Comments on: Building a Better Conference Badge

By: meanjean

meanjean — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 01:49:16 +0000

i’m coming to this late, but i am glad i stumbled upon this post. i’ve been working for the same conference several years now and need some font advice. all templates must be set up to run and batch process through standard PC applications (excel, word, etc.) and must use standard PC fonts as the location of each conference changes from country to country and the office computers are set up a mere 7 days before the conference begins. all materials are printed and produced on-site, using these basic laptops and office equipment. the conference is a high-level international security workshop (= lots of older eyes). the badge templates are currently set up in a word document and the name font is currently verdana bold, while the title and institution are in an italic serif (most likely times new roman bc of the limitations). what standard PC fonts might you suggest that would be better? not much choice. btw, since everything is batch processed, the font size is limited to 18 pt for the name, 14 pt for the title and institutions, i think, as we have to accommodate some pretty long-ass int’l names and titles. thanks!

By: elena guzzella

elena guzzella — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:40:25 +0000

Hi, very interesting… can we translate and put on our website (www.mktnews.it)? Of course we will link the original article…

By: simon jackman’s blog » name tags at conferences

simon jackman’s blog » name tags at conferences — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:46:59 +0000

[...] Some wisdom on this from Jason Santa Maria (with a lovely looking blog, btw) in turn referencing Mike Davidson: [...]

By: VT1300: Communication Design (Fall 2008) » Blog Archive » Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges.

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:32:46 +0000

[...] for example, your typical conference ID badge. Mike Davidson pondered on the topic last year. (Go onâ€”give it a read. I’ll wait.) What problem was he out to solve? Or, in other words, [...]

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:29:54 +0000

That’s what I used —

http://flickr.com/photos/redux/307193578/

By: Northern Voice 2008 recap | DoYVR.com - Do Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:40:39 +0000

[...] Building a Better Conference Badge is a good read for all organizers. The NV nametags definitely need a redesign. Space for user-tagging is a good idea, but you need to tell people to do it when you give them out. [...]

By: The Ultimate Conference Badge « Pathable’s Weblog

The Ultimate Conference Badge « Pathable’s Weblog — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:11:50 +0000

[...] year, Mike Davidson wrote a great post entitled “Building a Better Conference Badge“, in which he harangues the makers of conference badges for their poor design. He talks about [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:59:26 +0000

@Jason Lee: that is a cool service. Thanks!

By: Jason Lee

Jason Lee — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:53:32 +0000

My solution to this conference nametag problem might be of interest:

http://big.first.name/nametags

By: Leanne MacDonald

Leanne MacDonald — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:04:23 +0000

I use a badge holder that has a “pocket agenda” in the bottom half, with the back page for notes. the name badge uses a 30 font for the name on a 2 1/4 x 3 1/2 name card. I’m tempted to put “If you can read this – flip me over” or “Hi, I’m John – would you mind flipping me over?” on the back of the badge, thought it would be a good ice-breaker/conversational piece, but maybe not for this crowd. anyone see anything cool done on the back?

By: scottberkun.com » Conference materials (and more) done right - Webstock ‘08

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:46:55 +0000

[...] crammed with affiliations and job titles making them not only ugly, but worthless (Here’s a good example for reference (scroll down to second [...]

By: Heidi Cook

Heidi Cook — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:40:59 +0000

I found one of the best badges ever! They are reusable too. It is called BIG Badge Selfit System.

The website is http://www.biggroup.com or http://www.identicard.com

They even did our lanyards. I think they do laminated badges as well. I worked with a guy name Shane, he was excellent

By: Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll be interested to see what you think of the AEA badges.

By: Kev Mears

Kev Mears — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve just come back from a one day conference, and all we had on the name badge was a name. Which made networking pretty hard as I couldn’t place anyone in context.

Did make me think about networking at conferences though. I’m not convinced that the common approach of throwing a load of people in a room is enough. I’d like to see conference organisers trying to help the less practiced networkers (I am one) overcome their shyness/reticence.

Maybe a speed networking session? to get things going.

By: Rob Goodlatte

Rob Goodlatte — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Another crime the EconSM badge commits is the poor vertical spacing between the conference name and the badge-holder's name. Looks like only a centimeter of vertical padding — it leaves a big off-balanced white space below the name. Eric, the AEA badges look gorgeous — hats off to you guys.