---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: Academic Businesss Cards

wordpress_id: 1107
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/?p=1107
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categories:
- Conferences
- Personal
- Academia
tags:
- academia
- Networking
- Conferences
comments:
- id: 6305
  author: Don Rideaux-Crenshaw
  author_email: dgcrow@gmail.com
  author_url: ''
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  content: You can play with QR codes in lots of ways if you put redundancy into the
    code. Here's a link to a good resource http://mashable.com/2011/04/18/qr-code-design-tips/
---
<p>I had resisted the concept of having my own, academic, business cards for a long time. It seemed, and still does to an extent, an encroachment upon the sphere I love from the world of dehumanised business practice. However, networking is a fundamental part of academic conference attendance. I have several conferences coming up in June.</p>
<p>It was against this background when, at the end of last month, I was offered a free trial of 50 cards from <a href="http://www.moo.com">moo.com</a>, via <a href="http://about.me/martineve">my about.me account</a>. Tempted to just click delete, I changed my mind and decided that I'd give it a go, to see whether, in targeting people with a physical object, on top of my existing networking practice (urgh! Sorry about that phrase), I developed more lasting contact with people.</p>
<p>Design-wise, I wanted to play on my surname, Eve, so I went for a crisp image of a red apple in striking contrast to a white background and a green leaf which I bought for a minute amount from <a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/">iStockPhoto</a>. The back was a toss-up between a picture of myself, or a QR code that would lead to my profile. I eventually opted for the latter as I thought that the intrigue of a QR code was probably greater than my face! Here's how they turned out:</p>
<p><img src="https://www.martineve.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/card_front-1024x768.jpg" alt="Martin Eve Business Card Front" title="Martin Eve Business Card Front" style="width:750px;" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1109" /></p>
<p><img src="https://www.martineve.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/card_back-1024x768.jpg" alt="Martin Eve Business Card Back" title="Martin Eve Business Card Back" style="width:750px;" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1110" /></p>
<p>I know from Twitter that some others have used this approach, anybody else have tips etc. for networking success?</p>