The death of printed event badges ?
Event Badge WRS Ltd
Phone : + 44 ( 0 ) 1204 590323 E-mail : info @ event-badge . co . uk Website : www . event-badge . co . uk
In the scramble to unlock live events after Covid-19 , both UFI and the AEO are promoting a preference for a digital badge solution to minimise touch points at check in .
The probability is , printed event badges will make a glorious return at some stage , as contrary to opinions of some – not everything can be digitised . The wheel has been around ( pardon the pun ) since about 3500BC – and it ’ s still fundamentally the same shape , performing a physical function that cannot always be digitised .
So , a digital badge . What is ‘ a digital badge ?’ A QR / Bar code on a mobile phone screen , possibly with the attendee ’ s name ? Whilst the QR code can facilitate access control , what about distinguishing between exhibitors , visitors , speakers , VIPs , delegates etc ?
And what about crowd density standards ? How is that managed given the ever-changing landscape of national , local , venue rules and guidelines ?
Event Badge addresses both issues . It can be set up to only issue badges to pre-determined capacity limits for days and / or individual sessions and it puts a colour graphic of a `traditional ’ event badge on the mobile device of the attendees . The organiser can use their preferred online registration data capture product and simply import the data into the Event Badge system which then sends a link to each registrant for them to confirm their attendance . Event Badge only validates badges up to any predetermined capacity limit set by the organiser for that day / session .
Even better , if having previously registered , the attendee decides they cannot attend , Event Badge gives the registrant the option of nominating a colleague to take their place . The organiser has the opportunity to vet and approve / decline all referrals before the digital badge invitation is issued .
What about no-shows ? Event Badge has a neat option to set a capacity excess as determined by the organiser which , when activated , enables the system to validate badges to the larger capacity .
Naturally , Event Badge has a full reporting dashboard in the back end for the organiser to track how many of their preferred preregistered attendees have validated their digital badges and send reminders to those who have yet to do so .
Onsite organisers can continue to use their existing solution for
onsite check-in – or for organisers who want to keep costs down , Event Badge can provide all the data pre-populated in an Excel file that organisers can load onto any laptop , hook up a simple USB scanner and check in their attendees by scanning the bar code on their digital badge . The simple app has bult in reporting on attendees by day / time / category and it ’ s easy to export data sets of attendees / non attendees .
A digital event badge might not always be required , but if you need an off-the-shelf solution now , then Event Badge might just be the answer you are looking for .
For more information please visit www . event-badge . co . uk .
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 3 2021 23