Manage your high school reunion with Airtable

Organizing a high school reunion can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be. It all depends on how you prepare for it! In this post we want to give you the tools to easily manage your next reunion, by following theses instructions you will create:

• An online registration form with Airtable.
• An attendee list that is populated automatically.
• Name badges with photos for all your classmates!

First things first, what is Airtable? It is a cloud-based spreadsheet/database hybrid that lets you collaborate with other people. It is great solution to manage an event like yours. (This is not an ad, I don’t work for Airtable 😉)

Getting started

1. Create an Airtable account.
2. Open my Class Reunion template.
3. Click Copy base in the upper right corner.
4. Select which workspace you want to add this Base to.

Clean slate

Once you’re done with the steps above, you need to delete the records you currently see in the database, these are just fake names for illustrative purposes.

To eliminate everything, click on the checkbox that’s on the upper left corner and hit the delete key in your keyboard. This will leave you with a fresh document.

Don’t worry when you see a column that says #ERROR!, this is normal because this column is programmed with a formula, and when it’s empty it shows an error, it will go away once your classmates start signing up. Do not modify this column.

Attendee registration

We’re going to customize the fields you want your classmates to provide in the registration form. To do that you click Name List → Name Badge Registration Form.

We have already added the next fields:

• Name
• Last Name
• Nickname
• Current City
• Email
• Photo

If you want to modify some of them, just click on the field you want to change.

Or to add new ones, click on Add a field to this table, on the right side of the screen.

If you want people to upload photos, make sure not to modify the Yearbook Photo field. If you don’t want photos, you can delete it.

Now, to share the registration form, click on Share form.

Now, to share the registration form you have the option to generate a link that can be emailed to your classmates, or if you have a website you can embed the form.

The attendee list

No work needed here! Once your classmates start signing up through the registration form all the information will be populated into the spreadsheet. To see the records, go to Name list.

Pretty neat! You can see the attendee’s info and the funky old yearbook photos people have uploaded.

Tip: You can manually enter data as well, in case someone can’t fill out the form. Click on the + bellow the last record, type in the info, upload the photo and you’re done.

Name badges with photos

This is probably the most fun part of the process. You need to start by exporting the full CSV list from Airtable. To do that, click on the 3 dots on the menu bar and then click on Download CSV.

Then, go to ConferenceBadge.com and click on Create badges to create a free account.

Once in your dashboard click on New Event From Excel button.

You need to upload the CSV file that was just downloaded from Airtable, also please fill in the other fields and hit continue.

Then match your spreadsheet columns with your attendees info. Do not change the name of column named Image URL.

Almost done! Select the product and size. You can get PDF badges, these you print at home or at your local print shop, or better yet you can get printed badges, those we print, assemble and ship right to your door, these are great time-savers.

I recommend the adhesive printed badges, they come printed in full color, ready to be peeled off and be worn by your classmates. They offer the perfect balance between cost and convenience.

You will then arrive to the theme picker and the badge editor, where you can customize the badge to your liking. Here’s an idea:

On the left side of the editor you have the option panel, right there you can information, QR codes, rectangles and most importantly, images.

Click on the image option and select Attendee picture, to add your classmates photos to the badge.

Once you have finished setting up the name tags, click on Checkout and have your badges delivered to your home in as little as 2 business days after placing the order. Not bad huh?

I’m pretty sure your schoolmates will be happy to know YOU organized this class reunion. And you will too, because as we said, with the right tools it’s easy.

Johanna had a bad hair day.

If you’re a first time user of Conference Badge, let me know in the comments and I’ll send you a promo code with a discount.