Thanks to the recent political-party gatherings in Denver and St. Paul, both politics and conventions are on my mind. I’ve learned not to comment on anything political here at CreativePro.com, as some readers are quick to point out my lack of relevant expertise on that subject. But I do know a thing or two about conventions, having attended way too many and even produced a few over the years.
So I wanted this week’s column to be convention-related, yet completely bi-partisan. Then John McCain suggested on the hurricane-abbreviated first day of the Republican convention that we should take off our Democratic hats and our Republican hats, and put on our American hats. Sadly, I don’t own any hats, and aside from the delegations from Texas, it doesn’t appear that all that many convention attendees do either. So instead I’m focusing on the one thing I’m sure every attendee from every political party is sure to sport: a convention badge.
Whether you call them conventions, congresses, or even trade shows, as long as people have been having political, religious, and commercial interests, they’ve been gathering together to show support, make decisions, and elect representatives. And while I doubt George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock wore “Hello My name is…” badges at the second Constitutional Congress in 1776, pretty much every gathering of people includes some sort of badge or other identifying credentials.
By the time I got into the trade-show business, most convention badges were of the plastic variety, printed on some sort of high-speed dye-sublimation printer and inserted into a plastic holder. To embellish these stock badges, we provided cheap ribbons that identified press, instructors, alumni, and any other designation we could think of to make people feel special.
But that wasn’t always the case. Early convention badges, like these from the turn of the twentieth century through the early 1960s, were made of fine silk or cotton, had gold-metal braiding, and names that were hand-lettered or typed into gold frames.
Often the attendee badge is the main souvenir for those attending an event, so badges become important not just as validation and identification on site, but as a way to remember, or even advertise, attendance. How many of you have a bunch of conference badges hanging in your office, cubicle, or garage?
Of course attending conventions isn’t all about the badge or the business at hand. While I’ve never seen it myself, conventions are famous for the extra-curricular activities that are supposed to take place. So these images, from a special “Convention Survival” kit distributed by Miller Beer, play off that idea. Inside the kit was aspirin, a band-aid, Alka-Seltzer, and assorted other remedies for excessive partying.
Though I’m sure participants in both recent political conventions behaved admirably, there is something about attending an out-of-town event that makes people want to act goofy. This souvenir photo that I picked up at a garage sale is typical of some of the take-always provided by exhibitors and sponsors at conventions of old.
And here’s a menu, complete with Chicken a la King and Fruit Cocktail courses, from a 1959 meeting of the Massachusetts State Auto Dealer’s Association.
Continue to page 2 for much more!
This article was last modified on May 18, 2023
This article was first published on September 5, 2008
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