Global Site Solutions Summit: Worry-Free Badge Printing and Lead Retrieval for 2,000 Clinical Research Attendees

Global Site Solutions Summit:

Worry-Free Badge Printing and Lead Retrieval for 2,000 Clinical Research Attendees

"It's an excellent route to explore for really easy and efficient on-site name badge printing, coupled with exhibitor lead retrieval. It really does enable a relatively worry-free name badge registration and check-in process for our attendees."

Jimmy Bechtel, Chief Site Success Officer, Society for Clinical Research Sites

The Global Site Solutions Summit is the flagship event of the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS), the trade organization that brings the clinical research industry together. Every year it draws about 2,000 attendees: research sites alongside the pharmaceutical sponsors, CROs, service providers, and technology companies they work with. The Summit's whole purpose is connection and business development, which means the first impression at the registration desk matters.

What makes that impressive is the team behind it. SCRS runs the Summit, plus four other events a year, with a staff of about 12. We sat down with Jimmy Bechtel, Chief Site Success Officer, who leads technology for the organization and has personally set up the check-in stations for the past three Summits, to talk about how a small team runs a big event and why Expo Pass has been part of it for three years running.

The Challenge

Before Expo Pass, SCRS pre-printed every badge. The badges came off the printer in alphabetical order, and then the real work started: five or six team members sitting around a table, stuffing each badge into a sleeve and filing it into trays. Then they went back through the trays to flag members, pull out workshop attendees, and add the stickers, stars, and colored lanyards that told staff who was who.

"The amount of effort that went into just getting that set up and ready to go was hours of time."

On site, the pressure is real. The Summit opens Thursday morning with Site Partnership Symposia, exclusive sessions where a pharmaceutical sponsor hosts a couple hundred research sites for direct feedback. They are a member-only benefit and one of the most popular parts of the Summit. Doors open at 8 a.m., and the line is building by 7:30.

The team takes pride in a high-touch check-in: staff greet each attendee by name, type it in, print and stuff the badge, point them to the right colored lanyard, and hand over drink tickets while sharing event details. Check-in has to be fast enough to keep the line moving without losing that personal touch.

Connection is the point: an attendee at the SCRS photo wall

The Solution

SCRS uses Expo Pass for the on-site experience: check-in and badge printing for attendees and lead retrieval for exhibitors, with direct thermal badge stock, badge sleeves, and lanyards all sourced from Expo Pass.

For the Global Site Solutions Summit, SCRS implemented:

• Three check-in stations, each with an iPad and an on-demand badge printer, set up by the SCRS team themselves
• Attendee data imported from their registration platform, with member status printed on the badge automatically based on a trigger built into the system
• Lead retrieval for exhibitors through QR codes on every badge
• Direct thermal badge stock, badge sleeves, and lanyards from Expo Pass so everything fits together on site

The first year, SCRS had an Expo Pass team member on site as an insurance policy. By the end of that event, it was clear they did not need one. Since then, the team has handled setup on its own: Expo Pass ships the equipment in crates ahead of the event, and the account team keeps SCRS updated on when they will arrive.

"We discovered that first event that it was really so easy and so straightforward. We unload the crates, they're super easy to unpack, everything's color-coded and labeled, and the instructions are really easy to follow. We get them set up on setup day, do a test run, and get ready to rumble for the next morning."

Bechtel handles most of it personally, and it takes him a handful of minutes per station. One habit the team swears by: on setup day, print a test badge from every iPad to every printer, not just one, so anything out of place shows up on setup day instead of at 7:30 the next morning.

"We have since done the lanyards, the sleeves, and the badge stock from you guys, and it has worked great. Great products, high quality, super happy."

The Results

The badge stuffing party is gone. Member identification, workshop flags, and the other markers the team used to add by hand are now handled by the badge template and print on demand. What used to take a group of five or six staff a full afternoon now saves the team hours of prep before every Summit, and that is before counting the stickers, stars, and re-sorting that no longer happen.

"From a production and an on-site perspective, it is considerable, the amount of time that we've been able to save. It does cost more to do it this way than the other way, but the amount of time and effort we save not having to do all that easily offsets that cost."

On site, check-in is quick even with the high-touch approach. Staff get into a rhythm fast: while one badge prints, they are already greeting the next attendee and keeping the conversation going. Walk-ups and last-minute registrations get added on a laptop at the desk and sync to the iPads.

Attendees notice the difference, too. Because badges print on demand, they verify their own information on screen before anything prints, and a correction takes seconds instead of a reprint from a box of pre-printed badges.

The Summit brings research sites, sponsors, and CROs together on one stage

"They have come to expect the efficiencies that are built around that system. I like the ability for them to verify their information, and they like that too. That's a good customer service capability, for sure."

And because lead retrieval runs off the same badge, exhibitors scan attendees with the Expo Pass app and leave with their leads instead of a stack of business cards.

Looking Ahead

SCRS came to Expo Pass for badge printing and stayed for the simplicity. A 12-person team running a 2,000-person Summit cannot afford a registration desk that needs babysitting, and three years in, it does not have one. Asked what he would tell another planner, Bechtel keeps it simple.

"It's an excellent route to explore for really easy and efficient on-site name badge printing, coupled with exhibitor lead retrieval. It really does enable a relatively worry-free name badge registration and check-in process for our attendees."

Expo Pass is proud to support SCRS and the Global Site Solutions Summit, and to help a small team deliver a big, personal welcome to the clinical research community every year.

Running a conference with a lean team? See how on-site check-in and badge printing and lead retrieval from Expo Pass can take badges off your plate. Get a demo.