Thanks for your input. Most of our dietary retractions are the basic ones as well. I think a list by the printers could work for us to catch those who need a special ribbon or meal card . Our registrations has recently increased to 1200 (our most since 2008) so it's going to be a big list but not sure I can come up with a better option.
Original Message:
Sent: 09-07-2023 18:56
From: Julia Hoyle
Subject: Moving to On Arrival for Badges but how to handle ribbon, meal tickets
We moved to OnArrival Premium right after the Pandemic. If we don't have a lot of items, I have an attendee printout with columns indicating which (if any) ribbons they get, restricted diet cards, etc. The badges print at our table, so by the time they get to us, I've picked up the items they need, and we hand them to them with their badge.
Last conference, we had a lot of items. It was our 50th anniversary, so we had specialty ribbons, the first 100 to register got a book, etc. So, with all that, we reverted back to envelopes.
To keep the attendee list from being too cluttered, If they didn't get an item, it was blank; if they did, it had "yes." The columns were color-coded, so after the first 30 minutes, I was in a rhythm and could quickly glance across and grab the items.
Regarding the meal needs, we have postcard-size cards we give them. Most are the regulars, like Vegan, Gluten Free, etc. So those are the standard ones we print. For those that are a little different or one-offs, I have a card with "Other Dietary Restrictions" at the top. I write in the restriction on the card. At the bottom are instructions to keep it with them throughout the conference and show it to the waitstaff.
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Julia Hoyle
Event Support
Southeastern Employment and Training Association, Inc
Original Message:
Sent: 09-07-2023 17:36
From: Mary Kate Myers
Subject: Moving to On Arrival for Badges but how to handle ribbon, meal tickets
We are going to use On Arrival Premium this year and while I'm happy to get away from the pre-conference badge assembly and stuffing I'm struggling to figure out how to hand out items such as "special" ribbons (such as Board Member) or our special meal needs tickets. For ribbons I'm not too worried if I have to manage a few of our ribbons that we don't want to make available to everyone (Can't have 800 people all walking around with a Board of Directors ribbon :-) But how do others handle meal tickets or meal needs that the servers needs to know about when serving. We do a number of sit down meals at our conference.
#OnArrival
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Mary Kate Myers
Meetings Manager
National Association of Charitable Gift Planners (CGP)United States
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