Issuing certificates for events has become a mandatory item on the organizers’ checklist.
After all, everyone has already needed to prove that they have been to a lecture, taught a course or attended a seminar.
If this is the first time you organize an event, get ready, because the subject “event certificates” usually breaks records of questions!
Participants want (and need) to have the document in hand as soon as possible.
And, therefore, the organizers’ inboxes (poor things!) get crowded. But don’t worry.
Nowadays, it is possible to issue event certificates in a super practical way.
In this article, you will learn:
- What are certificates for?
- Choosing the ideal certificate for your event
- Automatic X manual certificates
- Printed x digital certificate
- What can not be missing in your certificate
- The importance of feedback
What are event certificates for?
Certificates are statements that you can make available so that attendees – or even speakers – have proof that they performed some activity at your event.
Activities can be very much diverse: submission of articles, presentation of works, attending a lecture, preparation of a project, awarded prizes…
Certificates of attendance in events such as seminars, workshops and mini-courses add value to the career of any professional.
In addition to boosting their career, it is with the certificate that attendees can earn complementary hours in college.
Why is issuing certificates often a problem?
It is common that, in the same event, several types of activities take place.
Consequently, the organizer has to issue and send different types of certificates, with different credit hours as well. All this multiplied by a huge number of people.
Imagine the work…
Thus, they usually demand a lot of time from the organizing team, which needs to send them, one by one, to the participants.
It is also necessary to check if the data provided by the attendee upon registration match the data provided in the event certificates.
Because they require time, certificates tend to imply extra expenses (they require the work of a team). Many organizers also choose to hand over printed certificates, which gets the costs even higher.
And what’s worse, there are very few really efficient platforms that integrate the ticketing service with the process of issuing certificates!
Choosing the ideal certificate for your event
If you plan to issue certificates at your event, you need to think, first of all, about how the participants will receive them and which type makes the most sense for your pocket and for your audience, of course!
For this question, consider two aspects:
- Will they be issued digitally or in print?
- Will the filling of the information happen automatically or manually?
Automatic X manual certificates
As we have already mentioned, certificates made manually usually generate great stress for the organization.
This is because they are very time-consuming and turn a task that may be simple into something potentially problematic.
Imagine the situation: your event will receive 500 attendees and each of them can register for up to 2 activities.
If for each activity a certificate is issued, you would have to manually fill in each attendee’s name and other data on 1,000 certificates!
In such situations, the likelihood of errors becomes much higher.
Auto-filled certificates are an alternative for teams that want to minimize errors and optimize work time.
This is because, when registering for the event, you can already ask the attendee to fill in some data for the certificate, such as full name, ID number and registration number.
At the check-in process is when you will confirm if that attendee was, in fact, present or not at the event. It is this condition that will make them eligible to receive the certificate.
Hiring an event system makes you able to control all these activities in one place.
Digital certificates x printed certificates
Printed Certificate
Those of the printed type generate an unnecessary waste of paper and harm the environment. In addition, they show that your event is not sustainable.
Depending on the purpose of your event and the audience you are going to welcome, this may sound like something negative.
A printed certificate can get wet, tear, lost. Then, it is very likely that, years after the event, an email will appear asking for a new certificate.
In addition, the issuance of printed certificates costs much more.
Digital Certificates
Digital certificates emerged, then, to raise the flag of the Green Seal and is an excellent alternative to reduce costs.
The most indicated thing is that you use an events platform to help you in this task. In this case, your cost with prints will be zero.
The digital certificates will be generated automatically and, when released by the organizer, be available for download by attendees or for sending by email.
It is in the interest of all attendees to obtain proof of participation regarding the activities in which they were present. Therefore, it is very important that they are done efficiently.
Even if digital certificates are economically and ecologically more advantageous, some organizers still prefer the printed version.
Often, the audience is decisive factor for this choice as well as the type of event you are organizing.
We have provided some tips (for both cases: print and digital) on how to organize yourself before issuing certificates within your event!
Organize the costs of issuing printed certificates
This topic is intended for organizers who want to issue printed certificates.
It is necessary to consider two printing possibilities: made by the organizing team itself or by a third-party company.
In addition, printing costs also depend on the choice of the type of paper on which the certificate will be printed!
The most suitable paper for certificates is couche paper. You can make them on a weight of 250g and matte paper. But everything is a matter of taste! So, the ideal is to go to the printing houses, make quotes and, of course, ask for a discount!
Many printers also manage to cheapen the service due to the number of certificates.
Put all your spendings on a finance spreadsheet, this is essential for the control of spending on the event.
Have a list of all registered attendees
By having access to the number of attendees who, in addition to being registered, actually attended the event and were checked in on your course, lecture or workshop, you will have a sense of how many certificates will be made!
Depending on how you are going to issue them, you will have to buy the paper of the certificates or know how many PDFs will be generated to be sent by email!
Delegate the activity of sending or printing certificates to someone on your team.
Again, it is important to have the list of attendees at hand, with the respective email addresses or plan the delivery costs if the certificate is printed.
If you choose an event platform, everything is easier. You can make the certificates available on the platform itself so that participants can download them.
Use ready-made templates
To speed up the creation of certificates, there are already several ready-made templates on the internet that you can take inspiration from.
In addition, several software, paid or not, also provide certificate templates!
Review the information
Before issuing any certificate, it must be reviewed quite carefully. Mistakes in typing names and other data can generate a major headache, as well as redoubled work!
You may have to issue new ones , which will generate more costs and require more work for your team.
Errors in certificates also compromise the trust that attendees have in your company or institution.
Some information is fundamental and cannot be missing within this type of document.
To make your work easier, we have listed the information that cannot be missing from event certificates.
What can not be missing in your certificate
Place and date
Each certificate must contain the place and date of the event. Otherwise, it will have no validity.
Even if the course was online, the organization must offer this information.
Name of attendee
It is ideal that it comes with the full name of the attendee. This avoids confusion.
Logo of the event and of partners
It is essential that the certificate has logos of the organizing company and also of partners and sponsoring institutions!
In addition to contributing to the visual identity of the certificate, the logos will convey greater credibility to your event!
Credit hours
Those who went to the event often had to ask for leave from work or need credits and additional hours for college or university where they study.
For this, the certificate needs to specify the hourly load of the event. Because, in addition to determining the duration of the activities, the credit hours make the attendee know what to put on their resume.
Signature
What is the use of a document without the signature of a responsible person? It works the same way as an exam ordered by the doctor: without a signature, it has no validity!
So, make sure that the certificate of your event, course or workshop is duly signed by the organizer, manager or, at least, comes with a stamp from the organizing institution.
In addition to transmitting credibility, the signature guarantees the authenticity of the certificate.
Specify the certificate by type of activity
In the same event, different types of activity take place: there are those who go only as an attendee, present scientific works or those who carry out short courses.
Therefore, your certificate must specify the role of each participant in the event, also offering information on the credit hours according to the type of activity performed (which may vary)!
Wanna know the best part? Even3 does all that for you!
On Even3 you can generate certificates for different types of activities and distribute them automatically.
Deliver certificates and receive feedback
After the event is over, it’s time to send or make certificates available to attendees. This is the perfect time to ask for feedback from your audience!
Receiving this evaluation from the attendees can be of great value when planning a next edition.
You can send a survey via email along with the certificate.
This feedback will be useful so that you can improve and analyze the positive and negative points of your organization.
Even3, realizing the demand of organizers to issue certificate at the events, offers the option of feedback inside the platform.