EVENT 'SHWAG' DESIGN

Swag may be free for attendees, but it’s no small industry. The promotional product industry is estimated to be a $23 billion industry. Companies spend piles and piles of cash to give away products for free.

Why?

Well, there are two reasons.

Branding – When a company gives away 1,000 lanyards, that’s 1,000 advertisements for their company floating around the ether. Measuring exactly how much impact a piece of swag has on your brand awareness is nearly impossible, but it’s undeniable that the more people who wear or use your branded product, the more your brand will be seen.

Good will – If you came over to my house and left with a free shirt, do you think you’d come back the next time I invited you? You probably would, assuming everything else during the visit went alright. When you give people free stuff, you buy goodwill to a certain extent. It doesn’t mean you’ll get unconditional love in return, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

If you host or sponsor a conference and don’t give away a little swag, attendees won’t be incensed. You probably won’t lose all your customers, but it’ll hurt you on the margins. It’ll chip away at your reputation just a bit.

So, better just to throw some swag at your guests than hold out.

The question is, what kind of swag is best at a conference. Well, as you might expect there’s no one right answer, but there are a lot of good options out there. So, we’re going to go through 16 of the best conference swag ideas. Let’s get to it.

Here are 16 conference swag ideas:

Branded apparel /   Screen cleaner /  Extended free trials /    Gift cards /   Books /  Water bottles /    Portable coffee mugs /    Bluetooth anything /    Bags /    Portable charger /    Notebook /   Snacks /  Sunglasses /  Popsocket /    Toiletries /   Industry-related items

When you get something industry-specific, you know that your attendees will be interested in the item. For example, if the conference is for outdoor retailers, maybe a branded water filter is the option. If it’s a conference for beer brewers, maybe give away some free hops.

Contact me for a consult and we can discuss what will be right for your business.