Show key

A show key is a per-event API key that exhibitors buy from an organizer or its registration vendor to decode a scanned badge into the registrant record behind it.

How does a show key work?

You buy access for 1 show and enter the key in a scanner that accepts it. Each scan sends the badge’s code to the organizer’s registration source and returns the record: typically name, company, title, email, and phone.

Without a key, your scanner gets only what the badge shows or openly encodes, usually a name and a company. The key adds the fields your follow-up leans on, starting with email, and gives account matching a domain to work from.

What should you know before you buy one?

Organizers sell registration data as a product, and what you can buy varies by show. Some sell a show key as an option next to their own lead retrieval devices, some price it above the devices, and some never sell it.

“I saved $3,000 by not purchasing their lead retrieval devices, but I had to spend $5,000 on the API.”

A director of events at an enterprise software company running about 200 events a year, on what organizer data costs

The organizer sets the limit: you get what it collected at registration and approved for sharing. The key returns data only for the badges your team scans, so it deepens each badge scan and adds nothing to your attendee list.

See what you can get from an organizer as a sponsor, key included, in How to get the attendee list for a conference.