There are many details to work out when you put on a large conference. One of the last things you may think about is how to organize name badges. However, if you don’t take the time to think about how to organize name tags for a conference, you may end up frustrating a lot of attendees who just want to get their name badge and get through the doors.

The Importance of a Name Badge

It’s customary for attendees to have a name badge when they attend a conference, whether large or small. This badge is often an important networking tool for people, allowing them to find out another person’s name, title and company affiliation as well as displaying their own.

Name badges also help to prevent a lot of embarrassment when you are meeting people for the first time in an overwhelming environment. With a name tag, a quick glance reminds you of the name of the person with whom you had an in-depth conversation the day before without having to ask.

If your name badge includes a logo for your company, you also get to do some marketing and branding. When you are putting on a conference, having a name badge with the sponsor’s logos allows them to get more visibility and helps people know whom to talk to if they have a question.

How to Organize Name Badges

When you have a lot of people attending a conference, you’ll need to figure out how to organize name badges before the day of the event. Failing to do so will cause a lot of confusion and stress the day of. When you are planning how to organize name tags for a conference, you have a few options:

  • You can have them preprinted with the attendees' information and distribute them when people sign in at registration.

  • You can have blank name badges that the attendees can fill out themselves.

  • You can have electronic versions of name tags sent to attendees that they can print prior to attending the conference.

  • You can mail attendees a preprinted badge they can bring with them to the conference.

The option you choose may depend on the availability of your staff and the budget of the conference. Giving attendees their own badges is less work and less money but relies on each person to actually fill out the badges. Having attendees preprint badges also requires them to perform a task that they may forget to do and may require you to have expensive software that can send attendees a badge to print.

Using Preprinted Name Badges

If you have the manpower, distributing preprinted name badges at a registration table is often the way to go. That way, you know that all attendees have a badge ready to go when they get to the conference. With this method, it’s helpful to have the badges in alphabetical order by last name and several people helping to distribute them.

Displaying Name Badges

It’s not just how to organize name tags for a conference that you need to consider, but also how attendees will display those badges so that people can see them. Again, you have several options:

  • Using a name badge sticker that attendees can affix to their shirts.
  • Using a name badge holder that is affixed with a pin.
  • Using a lanyard that goes around the neck.

The options are listed from least to most expensive and will depend on the budget of your event. If you opt for a lanyard, it’s a good idea to hand those out with the registration materials instead of attached to the name badge in order to keep the registration table less cluttered.