What do you get out of every trade show, conference, or unconference?

Information? Sure. New friends/contacts? Absolutely. But what do you get that is tangible and helps you get past the awkward moment of “hey, what’s your name?”

Of course – a conference name tag / lanyard!

Lanyard / nametags are something that every event organizer has to decide how to handle. I have seen them printed on-the-fly at E3, I have seen people who get a name tag and lanyard and fill out their own at PodCamp, I have seen the old sticky-back name tags (Hello My Name is…) Why do conferences encourage name tags? One, it helps identify to some extet who has registered and who has not. It can also determine access to certain events (in the case of color coded tags), but mainly it is to help the conference participants meet other people and help them get over the initial awkward stage of meeting someone.

Enter: Tweetup badges

For those who don’t know, a tweetup is an informal gathering of people in a general area radius who are on twitter. Here in central Iowa, the most notable is the group #dmtweetup which has had several “events” which range from get-togethers at a public library to enjoying drinks at Des Moines bars.

Sounds like a great place for name badges of some sort, eh? Enter Rich Drake, owner of VR ID Cards who came to the early tweetups with a stack of plastic, gold cards, emblazoned with every member’s twitter ID and first name.

Coincidentally or not, membership in #dmtweetup boomed.

Now Rich is offering his twitter / tweetup badges for sale to other groups. Keep an eye on tweetupbadges.com or go to VRID’s Tweetup badges page for more information on colors available and pricing.

I really can’t recommend them enough. If you organize an event and have pre-registration, or if you are another tweetup group, contact Rich today, you won’t be disappointed.