From conferences to tradeshows, the name badge is the hardworking feature that does so much more than simply display an attendee’s name.
The event badge is an awesome little multi-tasker that facilitates networking and conversation, promotes brands, confirms access authorisation, showcases credentials and stores digital information through QR codes. Big work for a small badge.
Brilliant Badges for Events
While event badges can do a LOT of heavy lifting, not all badges are created equal. Here are a few must-haves to maximise your badge’s potential:
Custom Design
As a visual extension of your event brand, it’s important to choose a badge provider who can make your event badge a part of the event.
True custom design means the badge has the same look and feel as every other event branded element. As your event brand needs to have visual impact in a small space, ask your badge provider if they have the expertise to scale designs to fit the badge size.
And don’t forget your lanyard! At the very least, these should also match the badge colour scheme, but ideally the lanyard will carry the same event branding as the badge.
Effective Visuals
Badges for events should be easy to scan for essential information. Keep text to a minimum – attendee name, company and position title are generally all that’s needed on the badge front. You might also have a QR code for digital info access.
Additional information, such as sponsor logos, venue maps, and key agenda items, can be printed on the back.
Clever Text
Your event badge font should be easy to read from around 1m distance. A good font size for most badges will be in the region of 12pt, however, think about your attendees. If you’re holding a conference for older delegates, you may want to think about a larger font size.
The font itself can reflect your event brand, e.g., Comic Sans for relaxed and fun events, Georgia for professional business events, but avoid anything too ornate, such as Mistral, nobody wants fellow attendees having to squint up-close to try and read a name badge!
Bold text in black is a solid choice. However, you can play around with colour to reflect your event branding – just run a few test prints to make sure your colour choice makes text easy to read.
Colour Coding
Talking of colour…colour coding is an excellent way to identify specific event attendee groups. You may choose a red banner for exhibitors, green for VIPs, blue for attendees and yellow for speakers. Again – make sure your text works with any colour banners or backgrounds.
High Quality
It’s worth spending a little extra on the badge and lanyard to ensure durability…and limit attendee annoyance! A heavy-weight paper or card will help stop the badge from twisting around and make sure it stays in great condition from event start to finish.
Easy Access
Making it easy for attendees to access their badge will ensure your event gets off to a smooth start.
Badge-printing kiosks (like CrowdComms’) are not only a fast and efficient alternative to the hunt-your-name-on-a-trestle-table, they also keep your attendees safe with contactless processing.
Kiosks also reduce waste through on-demand printing that only produces badges for attendees who are there on event day.
In Summary
Who knew there was an art to event badge production!
Your name badge is a powerful feature that can seriously enhance the event experience for attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and speakers. By getting the detail right, you can make sure your badge reaches its impressive potential.
