Do we need traditional trade show badges?

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Permalink Reply by Ray Verhelst on September 22, 2010 at 20:35

Treavor,
Often there is a misconception over the value of attendee badges at any networking or tradeshow event. There are many different motivations behind the adoption or lack there of for badges at an event. Obviously cost becomes a major factor for an organizer and typically requires a sponsorship campaign to offset the expenses involved.

From the simplistic hand-written badge that states “Hi My Name Is” to the most sophisticated RFID badge that communicates with other badges in near proximity, all of these require some back-end data entry and/or management. This typically involves licensing applications, allocating staff and setting aside physical resources on-site to complete the distribution and final attendee registration.

For the for-profit organizer, if they are not collecting and utilizing the registration data for future event development (IMO this is critical to the future success of any event), badges are often seen as a luxury. When organizers were flush, they would deploy this component often because their competition would. The follow-the-leader philosophy died quickly when two things happened; they could not find a viable sponsor candidate and when the exhibitors started asking for audits and accountability of the quality of attendees.

The underlying concept behind the production of all trade events, conferences and exhibitions is to pair buyers with sellers. Granted, you can sprinkle in some education and networking opportunities but the simple fact is the organizer’s job is to play matchmaker. Bring companies with products and services together with qualified decision makers who are in need of these products and services.

The more qualified the buyers and the more targeted the products and services, the higher the value the event provides. In the states we constantly use the cost of sales formula as the benchmark for determining the value of events. As long as it costs less per qualified sales contact for the exhibitor, the event equation is successful. In keeping with that mandate, if the organizer elevates the quality of matchmaking and narrows the attendee field to the absolute most qualified, then the organizer can ask for more dollars from the exhibitor. Basically, better qualified leads cost more.

What does all of this have to do with badges? When a badge is produced well it identifies the attendee beyond their name. Simply knowing whether they are customers, media, academic, guests or even another exhibitor will help a stand staff member to determine how to greet the attendee. When we use the adage that “Time Is Money” I find it amazing that at events I have participated in internationally with 100,000 attendees walking around incognito, exhibitor staff must tack on 10 to 15 minutes of time for each interaction to ask the necessary questions that can qualify the individual before they can actually get into the meat of the presentation.

When done right, a badge categorizes them as buyers and can even sub-categorize them by the specific markets they purchase for. The attendee’s location information helps an exhibitor to determine who might be responsible for the follow-up after the event if their sales efforts are divided up by geographic territories. Badges also help with the psychological fear of face-to-face communication. You would be surprised as to how many people pay to come and find specific information at an exhibition only to avoid human contact when confronted with the simple question of “Can I help You Find Something?” The immediate response is to look away and say “No I’m Just Looking.”

The badge can allow a staff member to start a conversation that does not allow for a “No” answer. You can address the person by their name or reference the company they represent in the introduction.

If an organizer does go through the expense of providing badges, then they need to allow the badge to hold as much information as possible to be passed along to the exhibitor. Lead generation is a critical value point in a company’s decision to exhibit thought process. While few actually have a plan in place on what to do with the leads once they get them, it is important to at least gather the data.

In the U.S. entire organizations have been built to help both large and small organizations manage leads generated at events. It is a proven fact that with targeted lead follow-up done within a week of the event you can dramatically reduce the sales cycle.

From a social networking standpoint we must take into account the makeup of the attendee base. Those of us within the event and exhibition market know the value of being able to jump right into a conversation with strangers and integrate your pitch, but for a majority of people, this is an incredibly fearful task and without the name badge, venturing outside the comfort of a small group of known individuals, they will never meet with the rest of the group.

I understand the value to the organizer can be suspect if short-term profitability is the key, but unless you create a compelling environment that brings together qualified people and greases the wheel of communication, the competition will quickly absorb your niche. Badges, when done right are just the front identifier of a much deeper benefit for all event participants.

What you put the badge into is purely peripheral. If a sponsor can benefit from seeing their name on every individual walking around then the holder and lanyard is important. Adhesive and pins do wondrous things to expensive fabrics so I would take the user interface into account when deciding the format.

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Permalink Reply by Trevor Punt on September 23, 2010 at 9:59

Ray,

I agree that badges have a myriad of uses. Some these days are going too far - FISH for instance seems a technology too far. However, exhibitors only get to know who the person is when they get near enough to read the badge. If a badge identifies VIP, buyer or whoever why produce a badge why not a colour colded writsband and/or silicon band. Still sponsorable and easily identifies buyers/tyre-kickers from afar.

Putting a badge on a visitor is there to catch data and provide a security process. A printed badge and all the associated costs could be avoided not to mention the green issues.

Pre-show online services could do so much more than to register people i.e. matchmaker processes etc. Post show - the same applies. Registration and badge processing is, in reality, 4 or five days out of a 365 day data collection, visitor/exhibitor promotion and lead generation process.

Is it time to start re-evaluating the whole registration process?

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