For meeting planners, looking ahead and making to-do lists come with the territory. So we wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve made some professional resolutions for 2012.

Sue Pelletier, Web editor of MeetingsNet and editor of Medical Meetings magazine, has posted her meetings resolutions posted on her blog face2face. Among her resolutions, Pelletier plans to make meetings smaller, teach speakers to facilitate learning, engage attendees’ senses and find ways to include online audiences. The comments on her post also contain some helpful suggestions, like engaging attendees before your event through social media.

What do you plan on doing in the coming year to make your meetings more effective and enjoyable? We’re very eager to hear about your resolutions so we can share them with your fellow planners here on The Registration Line. Because one of our resolutions for 2012 is to make our blog a lively forum for meeting planners to exchange ideas.

Meeting planners, who have to work fast most of the time, really shift into overdrive during this busiest season of the year. Now that time is of the essence, any way of saving it helps.

One timesaver we always suggest to planners is our OneWay® Small Meeting Name Tag Kit. It contains everything you need to make name tags for 50 attendees: 50 vinyl name tag holders, 60 paper name tag inserts and our OneWay® name tag case. So you cover registration, storage and display all in just one click,
saving time when you order supplies. (And you can do all starting at just 52¢ per attendee.)

If you want to add lanyards to your name tags, we offer two other kit options: the OneWay® Small Meeting Name Tag Kit Plus, which includes a premium lanyard with a breakaway feature (from $1.02 per attendee), and the OneWay® Sporty® 2 Small Meeting Name Tag Kit with our no-spin Sporty® 2 necklace (from $1.36 per attendee.

But we know you have to do a lot more than assemble name tags during this crunch time. So we’d like to know how you have learned to save time on meeting-planning tasks to get them all done. Please tell us—and your fellow planners—what tips you have for speeding up any or all of these to-dos: assembling name tags, organizing your registration table, registering attendees, categorizing attendees, unifying the graphics on all registration materials, printing materials on-site and getting supplies delivered to your event.

We look forward to receiving your responses and posting some of them here on our blog!

Labeling, better known as classifying or categorizing, is a good thing for attendees because it helps them quickly connect with each other and get right down to their common business interests. In other words, categorizing is key to the main purpose of a meeting and to making it a success.

For example, when an attendee wearing a name tag with a “Buyer” ribbon meets another one with a name tag indicating “Exhibitor,” the buyer can start a conversation by simply asking, What do you sell?

Because we know how important this kind of speedy networking is, pc/nametag® offers many good options for designating who’s who at an event. You’ll find name tag holders and inserts with title and color bars. Our exclusive stack-a-ribbon® awards with over 650 titles. And for grouping attendees by color: necklaces like the Sporty® Name Tag Necklace and the Budget 2 Name Tag Necklace, and for upscale events, pouches like the Quick Pick Name Tag Pouch and the Mighty2 Pouch.

Also on our website is our exclusive video about classifying attendees featuring our sales representative and former meeting planner Jeanne, who says that how to categorize is the question that customers ask her most frequently.

We hardly claim to know everything about categorizing. Since there are so many options for doing it and so much interest in the topic, we’d love to know how you classify attendees. What have you found that works, and what have you tried that doesn’t? Have you received any feedback from attendees on what they like best?

While attending countless meetings over the years, I couldn’t help noticing a big need for better registration products. And since necessity is the mother of invention, pc/nametag® has developed a host of exclusive products that make registration easier.

There are numerous procedures to go through at the registration table, so we’ve focused groups of products on simplifying the key ones. Just getting large quantities of registration items to a meeting is a challenge. So just for this purpose we’ve developed our own: OneWay® Name Tag Case, Redi-Reg™ Deluxe Badge Case (for name tags and pouches up to 6” tall), the Big Show™ Rolling Badge Case (wheeled luggage that transports up to four OneWay® cases) and the Badge Org System Binder for magnetic badges.

The OneWay® Name Tag Case and the Redi-Reg™ Deluxe Badge Case serve the additional function of displaying name badges on your registration table, and clearly alphabetize them when you add our laminated Alpha Tags. Other attractive display items include our Rotating Stand for lanyards and pouches, Slip-in Sign Holder and natural Wooden Name Tag Organizers.

When you have to make to name tags right on the spot, our new Datamax® On-Site Printer produces 4 x 3 name tags that look anything but last minute. Then you can save time by placing them in our pre-assembled Pret-a-Sporty® Name Tag Necklace/Holder Combo, classify attendees with our stack-a-ribbon® awards and make sure our lanyards fit attendees of all heights with our new Lanyard Length Adjuster.

In addition to all these exclusive registration products, we’ve also created our own Transportation and Organization videos to show the best ways of using them.

If you’ve done any shopping online, you know how convenient it is to go to a website on your own schedule. Now pc/nametag® is further utilizing the power of the Internet to give you 24/7 access to a tool for customizing your imprint on over 500 items.

The real beauty of our Customizer is that it gives you so many options for your imprint and text yet is so easy to use. Just upload your logo and then play with the possibilities! You can quickly change the colors and other features of your imprinted item and immediately see each variation. Be as particular as want because it doesn’t take long at all to make your item look just right.

Even if you haven’t worked with an online tool like the Customizer before, don’t worry about making a mistake or spoiling your order. We examine every custom order very carefully and will contact you if we have any concerns about producing your item exactly as you’ve indicated.

Besides its creative features, the Customizer also has budgeting benefits. Whenever you add an option you see the cost of it in real time.

Once you’re completely satisfied with your custom design, it can serve as an online “sample” that you can show your boss for approval right away. But remember what hour of the day it is: unlike the Customizer, your boss may not want to be available 24/7. CLICK HERE to visit pcnametag.com today and Start Customizing!

We have a new service at pc/nametag® that offers meeting planners obvious benefits for a very affordable cost. Basically, it’s a time-saver that even saves you the time of doing a cost-benefit analysis.

Instant Inserts takes care of key tasks you have to do for every meeting: we print, personalize and alphabetize your name tag inserts. The printing immediately shows you what a great value this service is. Instead of four-color process imprinting, we use cost-saving, full-color digital imprinting to reproduce any custom design you send us.

As demonstrated in our video, you simply upload your logo and attendee list. We deliver trimmed, 4″ x 3″ paper name tag inserts with professional-looking logos and attendee names—all for just 35¢ per insert with a set-up fee of only $40. And the minimum is just 24 inserts.

Instant Inserts is just one of many new products and services at pc/nametag® this season. From our Datamax on-site printer that produces high-quality, 4″ x 3″ inserts to a protective case designed especially for magnetic name badges to a very practical lanyard-length adjuster, you’ll find hundreds of new ways to make your job easier on our website and in our new catalog.

And in the new “star” feature on our website pages, we invite you to rate and review our products so we can make sure each one delivers an obvious value to you.

As in so many other industries, innovative technology has had a significant effect on meetings and events. And we’re pleased to introduce “next generation” meeting supplies that will appeal to attendees at your next event.

Like the cell phone about 10 years ago, e-readers and tablets are becoming must-haves companions for increasingly more and more meeting attendees. Recently Corbin Ball, a meeting-technology consultant, wrote on his TechTalk blog that this trend will continue, as new mobile applications are developed for agenda management, registration, attendee poling and more.

At pc/nametag® we’ve introduced a new padfolio for carrying and protecting these valuable devices. Our E-Tech Padfolio features a section with adjustable Velcro® corners to fit e-readers of varying sizes. The E-Tech closes up securely with a full zipper, too.

We’ve also added some fresh new updates of longtime meeting basics. The sleek, rubbery Power Play Necklace is a contemporary, minimalist alternative. It looks chic, feels comfortable and even has the popular breakaway feature for quick release.

Like the Power Play Necklace, the new Executive Track Badge has a sophisticated low profile. It’s made with a patented double magnet that prevents twisting, so text on the badge is always aligned for easy reading.

Meetings are so multifaceted that we’re continually finding ways to improve them with innovations that could make your next event your best one yet.

With all the paper and other supplies required for a  successful meeting, can planners be successful environmentalists too? At pc/nametag®, the answer is a resounding yes! We can help your event have a good impact on both attendees and the environment. And we’ll even tell you how going green can also benefit your bottom line.

The growing Eco Products section of our website contains items in the major categories of meeting supplies that are made of earth-friendly materials—recycled, biodegradable or organic. So, for instance, you can quickly put together an all-green combination of insert, holder and lanyard.

In our catalog, these Eco Products are indicated by the leaf symbol up above.

We also offer a wide range of products that are not made of specific eco-friendly material, yet are made so durable that can that they can be reused meeting after meeting. Like our Permanent and Reusable name badges, for instance. Buying items with that kind of longevity lets you avoid frequently replacing them—and consuming more resources used to make them.

This brings us to another type of green: dollars. The reusable quality of all pc/nametag® products, whether officially “eco” or not, saves you the costs of repurchasing items that quickly wear out. That’s the kind of “going green” that helps keep your business in the black.

No matter what hotel your meeting takes place in, you can be sure that the management has paid a lot of attention to the lobby. Why? Because that’s where their guests will form their first impression of their facility.

Likewise, planners should do all they can to make their registration table look organized and welcoming, since that display will determine attendees’ first—and lasting— impression of your event.

In fact, at pc/nametag® we consider the registration table so important that we’ve developed several exclusive products to make it look its best. They’re designed to help you tastefully “set the table.”

Since name tags tend to spread out and practically take over a registration table, keep them contained and well organized with our OneWay® Name Tag Case. At home before the meeting, get your badges in order inside the case, which then protects them during shipping to the event and serves as an ideal display case.

Another way to class up your table is with our Wooden Name Tag Organizers, made of fine domestic hard woods.

To make a good, efficient first impression, use our Alpha Tag Set or Mini Alpha Tags to alphabetize name tags and speed up registration.

Loose lanyards and pouches can clutter up a table too, but not when you neatly hang them on our Rotating Stand.

Finally, registrants will immediately be impressed with your concern for the environment when they see our Name Tag Recycling Box on your table.

Playing video games isn’t the only way to have fun online. Even when you’re doing a key aspect of planning a meeting—ordering imprinted products—you’ll enjoy playing with the possibilities offered by our Customizer tool.

Play is the operative word here, as you’ll discover when you use the Customizer to see your imprint on any of the over 500 products that now offer this tool. Once you’ve uploaded your logo or other image, you can play with the color options for your imprint and product and instantly see how they look on your screen.

With some of our products, you can also experiment by placing your imprint in different locations and adding various lines of text.

Changing the way your items looks is almost as fast as changing your mind. Just make your new selections and click on “Update Preview.” You won’t have to spend time wondering what the cost of adding features will be, because clicking on “Update Subtotal” shows you a running total of charges as you add options.

With a visual tool like the Customizer, a picture really is worth a thousand words. So go to any product page on our website with the Customizer symbol and see for yourself.

Have fun!

People who attend meetings regularly rarely have to buy a notepad. That’s because even the most thorough note takers among attendees rarely fill up all the pages of the note pads, journals and padfolios they are given at meetings. So they end up with a good supply of writing paper at home.

Meeting planners will find lots of items attendees will hold on to in our expanded selection of notepads and padfolios. What other meeting giveaways are so well used both at the event and afterwards? Imprinting one of these items keeps your name top of mind among those who receive them and gives your logo plenty of exposure in all the places they go.

And now our line of products for note taking has something for meetings of every purpose and budget. Many of them come with a pen, which is another useful keepsake whose imprint gets high visibility. One of our new pad-and-pen sets, the Daily Jotter Set, is priced as low as just .89. Our other options range from a notepad with business-card window and a pen loop with a pen included; our best-selling Large Poly Folio that features an accordion-style organizer with five tabbed sections; and the Elite Padfolio made of textured polypropylene with woven trim.

Although these days most meeting attendees are well-equipped with digital devices, pen and paper still play a key role in the meeting hall and beyond—and on the meeting planner’s list of necessities.

You could just call it a good alternative. Here’s why.

First off, we have nothing against tote bags. At pc/nametag® we sell quite a variety of them, and they all handle meeting handouts and more very well.

We also offer a wide selection of envelopes, including some large-sized ones designed with ample cargo space plus accordion-style organizers, roomy compartments and special pockets. Many of them are made of sturdy, colorful, translucent material that holds up to numerous events.

After you’ve walked some meeting-hall floors with our envelopes, you realize they can do the job you’ve relied on totes to do in the past.

The main difference between our two types of carriers is that our envelopes are more compact. And that can be a good thing when you’re trying to work your way through a crowd of attendees.

Like so many other products that meeting planners need, the selection of a totes and envelopes depends a lot on the type of event and personal preference. That’s why pc/nametag® offers such a huge selection of meeting-registration supplies. There’s something to suit everyone, and we think you’ll call that a good reason to shop with us.