Friday, November 12, 2010

NAMETAGS: THEY MAY SEEM CHEESY, BUT THEY BUILD COMMUNITY

This fall, I helped host a couple of gatherings for the parents in our kindergarten classroom so they could get to know each other better.

My contribution to each event was to make nametags for each parent. Their nametags also had the name of their child, so everyone could link a parent with their child.

The nametags served as icebreakers and also helped everyone, including myself, not feel worried about remembering names. Seriously, I think this is a big barrier at social functions. Most folks are not great at remembering names after an initial introduction, especially if there's a lot going on in the room.

There's a guy named Scott Ginsberg who is known as The Nametag Guy because he wears his nametag everywhere. It tells people that he is approachable and it serves as a conversation-starter. I think this guy is onto something.

Even for purely social (not business or networking) events, I think it makes sense to have nametags. It helps people dig right into the chit chat without having to stress about remembering names!

Excuse me while I run out to Staples to buy some stick on nametags for the party I am throwing tomorrow - a double birthday plus one-year anniversary fiesta!

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