What is the ideal format for this convention badge?
July 10, 2015 5:33 AM Subscribe
I'm trying to come up with the ideal form factor for the entry badge to be used at a geek convention.
The badge needs to be cheap to produce, and simple in design so registration can be achieved quickly by volunteers, but also sufficiently hard to modify to discourage misuse. I'm currently stuck between the different options available.
Is there a magic solution I'm missing, or is this just a variation of "fast, good, cheap; pick two"?
It's a geek convention running over a long weekend.
Attendees are identified by name and email address, and attendee ID. Badges will be issued by registration volunteers operating on lines of attendees divided alphabetically by name.
My current options are:
* A single type of printed badge, with handwritten circles over a printed list of days for when the badge is eligible, and written on ID number, along with some other marker for different people, such as "vendor". These are cheap to produce and quick to issue - but depend on volunteer registrars being accurate, and are the most open to misuse.
* A variety of printed cards, one for each day and function ( i.e. day passes versus weekend passes ), but are more expensive to produce- as you need to buy enough of each type required to cover the maximum of each function.
* The same cards, but using stickers to make the unique ID harder to modify with a felt-tip. Using stickers will slow down the registration process, and finding cheap but large quantities of numerical stickers is a lot harder than I expected, and I'm not sure the gain in security is worth the problems caused.
* Badges with a printed incrementing numerical ID will make the passes virtually tamper-proof, but it will slow down registration while the correct badge is found for the alphabetically ordered attendee, or involve cross-referencing attendee to attendee ID to badge ID.
* For a variety of reasons cards with pre-printed names, attendee photos, or using wristbands, are out of the question.
So... is there a magic solution I'm missing?
It's a geek convention running over a long weekend.
Attendees are identified by name and email address, and attendee ID. Badges will be issued by registration volunteers operating on lines of attendees divided alphabetically by name.
My current options are:
* A single type of printed badge, with handwritten circles over a printed list of days for when the badge is eligible, and written on ID number, along with some other marker for different people, such as "vendor". These are cheap to produce and quick to issue - but depend on volunteer registrars being accurate, and are the most open to misuse.
* A variety of printed cards, one for each day and function ( i.e. day passes versus weekend passes ), but are more expensive to produce- as you need to buy enough of each type required to cover the maximum of each function.
* The same cards, but using stickers to make the unique ID harder to modify with a felt-tip. Using stickers will slow down the registration process, and finding cheap but large quantities of numerical stickers is a lot harder than I expected, and I'm not sure the gain in security is worth the problems caused.
* Badges with a printed incrementing numerical ID will make the passes virtually tamper-proof, but it will slow down registration while the correct badge is found for the alphabetically ordered attendee, or involve cross-referencing attendee to attendee ID to badge ID.
* For a variety of reasons cards with pre-printed names, attendee photos, or using wristbands, are out of the question.
So... is there a magic solution I'm missing?
I was going to suggest self-inking stamps too.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:46 AM on July 10, 2015
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:46 AM on July 10, 2015
Buy different coloured lanyards. Different colours mean different days. Make the day customers come back for another badge if they have registered for more than one individual day.
The lanyards have the bonus of being very easy to see at a glance from a distance away, so your volunteers don't have to spend their time peering at people's chest area. Plus, most of the customers will be oblivious to the special meaning.
If you're too cheap for lanyards then coloured ribbon achieves the same effect.
posted by emilyw at 5:47 AM on July 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
The lanyards have the bonus of being very easy to see at a glance from a distance away, so your volunteers don't have to spend their time peering at people's chest area. Plus, most of the customers will be oblivious to the special meaning.
If you're too cheap for lanyards then coloured ribbon achieves the same effect.
posted by emilyw at 5:47 AM on July 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Just to clarify:
1/ Will the bulk of attendees be pre-registered? (Meaning most of this question is about how to physically collate badges most efficiently in advance?)
2/ How many days?
3/ How many vendor types? (Attendees, speakers, sponsors, vendors?)
posted by DarlingBri at 6:26 AM on July 10, 2015
1/ Will the bulk of attendees be pre-registered? (Meaning most of this question is about how to physically collate badges most efficiently in advance?)
2/ How many days?
3/ How many vendor types? (Attendees, speakers, sponsors, vendors?)
posted by DarlingBri at 6:26 AM on July 10, 2015
4/ How many registrations are we talking about here? (50? 500? 5,000?)
posted by DarlingBri at 6:32 AM on July 10, 2015
posted by DarlingBri at 6:32 AM on July 10, 2015
Is it really a smart idea to put people's e-mail addresses on the badges? As a woman, I don't know if I'd be comfortable with any idiot out there being able to have an easy way to track me down. It's one thing if I give somebody my contact information. It's another thing if somebody takes the time to track me down through legitimate means (goes to company website and finds my contact information through there). It somehow feels entirely different to just have that info out there for easy pickings.
posted by sardonyx at 6:43 AM on July 10, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 6:43 AM on July 10, 2015 [5 favorites]
How automated is your registration system? Most software packages for con registration/credentialing will print bar codes, and you can rent the hardware necessary. Attendees print up their badges at home (or can get printed onsite), volunteers scan the bar codes.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 7:31 AM on July 10, 2015
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 7:31 AM on July 10, 2015
Don't use stickers for days. Do pre-print the days of the convention along one edge, and have your registration staff use hole punches to punch out the invalid days (you could use the same approach for "attendee/vendor/panelist").
I've also seen badges printed on differently colored cardstock to indicate the days they're valid for. Or even simply selling passes for (e.g.) Friday-Saturday-Sunday, or Saturday-Sunday, or Sunday, and you can only pick up your badge on the first valid day, so you only need one badge type with no modification.
You've got to figure out how security-conscious you want to be about this, and how you'll balance security and convenience. I would go with badges that are preprinted with name, etc.
posted by adamrice at 7:34 AM on July 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've also seen badges printed on differently colored cardstock to indicate the days they're valid for. Or even simply selling passes for (e.g.) Friday-Saturday-Sunday, or Saturday-Sunday, or Sunday, and you can only pick up your badge on the first valid day, so you only need one badge type with no modification.
You've got to figure out how security-conscious you want to be about this, and how you'll balance security and convenience. I would go with badges that are preprinted with name, etc.
posted by adamrice at 7:34 AM on July 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
You seem to think it's very important that each badge have a unique number, matching the attendee number.
Why?
How are you going to be using the numbers? It does no good for each badge to have a number if nobody looks at the number, or, having looked at it, acts on it. I don't see how to quickly map a number to a set of "authorizations" in the average conference environment, nor how to easily detect duplicates.
Numbers aside, why is it important that the badges have names and email addresses? What happens if those are wrong? What incentive would anybody have to fake them?
More generally, what are you protecting, and what are you protecting it against? What other measures do these badges have to interact with? How much does it cost you if the protection is bypassed? How much does the person bypassing it gain?
You say that preprinted name badges aren't an option... but those seem to be really, really common. That says that there's something unusual about your conference and about how you're using your badges. Can you explain what that is?
In addition to all the other questions, of course.
If this is just about admission control, and if that's only enforced by a few volunteers standing around at doors, and not individually challenging each and every person, then the reality will probably be that anything that vaguely resembles a valid badge, when glanced at obliquely from a few feet away while the wearer is moving, will get somebody in. I've seen people pass Armed Guards(TM) with somebody else's Government Issued ID(TM). Volunteers won't generally challenge anybody unless they're already pretty sure the person is an interloper.
If you only expect to need to use the badge information when there's particularized suspicion that somebody is cheating, you have a lot of non-badge options for verifying that the person is supposed to be there.
I hate to question your premises, but it's pretty common for people to get the wrong ideas about these things. And "bearer" badges are a lot easier.
posted by Hizonner at 7:36 AM on July 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
Why?
How are you going to be using the numbers? It does no good for each badge to have a number if nobody looks at the number, or, having looked at it, acts on it. I don't see how to quickly map a number to a set of "authorizations" in the average conference environment, nor how to easily detect duplicates.
Numbers aside, why is it important that the badges have names and email addresses? What happens if those are wrong? What incentive would anybody have to fake them?
More generally, what are you protecting, and what are you protecting it against? What other measures do these badges have to interact with? How much does it cost you if the protection is bypassed? How much does the person bypassing it gain?
You say that preprinted name badges aren't an option... but those seem to be really, really common. That says that there's something unusual about your conference and about how you're using your badges. Can you explain what that is?
In addition to all the other questions, of course.
If this is just about admission control, and if that's only enforced by a few volunteers standing around at doors, and not individually challenging each and every person, then the reality will probably be that anything that vaguely resembles a valid badge, when glanced at obliquely from a few feet away while the wearer is moving, will get somebody in. I've seen people pass Armed Guards(TM) with somebody else's Government Issued ID(TM). Volunteers won't generally challenge anybody unless they're already pretty sure the person is an interloper.
If you only expect to need to use the badge information when there's particularized suspicion that somebody is cheating, you have a lot of non-badge options for verifying that the person is supposed to be there.
I hate to question your premises, but it's pretty common for people to get the wrong ideas about these things. And "bearer" badges are a lot easier.
posted by Hizonner at 7:36 AM on July 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
Within the confines you have listed, I would use the sticker idea. Why do the stickers need numbers? You really just need a different color for each day. Something like this seems like it would work (lots of similar options on Amazon or at a Staples/craft store to fit your needs better - I just chose this at random).
I do not see any point to ID numbers being printed anywhere on the badge, unless I'm misunderstanding something fundamental about your setup. In what circumstance will these ID numbers be checked against anything to ensure only the "correct" numbers are being let in? It if is happening, that process is going to require WAY more lines/slowness than anything at the registration table. I would just make the badge "design" something hard to replicate (i.e. a printed logo of the convention or something), and then really talk to the volunteers about not handing these out to anyone who isn't authorized. I would also avoid printing email addresses for privacy concerns noted above.
An alternate cheap/easy idea? If you're not willing to go with wristbands, what about hand stamps with a different stamp for each day?
posted by rainbowbrite at 8:14 AM on July 10, 2015
I do not see any point to ID numbers being printed anywhere on the badge, unless I'm misunderstanding something fundamental about your setup. In what circumstance will these ID numbers be checked against anything to ensure only the "correct" numbers are being let in? It if is happening, that process is going to require WAY more lines/slowness than anything at the registration table. I would just make the badge "design" something hard to replicate (i.e. a printed logo of the convention or something), and then really talk to the volunteers about not handing these out to anyone who isn't authorized. I would also avoid printing email addresses for privacy concerns noted above.
An alternate cheap/easy idea? If you're not willing to go with wristbands, what about hand stamps with a different stamp for each day?
posted by rainbowbrite at 8:14 AM on July 10, 2015
For the small convention I staff (varies from 200-400 attendees depending on the guests of honor), this is how we handle it:
1. The badges usually include art from an artist guest of ours, framed with a complementary color that varies depending on who the badge is for--staff, full-con attendees, guests of honor, panelists, dealers, GMs, single-day. This allows you to ID what group someone belongs to from farther away than you can see the name. We occasionally, if the art allows for it, rotate the badge 90° for certain classes, so that, for example, all staff/GMs/dealers/guests/panelists have vertical badges and attendees have horizontal ones. If we don't have an artist guest that year and I get dragooned into doing custom art for each badge type, I do it in B&W so we can use different color paper for each badge and make it cheaper to print the badges. We have started getting color-coded ribbons to attach to badges for guests, panelists, and staff. (People like horizontal ribbons better than the vertical ones, but make sure you can order horizontal ribbons the correct width for vertical badges. If they stick out on either side, the sticky bits get stuck to hair and clothes and look terrible.)
2. Pre-registered attendees get badges with their names (or the name they choose to use) on them. These are laminated. We make them up the week before the convention and have them in several stacks in alphabetical order. Pre-reg is reliably about 30% of our final attendance.
3. When someone buys a full convention pass at the con, we make and laminate it right there. We have separate people doing the registration process and the lamination, so anyone waiting on their badge can go to the lamination table and wait until it is finished without holding up the line.
4. Single-day pass buyers get a pre-laminated badge with "FRIDAY", "SATURDAY" or "SUNDAY" on it, and a wristband so that they can't pass the badge off to someone else. We used to just give them a name-tag sticker with the day stamped on it; I'm not sure why we switched to the badge. Possibly someone found a deal on lamination supplies.
5. We don't put ID numbers or real names on the badges. We have not needed to do so (see below for another convention that does), and we are small enough that we have everyone's badge name and if we need to yank a badge and boot them, we could easily cross-reference the badge name with the real name.
I've volunteered at 2 larger conventions (5000 attendees in one case, 20,000 in the other) in the past, although in A/V and PR, not in Registration, so I can only report on what I saw and what my immediate staff head told me, not their full procedures.
The 5000-attendee one made badges ahead of time for all pre-registered attendees. They started including a legal name and ID number on a sticker laminated to the back of the badges almost ten years ago after (and I witnessed the directors talking about this incident, and settling on this conclusion) some attendees harassed a another attendee. The con yanked the culprits' badges and kicked them offsite, but realized that since the badges had badge names and not real names on them, there was no way to identify them to Registration and to keep them from regaining entry by just buying new badges. New policy created, effective immediately.
At this con, pre-reg people just went up to the Reg desk and showed them their receipt or ID if they lost their receipt, were checked off on a printout (old school) or on a networked computer (in recent years) and the pre-reg packets with the badges were kept in file boxes behind the Reg desk, in alphabetical order by real name. It usually took less than 10 minutes to get your badge, but in recent years as the con grew I think the wait time got worse. The con started mailing badges out ahead of time last year, presumably on the basis that the money they lose from counterfeit badges is less than the money they gain by reducing wait time for attendees, but I haven't worked for them in a few years so I do not know how that's working out.
The 20K+ con mismanages its registration so badly that you do not want to emulate them at all. (4 hour waits for pre-registered people at its worst! That was just a symptom of overall mismanagement; my husband and I quit volunteering for them after that because working there was getting to be a chore, not fun.) This convention prints ALL badges at the time of pickup, and at the time I quit working for them, had increased their Reg stations from 5 to 7 or 8. It was not enough to make the wait less than 1-2 hours at its peak, I am given to understand.
posted by telophase at 9:21 AM on July 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
1. The badges usually include art from an artist guest of ours, framed with a complementary color that varies depending on who the badge is for--staff, full-con attendees, guests of honor, panelists, dealers, GMs, single-day. This allows you to ID what group someone belongs to from farther away than you can see the name. We occasionally, if the art allows for it, rotate the badge 90° for certain classes, so that, for example, all staff/GMs/dealers/guests/panelists have vertical badges and attendees have horizontal ones. If we don't have an artist guest that year and I get dragooned into doing custom art for each badge type, I do it in B&W so we can use different color paper for each badge and make it cheaper to print the badges. We have started getting color-coded ribbons to attach to badges for guests, panelists, and staff. (People like horizontal ribbons better than the vertical ones, but make sure you can order horizontal ribbons the correct width for vertical badges. If they stick out on either side, the sticky bits get stuck to hair and clothes and look terrible.)
2. Pre-registered attendees get badges with their names (or the name they choose to use) on them. These are laminated. We make them up the week before the convention and have them in several stacks in alphabetical order. Pre-reg is reliably about 30% of our final attendance.
3. When someone buys a full convention pass at the con, we make and laminate it right there. We have separate people doing the registration process and the lamination, so anyone waiting on their badge can go to the lamination table and wait until it is finished without holding up the line.
4. Single-day pass buyers get a pre-laminated badge with "FRIDAY", "SATURDAY" or "SUNDAY" on it, and a wristband so that they can't pass the badge off to someone else. We used to just give them a name-tag sticker with the day stamped on it; I'm not sure why we switched to the badge. Possibly someone found a deal on lamination supplies.
5. We don't put ID numbers or real names on the badges. We have not needed to do so (see below for another convention that does), and we are small enough that we have everyone's badge name and if we need to yank a badge and boot them, we could easily cross-reference the badge name with the real name.
I've volunteered at 2 larger conventions (5000 attendees in one case, 20,000 in the other) in the past, although in A/V and PR, not in Registration, so I can only report on what I saw and what my immediate staff head told me, not their full procedures.
The 5000-attendee one made badges ahead of time for all pre-registered attendees. They started including a legal name and ID number on a sticker laminated to the back of the badges almost ten years ago after (and I witnessed the directors talking about this incident, and settling on this conclusion) some attendees harassed a another attendee. The con yanked the culprits' badges and kicked them offsite, but realized that since the badges had badge names and not real names on them, there was no way to identify them to Registration and to keep them from regaining entry by just buying new badges. New policy created, effective immediately.
At this con, pre-reg people just went up to the Reg desk and showed them their receipt or ID if they lost their receipt, were checked off on a printout (old school) or on a networked computer (in recent years) and the pre-reg packets with the badges were kept in file boxes behind the Reg desk, in alphabetical order by real name. It usually took less than 10 minutes to get your badge, but in recent years as the con grew I think the wait time got worse. The con started mailing badges out ahead of time last year, presumably on the basis that the money they lose from counterfeit badges is less than the money they gain by reducing wait time for attendees, but I haven't worked for them in a few years so I do not know how that's working out.
The 20K+ con mismanages its registration so badly that you do not want to emulate them at all. (4 hour waits for pre-registered people at its worst! That was just a symptom of overall mismanagement; my husband and I quit volunteering for them after that because working there was getting to be a chore, not fun.) This convention prints ALL badges at the time of pickup, and at the time I quit working for them, had increased their Reg stations from 5 to 7 or 8. It was not enough to make the wait less than 1-2 hours at its peak, I am given to understand.
posted by telophase at 9:21 AM on July 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I should add after rereading your question--the way we keep our Reg people from issuing the wrong type of badge to someone is that we do not register everyone at the same table. Dealers go to the dealers' room staff head, who is set up at a table in the dealers' room, to check in and get their badges. Guests of honor and panelists go to the guest liaison staff head, who sits at a table next to the attendee reg table, and who then moves his packets to Con Ops when he has to leave and we check them in at Con Ops at that point. GMs go to the gaming room where the gaming staff head is set up, and get their badges there. Staff heads and volunteer staff head to Con Ops to pick up their badges.
I wouldn't make people circle a day or any other info, as in your first option, because you'll end up with enough screw-ups that you'll need to print an excess number in advance. If you want to save money, get rubber stamps with FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY, and MONDAY on them and stamp one-day passes right there to distinguish them.
Unless you have a ton of badge counterfeiting, you almost certainly will not save enough money by instituting serious security to make it worth the time and money. In my experience, people who buy counterfeit badges would not usually buy a badge otherwise.
posted by telophase at 9:32 AM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't make people circle a day or any other info, as in your first option, because you'll end up with enough screw-ups that you'll need to print an excess number in advance. If you want to save money, get rubber stamps with FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY, and MONDAY on them and stamp one-day passes right there to distinguish them.
Unless you have a ton of badge counterfeiting, you almost certainly will not save enough money by instituting serious security to make it worth the time and money. In my experience, people who buy counterfeit badges would not usually buy a badge otherwise.
posted by telophase at 9:32 AM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
YMMV, but the most counterfeit-proof systems i've seen all used hard plastic credit/gift card type badges that hung directly from a lanyard exposed, not anything printed/laminated.
No serial number or anything. The hard card itself was so hard to counterfeit and fakes were so blatant that anything non-real was immediately obvious even from several feet away.
On the other hand, i myself have faked badges to paper-in-plastic-holder conventions several times, even the ones with little holographic or other special stickers. Literally with what was available inside of kinkos, a half hour, and a copy of photoshop. The badges were obviously fake if you took them out of the holder attached to the lanyard, but within it they even passed scrutiny from security/staff grabbing the lanyard and inspecting them.
I've never seen a convincing hard plastic badge and i've seen many people get busted.
I know there are cheap(like sub $1 a card) suppliers of hard shiny plastic business cards, and i'm assuming that's where these came from. They were credit/business card size and shape.
My only recommendation for years has been do whatever the hell design you want, but do it on a hard plastic card like that.
posted by emptythought at 3:51 PM on July 10, 2015
No serial number or anything. The hard card itself was so hard to counterfeit and fakes were so blatant that anything non-real was immediately obvious even from several feet away.
On the other hand, i myself have faked badges to paper-in-plastic-holder conventions several times, even the ones with little holographic or other special stickers. Literally with what was available inside of kinkos, a half hour, and a copy of photoshop. The badges were obviously fake if you took them out of the holder attached to the lanyard, but within it they even passed scrutiny from security/staff grabbing the lanyard and inspecting them.
I've never seen a convincing hard plastic badge and i've seen many people get busted.
I know there are cheap(like sub $1 a card) suppliers of hard shiny plastic business cards, and i'm assuming that's where these came from. They were credit/business card size and shape.
My only recommendation for years has been do whatever the hell design you want, but do it on a hard plastic card like that.
posted by emptythought at 3:51 PM on July 10, 2015
I've seen this done a number of ways:
Most common: different base colors on ID badges attached to (sometimes different colored) lanyards
Very common: self inking stamps. These have always seemed rather unhygienic to me.
Unfortunately common: rubber "LiveStrong" style bracelets in different and unusual colors
Least common: pinned on buttons in different colors
I would recommend something in the middle: disposable, sequentially numbered, non-reusable Tyvek wristbands in various colors for the different days. You can also print any pertinent (but typically not personalized) information on them
(I work in a large resort and convention center)
posted by builderofscience at 7:21 PM on July 10, 2015
Most common: different base colors on ID badges attached to (sometimes different colored) lanyards
Very common: self inking stamps. These have always seemed rather unhygienic to me.
Unfortunately common: rubber "LiveStrong" style bracelets in different and unusual colors
Least common: pinned on buttons in different colors
I would recommend something in the middle: disposable, sequentially numbered, non-reusable Tyvek wristbands in various colors for the different days. You can also print any pertinent (but typically not personalized) information on them
(I work in a large resort and convention center)
posted by builderofscience at 7:21 PM on July 10, 2015
Response by poster: Thank you everyone for your thoughts, this has been really useful.
At the moment it looks like either self-inking stamps, or pre-printed numbers will be used.
To answer some of the points above:
* Lanyard colours are currently used to indicate whether an attendee is willing to be photographed or not.
* About half the attendees will be pre-registered, total attendance is expected to be about 2500.
* The convention lasts three and a half days... Thursday afternoon to Friday evening.
* Many types of badges will be required - day, weekend, vendor, staff, under 18, panellist, and so on.
* I should clarify that email addresses are used to identify people during registration, but attendees write their own name on their badge and can identify themselves or not as they see fit during the convention.
* The threat from misuse of badges is expected to be very low, but the impact in time over disputed badges is a greater concern than the financial impact.
* Badges require unique numbers so that if a badge is lost, and has to be replaced, the organisers can determine if the "lost" badge was just given to someone else so they could gain entry for free. While badges won't be manually inspected as a matter of course, this means duplicates can be proven if required.
* For a variety of reasons, but mainly cosplay, I think wristbands aren't an option as they're too likely to be lost or hidden, or just get in the way.
* Registration will be "bursty", so it'll need to be particularly quick when it's required - that's probably the main reason we're aiming as low-tech as possible.
* And particularly to Hizonner, not a problem questioning my premises at all - of course I'm after a perfect yet free solution that dissuades anyone from trying to defeat it but at the same time doesn't make attendees think they're being monitored or mistrusted by default... so it's a case of figuring how much each premise has to be pushed back upon.
Thank you again for the effort and thought you've put into your answers.
posted by DancingYear at 4:47 AM on July 13, 2015
At the moment it looks like either self-inking stamps, or pre-printed numbers will be used.
To answer some of the points above:
* Lanyard colours are currently used to indicate whether an attendee is willing to be photographed or not.
* About half the attendees will be pre-registered, total attendance is expected to be about 2500.
* The convention lasts three and a half days... Thursday afternoon to Friday evening.
* Many types of badges will be required - day, weekend, vendor, staff, under 18, panellist, and so on.
* I should clarify that email addresses are used to identify people during registration, but attendees write their own name on their badge and can identify themselves or not as they see fit during the convention.
* The threat from misuse of badges is expected to be very low, but the impact in time over disputed badges is a greater concern than the financial impact.
* Badges require unique numbers so that if a badge is lost, and has to be replaced, the organisers can determine if the "lost" badge was just given to someone else so they could gain entry for free. While badges won't be manually inspected as a matter of course, this means duplicates can be proven if required.
* For a variety of reasons, but mainly cosplay, I think wristbands aren't an option as they're too likely to be lost or hidden, or just get in the way.
* Registration will be "bursty", so it'll need to be particularly quick when it's required - that's probably the main reason we're aiming as low-tech as possible.
* And particularly to Hizonner, not a problem questioning my premises at all - of course I'm after a perfect yet free solution that dissuades anyone from trying to defeat it but at the same time doesn't make attendees think they're being monitored or mistrusted by default... so it's a case of figuring how much each premise has to be pushed back upon.
Thank you again for the effort and thought you've put into your answers.
posted by DancingYear at 4:47 AM on July 13, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
Make "Day 1" "Day 2", and "Day 3" stamps, you can even use different colored ink. Faster than stickers, can't really be faked with mere pens, but you need to guard the stamps. :) AND it can be pre-made, like if you know how many 1 day, 2 day, or 3 day attendees are there, you can pre-make some ID cards that way.
* Self-incrementing rubber stamper
Great for making those incremental numerical IDs without trying to sticker each and every one.
posted by kschang at 5:44 AM on July 10, 2015 [2 favorites]