The Cheapest Badges for Event Attendees

Every conference or congress organizer faces a common challenge: how to provide attendees with clear and professional-looking badges without exceeding the budget? Printing badges at a print shop can be quite expensive, especially when using double-sided personalization. That’s why we at CONREGO have developed a method that allows you to create high-quality badges at a low cost with minimal effort.

What makes a good badge?

Before diving into the details of our budget-friendly method, let’s outline the essential features of a solid attendee badge:

Readability – Attendee information must be easily visible from a distance,
Durability – The badge should last for the entire event (or multiple days),
Professional appearance – It reflects positively on the event organizer,
Ease of preparation – The production process should be straightforward and time-efficient,
Low cost – Especially important for large-scale events.

Our budget-friendly method – step by step

1. Required materials

To create badges, you will need the following materials:

Badge personalization tool – Ideally integrated into your event registration software,
A4 paper (210 x 297 mm) with a weight of 200-250 g/m² – Ensures adequate stiffness,
Lanyards and PVC badge holders in A6 format (105 x 148 mm) – Choose an option that matches your event’s style,
Laser or inkjet printer – High-quality printing is key to a professional look.

2. Designing the badge

Our concept is based on an A4 format that is folded twice to create an A6 badge. The image below shows a sample design and the final badge:

Fig. CONREGO enables automatic personalization and distribution of such a badge as a PDF attachment in the registration confirmation emails.

The design should be:

Readable – Large, high-contrast fonts,
Structured – Key information (name, organization, position, optional QR code) should be in the second quadrant (front side),
Functional – The first quadrant (back side) can include the same details or additional information such as the agenda,
Practical – The third and fourth quadrants can contain a venue map or other relevant details,
Visually consistent – Aligns with the event’s branding (logo, colors).

You can design the badge using any tool that allows PDF export:

Canva – A free and intuitive graphic editor,
Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop – For advanced users,
Microsoft Word or Google Docs – Sufficient for simple designs.

3. Printing and preparing for distribution

Printing is best done using a fast laser printer, which ensures better print durability. After printing the sheets, fold each one to A6 size and insert it into a PVC holder before handing it to attendees.

What are the costs of this method?

Assuming you print the badges in-house, the cost per badge can be as low as just a few cents. Here’s a cost breakdown (for 1,000 pieces):

250 g/m² paper – approx. €10-20,
Printer toner – approx. €30,
Optional: PVC badge holders – approx. €0.10-0.20 per unit,

The cost of printing a badge using this method is around €0.25 per unit, which is roughly half the cost of ordering pre-printed badges from a print shop.

Conclusion

An attendee who receives a PDF badge can print it at home and fold the A4 sheet to A6 format following the printed guidelines. This way, they will have a fully prepared badge containing all the necessary event details. If attendees receive PDF badges well in advance with a recommendation to print them, at least 50% will arrive at the event with their badge ready.

To accommodate the remaining 50%, equip your reception desks with laser printers and ensure that the event management tool you use allows on-site badge printing.

Creating affordable yet professional event badges does not have to be complicated or expensive. Our method significantly reduces costs while maintaining high quality and readability. This allows organizers to allocate savings to other event aspects while ensuring attendees have a convenient and well-designed badge.