What the New and Returning badges mean

The badge sits on the contact’s headshot at the top of their profile and helps you tell first-timers from people you have worked with before.

On the contact profile

Badge	Rule
New	The contact record was created within the last 30 days (a rolling window from today).
Returning	Not new, and the contact is a speaker on an accepted session at an event in your organization whose start date has already passed.
No badge	Neither applies — for example a contact created 45 days ago who has never spoken at one of your events, or whose only sessions are still pending.

New wins over Returning: a long-time speaker whose record was re-created last week shows New until the 30 days are up, then flips to Returning.

Only accepted, non-draft sessions count, and only the speaker role — being a submitter, moderator, chairperson, sponsor or exhibitor contact at a past event does not make someone Returning. Events that have been deleted are ignored.

In the contacts table

The New/Returning Speaker column (add it from Columns) answers a slightly different question — has this person spoken for you before?

• Empty — no accepted sessions as a speaker anywhere in your organization.
• New — an accepted speaker in exactly one event, or in several events none of which has started yet.
• Returning — an accepted speaker in more than one event, at least one of which has already started.

Because the column ignores the record’s created date, a speaker accepted for this year’s event who spoke last year reads Returning in the table even while their profile badge still says New.

Examples

• You imported a speaker yesterday → profile New; column empty until a session of theirs is accepted.
• A speaker from last year’s event, accepted again this year → profile Returning (if their record is older than 30 days); column Returning.
• A contact created 45 days ago who has only ever been a submitter → no badge; column empty.

Edits to a record do not change its created date, so they do not affect the badge.