Name Badges

Name badges at events: yay or nay? I was essentially asked that last week, and immediately thought: hmm, good question.

The main (and pretty much only) upside of name badges is that everyone can immediately know your name. Plus, in a lot of cases, who you work or regularly write for. From your perspective, being able to recognise writers from their faces alone, especially in this time-poor era where meetings are less and less common, is unlikely.

In the con column, meanwhile, are the lack of formality and over-corporate vibe (once I don a name badge, some cringey icebreaker exercise feels dangerously close), plus the recurrent difficulty in affixing them and, from the male side, the uh-oh awkwardness of often having to peer directly at a woman’s cleavage in order to remind oneself who they are.

Personally, I’m always quite pleased not to wear one because I tend to get a much freer pass. Since most people won’t recognise me as I attend relatively few events, I’ll largely be ignored if walking round badgeless; put “The Times” or “The Guardian” on my pecs, however, and it’s understandably, sensibly a different story, and I might be besieged. So, the preference is to go anonymous — but that preference comes from a selfish, unreasonable place.

Ultimately, name badges must be a good idea. They add functionality to networking events and the like; they make the chief aspiration of those events — making good, useful new contacts — easier to achieve. Sure, they might look a tad uncool and risk snagging or diminishing a chic cocktail dress or snappy suit, but pah, come on. That’s just vanity.

So, I’m all for them. At the risk of being a stationery snob, where I do draw the line is when labels — actual, regular, adherent labels — are utilised as badges to be stuck onto clothing. This happened at one event I attended not so long ago and felt far too close to a meet-and-greet at the local bowls club for comfort.