Badge Printers and Scanners
for Live Events
To successfully host a live event, there are what feels like a thousand different elements that need to all work together seamlessly. From the venue and food to the content on offer, getting every component just right is crucial.
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to impress guests and ensure a successful live event is to focus on attendee badges. In the ever-changing event management industry, guest badges have become more than just a piece of identification—they facilitate networking, show off innovation and efficiency, bring the impact of event design together, and can even allow for advanced data tracking.
At In The Room, we’re passionate about helping you give your guests the best live event experience. We understand how attendee badges that are printed, distributed, and scanned at your event shape guests’ experiences. We’re enthusiastic about sharing our knowledge of badge printers and scanners for live events and demonstrating how our event management software can take your badges—and your event—to the next level.
Badge Printing
As an event manager, you likely have used different systems for printing and distributing badges. The question is: which system has worked best?
Essentially, you have two options for badge printing for events and badge distribution: printing each one out, sorting, and mailing them to attendees before the event, or printing them live on-site.
Traditionally, event managers have had to pre-print live event badges, spending time and person power to organize, address, and ship them or put up a guest table at the entrance with badges laid out all in a row. How many times have you shown up to an event and had to dig through piles of quickly more disorganized names?
The answer, I’m sure, is a lot. If you’re still pre-printing live event badges, it’s time to accept that there is a better way. In fact, using event management software by In The Room will save you time and labor both before and during your event.
Advantages of On-Site Badge Printing
for Events
Picture this: you arrive at a live event you’ve been looking forward to. You finish checking in and go to pick up your badge, immediately stepping into a devastatingly long line. You and all of the other attendees are standing around waiting for an event employee to manually sort through the massive piles of badges to find each one.
Doesn’t exactly sound efficient, does it?
Here’s how printing badges on-demand can make your next event more efficient and successful.
Frees Up Time and Labor
You might be skeptical about this point since you’ve probably been told that pre-printing badges before a live event will save you time as guests arrive. In reality, however, it does just the opposite.
To start, you would need dedicated staff members ready to find and pass out each individual attendee’s badge. Then, it takes time to sort through all of the badges. Even if badges are pre-sorted and alphabetized, this presents a task that must be done earlier (and a huge waste of time).
Instead, if you go with event check-in software from In the Room, which allows you to print each attendee badge as they check in the day of, you are going to need a lot less event staff on hand. Say goodbye to overflowing badge piles on event check-in tables, and get back those hours spent beforehand printing and sorting badges.
Creates a Lightning-Fast Check-In Process
With check-in software that sends immediate updates across all event monitoring platforms, you’ll have each guest’s badge printed and in their hand within moments of them finishing the check-in process.
All in all, you will not only be vastly shortening the check-in process—but you will also shorten the long lines that come from waiting for each guest to find and pick up their pre-printed badge.
Accommodates Last-Minute Changes
Experienced event managers will know the nightmare of accommodating last-minute guests and VIP upgrades. Let’s not forget all of the issues that can come up when a guest’s name or title is spelled incorrectly. There is only so much you can do with spelling or status changes when you have pre-printed badges. Sometimes there’s the option to add a special VIP sticker to a badge. Worst case scenario you’ll have to reprint it altogether.
When you select an event badge printer that works with management software from In The Room, you’ll be able to handle swift one-click upsells and edits. Your live event guests and staff will be able to add status updates and fix any mistakes in a flash. Furthermore, all of your badges will look sleek and professional.
Saves You Money
Aside from all the ways choosing on-site badge printing will improve the attendee experience, the decision will also benefit the event hosts and managers. With a traditional pre-printed system, in addition to having to worry about reprinting badges with spelling or status mistakes, there is also almost a guarantee of no-shows.
No-shows mean that, after check-in ends, you’ll be left with a pile of useless pre-printed badges. However, with event management software that allows you to print badges for guests as they show up, and after any changes and edits have been made, you’ll save money (and score points with any environmentally conscious attendees who notice the lack of waste).
Badge Scanning
As an event manager you will need to implement a system for scanning guest badges at each session, talk, show, or activity during your event.
Many event management systems already allow for a simple scanning of barcodes on each guest’s badge as they enter a session or use their VIP status. With traditional systems, however, your team is missing out on a number of useful data points beneficial for later analysis. In The Room offers many levels of data gathering and tracking through the use of badge scanning and new technologies.
QR Codes
QR codes are the barcode of the 21st century. When you choose software or a system that includes event management with QR codes, you’ll be able to incorporate data and information useful to both guests and event managers right onto the badge. This can include guest demographics, maps of the venue, links to social media accounts, session schedules, menus for food and beverages, and more.
Information for Employees
When an event badge scanner reads a badge QR code, you will be able to keep track of the guest’s name, title, company, VIP status, and other registration information. With this data, managers are better able to tailor the guest experience and to reach out to attendees afterwards.
Information for Guests
Live event guests with QR-coded badges will also be able to use them to their own advantage. When needed, they will be able to access information about the event—including updates or session start times and availability. By simply scanning the QR code with their phone, they’ll be linked to an endless number of possibilities.
At In The Room, we prefer to use QR codes over a dedicated app. Your event attendees do not want to download and learn to navigate a whole new app just for one event, only to delete it when they get home and never use it again.
Instead, putting QR codes right on the badge is a convenient, accessible, and hassle-free way to share and gather information—especially when you use event management software from In The Room, which will update you across all platforms instantaneously.
RFID Scanning
RFID scanning is another innovative feature event managers can incorporate into their guests’ badges. RFID, which stands for radio-frequency identification, helps to monitor attendees and keep track of which guests are attending which sessions and activities.
When you use RFID badges for events, you will be able to collect more accurate data. Traditional systems may allow you to see how many people have checked into your live event, but will not be able to paint a more detailed picture.
Benefits for Guests
For example, using RFID badge scanning, you will be able to note the drop-off rate of each session. Seeing how many guests have stayed for the duration of each session versus how many give up halfway through will help you track guest satisfaction and make changes accordingly.
You’ll also be able to see the live attendance rate of every lecture, session, and activity, and give guests a heads up if a particular lecture is filling up. No guest wants to show up to a talk only to find the room completely full. With In The Room event software you are able to track and send live updates.
Benefits for Speakers
Just like no guest wants to miss out on a session that is filled to capacity, no speaker wants to spend their time and efforts in a room full of empty chairs. When you use RFID badge scanning to monitor attendance, you’ll get an accurate idea of how many chairs to set up in each room. This will keep lower-attended sessions from looking empty, and it will also allow you to add more chairs to a session if there is an unexpectedly high attendance rate.
Doing this will help speakers feel that their time at your event was well spent, and they’ll be much more likely to return in the future.
Benefits for Event Managers
Being able to keep track of the guests who are “In The Room,” you’ll get an idea of which sessions are more popular with which audiences. This tracking allows you to tailor your future marketing efforts appropriately.
Tracking attendance rates can also save you money because you’ll have more accurate numbers for how many chairs, meals, and beverages you will need. Say goodbye to overspending and wasting leftover food—or worse, not ordering enough and forcing guests to go hungry.
With accurate data tracking you will be able to better plan your next event, improving future attendance and guest satisfaction.
Utilizing Badge Scanning to the Fullest
The system you select to scan guest badges has the potential to greatly benefit your guests, ensuring their presence in the future.
When you use QR codes, your guests will immediately be impressed with the technology. Their gratification will only continue to increase as they experience the ease and convenience of using the QR code to access information and gain entry to different sessions within your event.
Then, when you add RFID scanning to your badges, you’ll be able to track guest activity and gain insights into their preferences, including how long they stayed at each session.
Custom Badges for Events
If you really want to take your event to the next level, consider providing guests with custom event badges. Custom badges help bolster your brand’s reputation and give your guests a unique, catered experience.
They Go Hand-in-Hand with Badge Scanning
Typical event badges will include a guest’s name, title, company, or other demographic information, and possibly a QR code or barcode. Live event badges are not traditionally designed for aesthetics, and don’t really offer much in the way of data analytics, either.
However, if you choose to customize your event badges with In The Room software to include interactive QR codes and RFID technology, you open up endless possibilities for gathering insights and impressing your guests.
They Convey Your Brand’s Professionalism
When you customize live event badges with eye-catching designs to include your brand’s logo, graphics, and color palette, your guests will get the impression from the moment their badges are printed that your event stands out from others they’ve attended. Your event attendees will see your brand as professional and impressive.
They Display Important Information
Customizing event badges allows you to customize the way you present essential information to your guests. This seemingly subtle feature will help in a big way to fulfill some of your event goals.
For example, if one of your event goals is to help facilitate networking among attendees, then customizing event badges is one of the best things you can do. With each guest’s name, job title, company name and logo front and center on the badge, this helps guests easily spot other people they’d like to talk with.
Another goal of your event might be to spread your brand awareness. By featuring your own company logo, social media handles, and a QR code linked to your website, your brand will be at the forefront of your guests’ minds throughout.
How In The Room’s Print On-Demand Badges Level Up Your Event
The innovative features we’ve listed here about badge printers and scanners for live events are just a few of the technologies In The Room incorporates into event management software.
We originally started In The Room as a way of efficiently managing the live events organized by our founders. Nobody had the technology to do it the way we wanted it, so we built it ourselves. Our software optimizes every aspect of live events, from the moment potential registrants see your marketing ads to the moment they walk out the door at the end of the event.
One of the best compliments we’ve received from an attendee at one of our events was that entering the room felt like walking into an Apple store. That’s the level of sleek innovation and genius technology that we strive to offer to all of our clients. Because we’ve built our software to account for all the nuances and issues involved with event management, we’re confident that every event manager, no matter how experienced, will benefit from our expertise.
Believe it or not, that little plastic or paper rectangle everyone wears around their necks has tremendous influence over the success of a live event. We at In The Room have a deep understanding of the effectiveness of event badges and the technology needed to make them work for you. When you choose In The Room for your event management software, you can be confident that your event’s badges will streamline your work, impress your guests, and give you the data analytics needed to make each event better than the last.