2025-09-19 –, Tesla
Conference badges are a popular gadget on IT related conferences. Some are just the blinking novelties, some are art pieces, some are full blown computers and some are puzzles to be solved. While designing a conference badge for the local open source conference I wanted to add a component which will somehow motivate people to interact with each other and start mingling. This talk will cover the process of designing and making the badges for the last two conferences, including the main concepts, some new ideas, but also the last minute production issues and plans for the future.
Since I first found out about electronic conference badges I wanted to try to design one. So, some two and a half years ago I reached out to the organizers of a popular local open source conference and asked if I can make an electronic badge for the conference. But I wanted to bring something new to the table. Since the attendees come from different areas, the goal was to somehow motivate the separate groups to talk.
The last year's badge had, besides the e-ink screen and some blinky lights, IR transmitter and receiver and transmitted its own ID periodically (every minute or so). When a new ID is received the badge counter increases but also, if the sender is one of the "special" ones (organizers, keynotes) it uncovers a part of a hidden image. This ended up great with people talking to each other but also trying to get the highest badge count. That badge also had screen text customizable by using the phone screen emitting a special blinking pattern.
This year's iteration of the badge used NFC for inter-badge communication. In addition to the badge counting we also added a treasure hunt game where the goal was to find hidden NFC tags in the conference area. We also offered prizes for the highest badge count and treasure hunt game but also motivated attendees to also "hack" their way to the prize and the badge was again a great success. This badge added another component - reusability. So instead of it being just a one-time novelty, it has a "USB-passthrough" mode and it can be used as a desktop device for showing time, notifications and other things. This year we also had some "fun" production issues which caused some sleepless nights before the conference.
Igor Brkić is software and hardware engineer from Croatia covering areas from the custom hardware and firmware development to the system and web development. He is also one of the founders of the Radiona Zagreb makerspace.