To make it easy, I'm going to go over the biggest mistakes in conference name tags and how organizers can rectify their crimes.Before I begin my list, just to make things clear, I want to go over the main points of why name tags are important in the first place. What purpose do name tags actually serve? For one, they're meant to make the lives of conference attendees easier as we navigate our way through the throngs of people usually in attendance. In my opinion, focus should be on two things: the attendees name and organization, everything else is noise.
1.FONT IS TOO SMALL AND CONDENSED. Let's be clear, anything less than 24-point type is too small, and to be honest, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that would argue anything less than 32-point font for the name is too small. You should be able to read a person's name from 10 feet away, not squint and stammer when your right next to someone. Meeting new people is awkward enough.2.CONFERENCE LOGOS TAKE UP TOO MUCH SPACE. I understand branding is important to conference organizers, but I'm positive attendees are very aware of the name of the conference in question. We have spent hundreds of dollars signing up for it. I don't think the logo should take up half the tag, or even really a third. It's unnecessary and detracts from the most important thing on the name tag, the person's name.3.CONFERENCE NAME BADGES FILLED WITH UNNECESSARY INFORMATION. Number three relates closely to number two, but it begs to be said again. I don't need to know the date of the conference really, and if I must know for posterity's sake, then it definitely doesn't have to be huge on the card. I also don't need to know if someone is an "attendee" or "speaker." "Staff" may need some delineation, but, otherwise, toss it.4.NAME BADGES ARE TOO LONG AND ALWAYS FLIP TO THE WRONG SIDE. Nothing like trying to read someone's name badge and not only is it blank, but it's so low you're awkwardly looking at a person's naval or worse. Last thing you need is someone saying, "Eyes up here, buddy!" when you're just trying to read their name.
1.Make attendees name large enough that it can be read from 10 feet away.2.Separate a person's First Name and Last Name onto different lines for better readability.3.Use a font like SERIF, which is easy to read from a distance.4.Make conference logos and information small, never taking up more space than the attendee's name. If branding is important, 5.consider branding the lanyard to which the name badge is attached.6.Print the name on both sides of the badge in case of flipage problems. Or -7.Consider using a double hole attachment rather than one hole, which will lead to more turn-overs. Or -8.Go for other badge options, like magnetic badges.These are just a few of my pet peeves, do you have any others, or any other solutions? Let us know in the COMMENTS section! And as always happy planning!