Digital business card for trade shows and events

At a trade show you hand out fifty paper cards, collect thirty, and back at the office you have a stack of cardboard with no context: you don't know who each person was or what you talked about. CardQR's Event Mode flips this around: during the days the event lasts, your digital card announces it, and every contact you capture is stamped with the event name and date. When it ends, you filter by that event, export and message everyone at once.

What Event Mode does

It activates per card, with event name, dates and location. The window is by full days and includes the first and last, so an event from the 3rd to the 5th stays active throughout day 5.

While it's active, your public card shows a banner with the event. It appears on all templates, free and premium, and on premium templates the location links to Google Maps so anyone can find your stand. The address has autocomplete, but remains free text: a trade show stand isn't in any street directory.

Each contact gets stamped with the event

This is the part you don't see and what saves the most afterwards. While the event is running, everyone who fills out your capture form or exchanges contact with you is recorded with the event name and exact time.

The stamp is a snapshot: if you later rename the event or turn it off, what's already captured doesn't change. A contact from "Mobile World Congress 2026" will still say that two years later, even if the card has changed ten times.

From there you can filter your contacts and connections by event, see how many each one brought in and export them to CSV. The export adds an Event column and puts the event name in the file, so you don't end up with three files with the same name.

Event day at the trade show

With an active event, the mobile app lets you keep the QR fixed to full screen with the display on: you prop it on your stand and people scan without you having to unlock your phone every time. The home screen also shows a shortcut to that specific card's QR, without searching among the others. Outside an event, this mode doesn't appear: it's a screen for the day you need it.

You can also activate an NFC chip and let them tap their phone, or share via Tap-to-Connect. Whoever receives your card installs nothing: they open a web page and can download your contact as vCard.

Afterwards: follow-up

Once the trade show ends, from the event you can send a follow-up email to contacts who left their email there. This is the only system email that goes to third parties and is treated as such:

• It's sent as commercial email: respects unsubscribes and includes an unsubscribe link.
• Replies go to the card owner, not a generic address.
• Duplicates are removed by address: someone who left their details on two of your cards receives only one email, not two.
• Cap of 200 recipients per send, in small batches so you don't burn your domain's reputation.
• A single failure doesn't abort the rest, and the result breaks down how many were sent, how many were skipped and how many failed. Saying "sent to 30" when there were 37 leaves you thinking it reached everyone.

This is a Pro plan feature.

What you need and what it costs

The free plan already covers the basics for a trade show: unlimited cards and QR codes, NFC chip activation, Tap-to-Connect and contact download. No expiration and no ads.

Event Mode, contact capture form, analytics by city and device, premium templates and follow-up email are included in Pro, €2.99 a month or €29.90 a year. If you do more than one trade show a year, it pays for itself by not losing a single contact.

For a team sharing a stand, the Enterprise plan includes corporate profiles that propagate to all cards, team dashboard with up to 10 seats and bulk CSV import: €12.99 per month per account, not per person.

Frequently asked questions

Does the person scanning need to install anything?

No. The QR opens a normal web page in their browser. From there they can save your contact to their address book with one tap.

Does it work without coverage at the venue?

Your public card is a web page, so whoever scans it needs a connection to see it. At venues with saturated networks, NFC and QR work equally fast because the problem isn't the exchange method but the connection: if you suspect poor coverage, also keep the capture form open on your own phone to note the details yourself.

What happens when the event ends?

The banner disappears from your public card the day after the last day. Captured contacts keep the stamp with the name and date, and you still have them filtered by that event.

Can I use the same event on multiple cards?

Yes. If your team shares a stand, each person activates the event on their card with the same name and everyone's contacts are grouped under that event.

What if I just want the QR, without an event?

It works the same way: Event Mode adds the stamp and banner, but sharing the card via QR, NFC or link doesn't depend on it and is included in the free plan.