Let’s be frank: we are living in the age of everything on-demand. Think about it. When you sit down to watch a movie, all it takes is to voice in “free movies” or “action movies” to get a complete catalog of every title available at that moment in whatever genre you prefer.
The same holds true for music selections, grocery deliveries, and take-out.
With so many need-to-have or nice-to-have products and services available on-demand most of our needs can be met in-the-moment. This has set the bar for convenience and instant gratification rather high.
What this means for event planners is that their attendees have come to expect a certain immediacy and convenience to what they have to offer, which is why the benefits of on-demand badge printing really cannot be overstated.
Stick around to learn about these benefits along with a breakdown of the specific advantages that on-demand badge printing can afford event managers.
What are the benefits of on-demand badge printing?
Quick and efficient badge printing means even faster check-ins for attendees. By providing on-site badge printing you can give attendees the flexibility to manage any last-minute changes to their badges for real-time customization.
On-site badge printing will help you cut costs as well and ensure conference badges are only printed for attendees who show up to the event. This supports safety and security at your event, along with keeping special or exclusive sessions restricted to those who actually paid to attend.
Event managers can reduce production time and create a seamless process by having the designs ready to go so all attendees need to do is press print at check-in and, which avoids them standing in long and stressful queues.
Integrating on-demand badge printing into your event management strategy affords your organization high-quality, unique badges that can be printed in seconds, ensuring the attendee experience runs smoothly from the start of your event.
Okay, that’s the overview. Now we’ll dive into the specifics…
Underscoring the importance of on-demand badge printing
Simply put, on-demand badge printing is the ability to print identification badges or credentials instantly and as needed, rather than relying on pre-printed badges. While pre-printed badges have their place, they do require additional time, expense and manpower to manage on the day of the event. Few event planners, especially post-pandemic have the time or budget to allow for that.
Providing the ability to print badges on demand offers several benefits in various settings, such as conferences, events, workplaces, schools, and more.
Here are some of the specific advantages of on-demand badge printing:
Quick and easy customization
Investing in on-demand badge capabilities makes a great impression on your attendees. You can make the introduction to your event seem more personal by creating badges that reflect what you know about your attendees. You can include the person’s name, title, organization, and other relevant information. This customization helps make attendees or employees feel recognized and valued. Badge customization can even include color-coded details that immediately designate attendees as VIPs, exhibitors, sponsors or speakers. This can help create a sense of awareness among the attendees and facilitate smoother networking.
Time savings for all event stakeholders
With on-demand printing, you can quickly generate badges as soon as they are needed. This saves time compared to ordering pre-printed badges, waiting for them to arrive, and then organizing them alphabetically or by categories. What’s more, it removes the need for check-in tables and the lengthy lines that quickly form as attendees wait to be handed their badges and other event materials.
Flexibility that eases event planners’ efforts
All event planners know that being able to shift and adapt at a moment’s notice is key to managing a successful event. Events and conferences often have last-minute changes, such as new attendees, cancellations, or changes in roles and session locations. On-demand badge printing allows you to accommodate these changes instantly, ensuring accurate and up-to-date information.
Greater cost control
Pre-printing large quantities of badges can lead to waste if not all badges are used. On-demand printing helps avoid this waste and reduces costs since you only print badges for the exact number of attendees or employees. Consider other events you’ve hosted that, for whatever reason, resulted in a significant number of no-shows. What did you do with those badges and pre-printed materials? There probably wasn’t much you could do aside from discard them, which only resulted in wasted money and materials.
Strengthened security in support of stakeholder safety
Establishing and maintaining a secure event is a non-negotiable responsibility of all event planners. It’s also a monumental task, but one that can be made much easier by integrating on-demand badge printing, which enables the use of variable data and QR codes, allowing event managers to implement access control and track attendance. This enhances security by ensuring that only authorized individuals can access specific areas or information.
Better branding opportunities
Customized badges offer easy branding opportunities for organizations. You can include your company or event logo, colors, and other branding elements on the badges, reinforcing your brand image. What seems like a small detail, creating customized badges supports your brand story, inspiring trust and recognition in your attendees.
Polish and professionalism
In light of the on-demand expectations of your attendees, it’s easy to see why investing in on-demand badge creation lends your organization a more polished, cutting-edge appearance. High-quality, professionally printed badges make a positive impression on your event stakeholders, reflecting well on the organization or event and contributing to a more professional atmosphere.
Reduced errors mean less waste
Even small mistakes can be costly for an organization. On-demand badge printing systems often integrate with registration databases or attendee lists. This integration minimizes the risk of errors, such as misspelled names or incorrect information, since the data is pulled directly from the database. This saves event planners the additional effort and expense of going back to make corrections, which wastes resources and materials.
Deliver on eco-friendly expectations
In addition to instantaneous, on-demand capabilities, today’s event attendees have expectations of sustainability. With so many people concerned about the environment, going green and reducing carbon footprints, on-demand badge printing signals a commitment to these concerns. On-demand printing reduces paper waste since you only print badges as needed. This environmentally-friendly approach aligns with sustainability goals, which will again strike the right note with your eco-conscious attendees, including sponsors, exhibitors, and stakeholders.
Capitalize on convenience
The driving factor of consumers’ on-demand expectations is convenience. Many will have traveled to your event and are eager to get on the ground, start networking, and explore the solutions to the problems that drove their attendance in the first place. Given that on-demand badge printing can be quickly and easily set up at various locations, attendees will benefit from the convenience of obtaining their badges without waiting in long waiting lines.
Overall, on-demand badge printing offers a more efficient, flexible, and customized approach to providing identification badges, streamlining processes, and enhancing the overall experience for participants or employees.
