Your industry conference, charity fundraiser, music festival or other enormous event promises to bring in hundreds if not thousands of guests, volunteers, workers and others — and you need a way to keep track of all these different people as they in, out and around your space. Fortunately, yours isn’t the first event to have this concern. Here are a few different tools that different events have used to identify and coordinate different people, so you can make the right design choices for your event.
Admission Tickets
Admission tickets are the typical tool for tracking guests at an event. If you are offering different tiers of experiences for guests at your event, you might visually differentiate those tiers on the tickets. Then, if guests keep their tickets on their person, workers can visually inspect tickets at different activities to determine which guests are permitted. This could also work with digital tickets, which might be kept on a guest’s mobile device and scanned periodically by event staff. Of course, this is a labor-intensive solution that is not ideal for massive events, but it can be low-tech and inexpensive, especially if you design the tickets yourself.
Lanyards
A lanyard is a simple cord that is usually worn around the neck like a necklace but can be wrapped around the wrist, placed in a pocket or stashed in a handbag. Lanyards tend to have clips on one end for attaching some kind of identification card. There are several ways to use lanyards to control the people involved in making your event a success.
Lanyards can be customized in different ways to match your event’s brand and theme. Thin, inexpensive lanyards can be acquired in different colors, which might be used to differentiate different tiers of guests or types of event workers. Wider lanyards might be printed with more detailed text and images.
Additionally, the clipped card should contain useful information for guests and staff. VIPs might have identification cards that include their name and picture, so staff can easily identify them and direct them to the right locations around your space. Other guests might merely have a proof-of-admission attached to their lanyard or else a barcode or QR code that can be scanned for access to different activities.
One downside of lanyards is that they can easily be shared amongst guests, which might make it more difficult to track your crowds accurately.
Wristbands
Wristbands tend to be a popular choice for large events because they are simple, affordable and easy to use. Unlike other tracking tools, wristbands usually remain in place once put on, so guests and workers at your event are likely to maintain access to the event activities they desire without worrying about misplacing a ticket or having a lanyard stolen. There are plenty of different varieties of custom wristbands for you to choose from, such as:
Paper. Paper wristbands usually have a strong adhesive strip that allows guests to size their wristband for comfort and security. Though made from paper, these wristbands are usually tear- and water-resistant, so individuals could conceivably wear them for multiple days should an event last so long. However, they are also easy to remove with scissors once the event is over. Paper wristbands are perhaps the most inexpensive option, which might be ideal if your event is massive.
Plastic. Plastic wristbands are a slightly elevated option in several respects. First, plastic wristbands are more customizable, with the capability of brighter colors and more detailed text and images. Plastic is also much more durable than paper, and individuals could easily remove and reuse their wristbands for multiple days or weeks of a long-term event. You might integrate RFID technology into plastic wristbands, making the wristbands even more functional for tracking and controlling access to different areas of your event.
Cloth. Cloth wristbands are arguably the most comfortable and most fashionable option. Cloth boasts many of the same perks as plastic, with the caveats that cloth can degrade faster, especially in outdoor environments, and that instead of being built into the wristband, any tags will need to be made of plastic and looped into the cloth.
Silicone. Silicone bracelets are most often used as swag rather than tools for coordinating people at the event. Because silicone bracelets come in one and are not adjustable, they are not comfortable for everyone and are likely to get lost, causing problems for guests and workers. You might only consider using silicone bracelets for smaller events or select groups of VIPs.
Large events can be confusing, even for the organizers. With a simple system in place, you can keep your event running smoothly for everyone involved.
