with the group size is the key to making the distribution seamless. When printing and distributing on site, they'll check in on the ipads, we'll tear off and assemble and hand out the badges to the attendee along with any giveaways or other information that needs to be shared with them. 



    ------------------------------
    Christie Aase
    Manager, Attendee Engagement
    ALTOUR (Prev. ALTOUR Performance) Protravel InternationalUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 19.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-23-2023 11:30

    Name tags are CRUCIAL, especially if folks don't know each other. In Higher education, it's ALL about the title!

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 

      • Currently in-house Avery, but I'm looking into preprinted for an upcoming event. Our challenge is the last-minute needs are crazy and the budget is tight.  I recently bought a label maker for onsite name tags to avoid hand written ones (I hate those)

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?

      • I have a "name tag box" that I love. I alphabetize prior by last name. We usually have 1-4 people pending the # of people registered. One is assigned day of registration/printing.
      • I'd love to work to get a more robust process for onsite as the budget improves.


    ------------------------------
    Lesley Irminger
    Events Manager, College of Public Health
    George Mason - Office Of University EventsUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 20.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-23-2023 16:46

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 
      We have Cvent's Event in a Box solution, including the printer

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?
      We print on demand when they check in



    ------------------------------
    Lori Wildman
    Marketing Director
    lwildman@dmainc.com
    DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.United States
    ------------------------------



  • 21.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-23-2023 21:10

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 

    For one event we use PCNametag to print double sided plastic badges.

    I also use conditional images for sessions.
    Other events I used perfed card stock for badges and other purposes.

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?

    We hand them out on site.



    ------------------------------
    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 22.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 08-25-2023 12:07

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 

      • We print our badges on site at the registration desk

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?

      • The attendees receive their badges upon first arriving at the conference


    ------------------------------
    Teresa Holliday
    Marketing Coordinator
    Dow Jones and Co., Inc.United States
    ------------------------------



  • 23.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 09-01-2023 09:13

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? We use Event in a Box, and printing on own. Each depend on the size and scope of the events.

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? When we pre-print we have them listed out alphabetically by attendee last name. 



    ------------------------------
    Beth Vriesen.
    Events Registration Administrator
    Associated Bank Corporation
    ------------------------------



  • 24.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 09-03-2023 16:03

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events?  - we've tried a few different options over time, now we have pre-printed badges ready for folks, but also an on-site instant printer for anything that wasn't produced in advance

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? - we have several check-in tables where people can pick up their badges and get checked off our list so we always know who's already on-site and who hasn't showed up yet



    ------------------------------
    Elena PEREZ
    Communications Coordinator
    SEIU - UHWUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 25.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 09-06-2023 07:53

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? Event in a box from Cvent

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? Yes



    ------------------------------
    Mary Ann Hall
    Event Specialist
    Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago(CRSO Department)
    ------------------------------



  • 26.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 09-08-2023 14:12

    Questions for you: 

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? Since I work for a CVB we never have to worry about event badges because we are always the ones that attend the events. However, we did just have ESTO in town and they used Cvent and it worked very well! If we do make badges we do it in our office and its a very small amount.

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? At ESTO we used volunteers to put the badges in the clear inserts with a lanyard. It worked well for having over 1,000 attendees and there was barely ever a line. They had 5 stations so people moved threw very quickly.



    ------------------------------
    Virginia McCoy
    Sales Associate
    Visit Savannah
    ------------------------------



  • 27.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 09-08-2023 14:58

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? We export all of the information from Cvent and our graphic designer pulls them from an excel sheet. We then send them to a printing company and organized all of them before the event. We are still trying to figure out the most efficient and cost effective way to deal with badge changes day off.

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events? We have a smaller event of 200 people, so we have a check-in desk for them to grab their badges before our welcome reception.

    • One thing that really helped us this year was we sent an email to all attendees with the information that will be on their badge. We asked them to send us an email of any of that information changed (title change, spelling error, etc). We had about 15 out of the 200 people send edits which helped a ton with cutting down on day of changes


    ------------------------------
    Laura Apel
    Events Manager
    CDLLifeUnited States
    ------------------------------



  • 28.  RE: An Essential Guide to Event Badges

    Posted 09-13-2023 16:25

    • What type of badge printing system do you currently use for your events? 
      We currently print at the home office using corrugated paper (not our favorite!) I am working on steering/convincing our team to OnArrival with printer tech. One day!

    • How do you manage the distribution of badges to attendees at your events?
      We have a registration desk where all attendees must check in (give their name) and we personally hand them a pre-stuffed badge and any materials we have for them. 



    ------------------------------
    Chris Townley
    Marketing and Communications Associate
    National Council Of State Housing AgenciesUnited States
    ------------------------------



Related Content