It would only take a little dash of common sense to ensure badges cannot accidently can turn around. Extra cost = $0.00

Although I’m not European, you’ll find most European business people dress much more formally than in the US. Since I specialize in international SEO, I try to match my potential clients.

I’ve been to lots of conferences where everyone was in a suit, and also other conferences where jeans and a t-shirt were the norm. In this industry, professional casual is generally the norm, and that’s not a t-shirt. It would also be really, really expensive to put everyone’s name and info individually on a shirt, so you’d still need additional ID of some sort.

Although many people go to conferences purely to learn, I think many more go for the networking and other person to person communication. If all you want to do is see a presentation, you can buy a book or read a blog. Conferences are social events, and almost every single time I hear someone complaining about a conference it’s because they tried to treat it as course, not a conference. A course is one way, and conference is social (you are “conferring”).

Of all the possible forms of ID, I think the badge is best. I prefer the pin on ones because then I don’t have to worry about it spinning around (and I hate lanyards) but some people wear clothing that isn’t well suited to pins, and prefer a lanyard. No problem.

A conference badge should do the following:

1. Clearly identify how to address the person wearing it. In the US, that’s often first name, elsewhere, it’s by last name, and in still other places there is a real name and then a handle or nickname. Sometimes the handle is an online handle, sometimes it’s an English nickname (ie Fred) for a non-English name: 毛澤東 (Chinese readers will get this jest).

2. Clearly identify conference data. Many conferences have different passes for speakers, exhibitors, etc. This is where holograms, etc come in, as well.

3. Identify additional information useful for the context – usually business name and title, but can also be interests, etc

4. If both sides can be seen, even accidentally (as with lanyards) then the information should be duplicated on both sides. I usually put business cards there, but it’s not a perfect solution.

5. There should not be too much info, or too crowded. It needs to be read and understood by a normal person at a glance.

Ian

OK, I admit it – I have man boobs – I was just trying to spare everyone the pain of having the image of my man boobs in their head.

Their pain is now all your fault. I think I hear someone trying to claw their eyes out right now…