GB - HPL

The Renaissance Hotels “Navigators Hot(e)line” was designed to highlight the local and personalized service offered by the brand’s Navigators—hotel employees that give guests tips on finding local experiences. Five rotary phones were placed on plinths in front of a black wall showcasing quotes related to destinations including Dubai, New York, and Beijing. Guests who picked up the phones heard pre-recorded audio from Navigators offering tips for that particular destination.

For TownePlace Suites “Closet Essentials,” BMF created a custom walk-in closet. To emphasize the brand’s appreciation of guests’s D.I.Y. attitude, the closet had hanging racks displaying paper fashion pieces that attendees could pose with. Additional items on closet shelves nodded to the hotel’s brand partnerships.

Tribute Portfolio’s “Add Your Own Color” featured a life-size coloring book, inspired by the brand’s colorful aesthetic. The content of the coloring book design offered illustrations and names of Tribute destinations.

Bartenders affixed hotel and destination photos to cocktails with mini clothespins.

TEDActive in Palm Springs, California, in 2013, had a similar idea: Buttons with blank fields labeled "Talk to Me About ... " invited guests to write a short list of topics they love or are knowledgeable about, to encourage meaningful mingling. Attendees could attach the buttons to their existing badges. The independent TED-style event TEDxWaterloo in Canada, takes it a step further, leaving titles and company names off of name badges. Instead, organizers leave 40 characters on the badges for attendees to finish the phrase “I'm chasing … ,” which gets conversations started among attendees on a deeper level.

For Etsy’s first New York conference in 2013, organizers demonstrated simple changes to enhance sustainability. The conference program and badge were combined into one item to minimize waste and to keep attendees' hands free.

For Be Inspired PR’s Tassels and Tastemakers networking event, held in Los Angeles in 2016, name badges added to the event’s simple yet upscale design. The multicolored tags, which simply listed attendees’ first name and social-media handle, were displayed on a wall designed by Couture Events.

For smaller events, name tags don’t have to break the budget—or stick to a standard format. Artist marketplace Minted suggests a D.I.Y. option for event hosts using a simple button maker. The colorful round buttons are a simple, unobtrusive way to share guest names plus a small fun fact about them—which encourages conversation. Read more about the process on Minted’s Julep blog.

Developers could add their ideas to N.F.C.-enabled tiles on the “Big Idea Wall,” which allowed them to save and collaborate on concepts in Google Spaces.