We and our clients have attended multiple conferences and trade shows as exhibitors. One recurring challenge we’ve faced is with business card scanners. The vendor-provided scanners typically come with several problems:
- The scanning apps provided by organizers are rarely reliable — often clunky, crash-prone, and full of bugs.
- Scanning only a badge without the ability to add notes makes the process almost useless; without context, it’s impossible to recall the details of each conversation.
- Data export from the vendor’s system usually happens only at the end of the day and is often unnecessarily complicated.
- These solutions are also expensive, often costing several hundred dollars per scanner on top of already high conference expenses.
That’s why we built a dedicated business card scanner directly into Crescendo. It’s designed to make capturing contacts at conferences and trade shows simple, intuitive, and cost-free.
Stand-alone vs Business Card Hub
In the standard version of Crescendo, each user manages their own Events and Business Cards directly on their device. When needed, users can export Business Card data and share it with the marketing team or import it into their CRM.
Our white-label clients can also have access to the Business Card Hub, which allows content administrators to centrally manage Events, Business Cards, and exports through a single web interface. If you would like to learn more about the Business Card Hub, please contact our support team.
In this post, you will learn how to use the Business Card Scanner in its basic form. If you do not yet have access to this functionality, please reach out and we will enable it for your team.
How does Business Card Scanner for iPhone or iPad works
🔹 Tap the business card scanner icon.
🔹 Scan a card with your phone camera.
If you’d prefer to enter all the information manually, tap Add Manually at the top of the screen. This is useful when a person doesn’t have a traditional business card, but you still want to capture their contact information alongside your other contacts.
🔹 Add notes to capture the context of your conversation.
🔹 The most recent Event will be auto-selected. If you haven’t created one yet, it's time to do it. Cards should be linked to an Event for easy organization.
🔹 For each business card, you can view the original photo and edit the details.
🔹 At any time, you can manage your Events, review the associated business cards, and export the data in a convenient CSV format for easy import into your CRM.
This is just the starting point, and we’re open to your feedback on how to make it even better. Let us know how this feature work for you.
