No Need to Miss Your Badge Ribbon

A quick, simple digital networking idea:

Let’s be honest – members find ribbons to be the exciting part of their name badge. If they are a volunteer, it shows where they are giving of themselves to the organization. A ribbon can be how they demonstrate their loyalty through repeat attendance or years of membership. A ribbon can share which sub-discipline is their area of interest – helping to connect with other like-minded colleagues. And then, of course, there are the light-hearted ones that just bring a smile.

Ribbons are the flair of the meeting experience.

In this next chapter of member organization, connection, meeting, and learning – our name badges have shifted. We might go around at the start of a meeting and introduce ourselves from our Brady Bunch display on Zoom – our name proudly displayed below our face – but that is just the beginning of personalization.

I was recently in a meeting where we started changing the name below each of our video shots to be more ribbon-esque. There were little insights into personality, imagination, and – as some continued to update their digital ribbon aka their name bar – commentary on what they were thinking about what we were discussing.

So, yes – you can play with backgrounds and be underwater or in outer space – that is also fun. Yet, when you are looking for an easy way to connect and personalize a digital meeting experience – take a moment to create-your-own-ribbon – even in isolation we should have a bit of flair!

(h/t Teri Carden & Ben Martin for letting me experiment with this networking approach during their recent connection event)