Delegate

The label matters because it drives everything downstream: what a delegate pays, which doors their badge opens, which emails they receive, and how they're counted in the numbers you publish. At a combined exhibition-plus-conference event, the delegate/visitor split is one of the most commercially loaded lines in your registration setup — delegates typically pay hundreds for content access while trade visitors enter the expo free — so the badge category is effectively a paywall walking around on a lanyard. Getting the categories right at form design stage saves months of pain: a delegate registered as a visitor will be blocked at the conference door they paid to enter, and the reverse leaks paid content to free badges. Operationally, delegates also behave differently from expo visitors: they arrive for the first session rather than drifting in mid-morning, they need seats rather than aisles, and they judge the event on programme quality rather than exhibitor count. The common mistake is reporting delegates and visitors as one attendance figure — it flatters the total but tells exhibitors nothing about who might actually walk their stand. One honest nuance: terminology varies by region and sector; in North America "attendee" often covers everything, so define your categories in every report you share.