Blog: Do you need name tags at an event?

One question that often comes up when organising events is whether to have named attendees or not.

We don’t usually recommend name badges at more social events such as brand launches, parties or milestone celebrations as the atmosphere can then feel a bit formal. Also if there isn’t much lead time before the event it can be tricky to manage last minute attendee changes and it is time consuming to prepare the actual badges/lanyards. It is more sustainable to use lanyards where possible as if you collect them they are reusable and avoid the issue of pinning large badges to people’s clothing.

Name badges do have their place at certain events such as panel discussions, larger meetings and conferences. If you provide all attendees with a badge you can easily track who attended (and who didn’t) so you know you are sending out your post event materials such as questionnaires or photos taken etc to the right people.

For your attendees it can be really useful if they are making new contacts to not have the embarrassment of forgetting a name and also be able to make contact with that person in the future.