As a planner you get to agonize over the types of goodies or schwag you want to distribute at meetings. I don’t even recall the many items I’ve received in registration welcome packets. At first, I found extra space in my suitcase and took the items home, only to toss them in a box in the garage. Once a year, usually when unpacking the Christmas decorations, I’d discover the box and it would be donated to a charity shop. Rarely would I keep an item. I do feel guilty about that, it seemed like such a wasted effort of time and money. As an attendee I now rarely even take an item home.
Meeting clients however still want to give away schwag, and there will always be an audience for stuff. It is determining what to give away and its potential impact during and post-conference that is key to the success of the giveaway and your brand. It doesn’t help the cause if a large percentage of your attendees leave the stuff in their hotel rooms upon departure. Once I asked hotel housekeeping to track items tossed during a conference. In this casual observation we learned that more than 75% of the attendees left their schwag upon checkout. Who knows how many chucked out the items when they got home? This obviously was waste of money.
I don’t think there is a magical solution, but I reached out and asked other planners and attendees what they consider schwag worth taking home and therefore valuable to your brand.
HERE IS A LIST OF THOSE DESIRABLE ITEMS
1. Designer laptop sleeves with discreetly placed event or vendor logo.
2. High quality, well designed pens.
3. First-class thermal coffee mugs to be used at the event, and then taken home.
4. Well-made t-shirts or sweaters with discreetly placed event or sponsor logos.
5. Thermal blankets with subtle logo. At least half of your audience will be too cold during sessions in hard to control meeting and ballrooms. Attendees will love these blankets, and since you no longer get them on the plane, they are great for the trip home too.
6. Care package of personal goodies including a nutrition bar, water, sunscreen, candies, product samples and more. Stuff to sustain attendees during the conference.
7. Usable coupons or offers for items during the conference. A Starbucks gift card to be used at the coffee house in the venue, a complimentary cocktail offer at the resort bar, etc…
8. An item suggested by some, but perhaps out of range for most was the iPad. If you’re hosting that conference, let me know. I want to attend!
Share any items you have received or given to your attendees. I’ll include them in an update to this post. Click here to message me.
Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions for this post!
