I’m currently attending the Adobe Summit as a guest of Adobe’s and just checked in. The check-in was super quick on a laptop (I don’t want to know how many people have touched that!).
Once I remembered what email I used to register, the screen warned me that a lost badge would cost $150 to replace.
I groaned at the sight of the fee and the attendant added: “That’s nothing. The other day I was working a convention where they charged the full conference amount—$2,300.”
Whoa. Don’t lose your badge, I guess. At last year’s Adobe Summit I did actually lose my badge momentarily when I removed it to step into a 3D printer (an experience that I documented on my Authentic Storytelling Project blog).
I left the expo hall—the Adobe Summit utilized the Sands Expo Center both years—and wasn’t allowed back in due to the missing badge.
They eventually agreed to go in and get it for me.
At Content Marketing World a few years ago they made attendees hold up their two-paged badges when entering keynotes to verify that the back page wasn’t given away to somebody else.
So it appears badge fraud (is that a term?) might be more prevalent than ever crossed my mind.
I can’t blame conferences for trying to keep this under control as one badge given away to another person often equals hundreds or thousands of dollars of lost revenue, at least at larger events.
How does your conference fight badge fraud? Or is it even an issue for you?
Leave your comment below or drop me an email at Christoph.trappe@stamats.com.
Christoph Trappe is director of content with Stamats Business Media, the parent company of Meetings Today.
