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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

On-Demand Event Tags

Component Medical Society Services is a subsidiary of the California Medical Association (CMA) serving the 39 component medical societies in California.  CMA provides support, services, and programs to meet their membership needs.  In addition to this, CMSS offers support for dues processing and accounting services, membership analytics, executive management support and assistance, and even print and online marketing design services.

On-Demand Color Event Tag
Print On-Demand Color Event Tags


As part of their service offerings, CMA holds annually the Western Healthcare Leadership Academy for California and other western states.  To improve these meetings, CMSS decided to print color tags on-demand for each attendee directly from their database.  According to Henry Gardiner, Project Director, CMSS, “We needed a system to print 4” x 3” color tags from our online application.  Before we purchased any equipment, it was important to confirm it worked with our online application.”




On-Demand Color Event Tag
Western Healthcare Leadership Association

After speaking with Henry, we held a webinar where he accessed his application to complete test prints on my local computer and TM-C3500 printer.  Although we proved the application and the printer worked, Henry needed to redesign the page size and tag layout as it was printing larger than required page size initially.  Given the need to redesign the tag, Henry asked “can you send me a demo printer to make the necessary design changes prior to purchasing a printer?”  As I often do, I arranged for a demo printer for Henry to use for 2 to 3 weeks.  In addition, I sent Henry labels to test as well as a set of ink cartridges.  Once he has the printer, ink and labels, Henry quickly redesigned the tag to print on the TM-C3500.

Initially, Henry wanted tags as he was placing the printed member ID badge in a plastic holder.  However, labels were less expensive than tags.  Labels are readily available; where tags are more of a specialty item.  After some tests, Henry decided the labels worked well; allowing CMA to insert them easily into the plastic holders. With this decision, CMA purchased printers, ink, extended warranties and labels for their first event.

According to Henry, “Overall the application and printers worked well.  We only had one issue with the printers.  One setting, Save Roll Media, would change anytime the computers were restarted (Save Rolls Media cuts before and/or after the image and not on the predefined length in order to save the continuous media).  Each morning, we were required to make the change, No Savings, in the driver. We just needed to remember to make the change.”  As for the driver issue, I’m positive we can find a fix.

Also, Henry says, “The set of ink cartridges lasted for the entire meeting.  We did not have to change a single ink cartridge during the event.”  With the 4” x 3” tag design, CMA can expect several thousand tags printed for set of ink cartridges.  Plus their label media worked well; with plenty remaining for their next meeting.

You may find some of my other posts around events and visitors of interest:



Printing color labels and tags on demand for attendee and visitor management is a great application for the TM-C3500.  With this printer, you can add images, color text, logos, and color codes as well as barcodes and other typically black-only variable data.  The next time you need attendee badges for an event or visitors, think color tags and labels from Color Label Solutions.


Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
855-962-7670

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