• This topic has 79 replies, 63 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by DrJ.
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  • Questions for those who attend business conferences…
  • Harry_the_Spider
    Full Member

    What promotional gifts have you received that you actually use?
    What have you had that has been binned at the first opportunity?
    What has made you go “oh, I like that!”?

    Your ideas would be appreciated as I’ve got a budget to spend, wisely. We want to give away product branded items that are useful and/or interesting. Ideally something that will sit forever on a customer’s desk.

    We don’t want stuff that won’t make it beyond the bin in the hotel room.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    I use a fake leather document portfolio from an MBA course, but that’s about it. Everything else is just useless tat. If you are going to do pens, at least get decent ones, 99.99% are utter crap.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    Suppose it depends on budget.

    Keyring bottle openers are good. I still have the mbr one that I got free with the mag about 27 years ago. Other than that, can’t be of much help, as don’t know what’s handy on a desk these days…some kind of mobile phone accessory? Mini bluetooth speakers?

    brant
    Free Member

    I have some nice Shimano espresso mugs, and a Shimano rucksack. I have a Shimano phone case I never used. I have several kg of Chinese tea that I’ll never use. Mugs are good. Everyone needs a mug. A travel mug could be even better I guess as they get lost and you can get them home easily.

    willard
    Full Member

    That’s a tricky one. I’ve had some really good notepads off people like Adobe at conferences before and some nice pens, but a lot of the other stuff that I have got has been tat. Apart from the iPad cover I got from CQC which is awesome.

    I’d say the one thing that I use pretty much all the time is a particularly well made lanyard from Glock. It means I do not lose or forget my house keys.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    To confirm your fears I try as hard as possible to avoid being given stuff which is generally thrown away into the hotel bin. “Back in the day” branded memory sticks where useful, I usually use whatever free bag is going to collect carry other stuff (paperwork, research papers) but that gets chucked out too. I am a stationary geek so always liked the little notepad stacks with branded stuff on the side, I also still have a branded drinks mat (coaster) from the mid 90’s. Umbrellas are common gifts, useful for a bit but usually poor quality. I’ve just had a clear out and thrown away 10 baseball caps which where all gifts.

    Good luck

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Sweets get used.
    Pens if they’re decent.

    Best are USB memory sticks though, ESET give us loads of them, they’re in the shape of their logo and come with a free 12 month licence for their home product to use on our own machines. Obviously as they give out training licences like confetti so we’ve all got the latest commercial version on our home PC, but they’re good to give to friends etc – this is a bit geeky, but a couple of my mates have got into trouble downloading ‘jazz material’ onto their work laptops when they’re away from home for a week – they think a branded USB drive with their OS type A/V product on it that fixes all their woes is like something out of Men In Black.

    Wish they weren’t so tight on the storage though, 4GB! I ask you.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Our company give out 8GB USB drives, but they’re the cheapest slowest Flash available, take an age to write anything to them, probably using an early flash protocol based on Semaphore… Not exactly a good advert for a high tech telecoms company – here have a free sample of 10 year out of date technology with our logo on it!

    Rio
    Full Member

    A lot depends on how people will be carrying it home – if I have to take it on a plane it has to be small and useful (a pen with a built-in laser pointer from Microsoft is the only thing I can think of that I’ve kept, the laser is great for keeping the cat amused); if it can go in the car then something bigger may survive – I have an IBM umbrella in the car that I’ve used for over 10 years now.

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    If you’re going to do pens, do something unusual like a highlighter/biro combo.

    I have a USB fan on my desk as our A/C is rubbish – something like this:
    http://www.usbnow.co.uk/USB_Fans/c191/p2072/Adjustable_USB_Fan/product_info.html

    edit: We’re also not allowed to put any non-company owned flash drives into our computers, so a flash drive is useless in a business context.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    I ditch everything I’m forced to take from stalls -unless its a good mug. I normally do grab a pen when i arrive to use during the conference but rarely do i hold onto it long enough for it to get home. Do you want to hand out things that will get people to your stall or that they will keep and remember your company.

    The only successful marketing device I saw for getting people round a stall and talking was a Scottish company that came armed with a multitude of single malts and a massive stack of disposable shot glasses. They were nothing to do with the whisky trade, but I dont think that mattered!

    nickjb
    Free Member

    Got a small victorinox knife. Very happy with that, still use it a lot. USB sticks are good as long as they are a decent capacity and not too flimsy/gimmicky, if it fits nicely on a keyring then it’ll be kept. Canvas bags are handy if what’s written on them is ok. Phone charger battery pack was nice. Mousemats, mugs and calendars no thanks, but regularly see these in offices so some people must keep em.

    PlopNofear
    Free Member

    Got a travel plug adapter that has every combination imaginable. Also has 2 USB ports in the side. Pretty cheaply built but it works, use it at the moment just for the USB sockets 😀

    mrmoosehead
    Free Member

    I have a good quality shoulder bag / satchel type thing from a VoiceGenie conference/course about 15 years ago. Still use it.

    Tallpaul
    Full Member

    The only thing I was ever given that I used everyday (until I lost it), was a Cross ball-point pen.

    Apart from that, I’ve kept a universal plug adapter/USB charger which I take on overseas trips and a laptop bag. Everything else gets binned, in fact unless it’s in a welcome pack I don’t even pick it up.

    surroundedbyhills
    Free Member

    Tote bags are always useful
    Carabiners
    Torches
    but my favourite is one of those beer insulator things – they wrap round your bottle similar to a hiviz slapstrap and keep your beer from warming up via your hand. It is a horrible looking thing ’cause the firm have a minging graphic (they are acoustic engineers… ironing or what?) but I have kept a hold of it none the less.

    and this Mighty Mug
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mighty-Mug-Go-Travel-Litre/dp/B00CPP8Z1O

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    Sounds like it’s all tat that is either discarded at source or hoarded for a few years until the owner has a clear out. Why not ditch the useless frippery that no one really wants and put the money saved towards supplying a better than average lunch.

    ransos
    Free Member

    I am a stationary geek

    Immovable object?

    willard
    Full Member

    That’s not a bad idea… I remember once I got a mini-travel router at one thing I went to in Florida. That was really handy for plugging into the wall socket at hotels and not having to worry about wifi dropping out.

    How about something like a D-Link mini-travel router with USB charging ports? That would be awesome.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Yep, USB charger would be good, my wife is always leaving them in hotels!

    JEngledow
    Free Member

    I think it depends on the type of business conference, an engineering conference will attract a totally different type of geek clientele to a finance management conference. Following all the hysteria about the 5p carrier bag charge, how about a bag for life?

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    Decent quality pen is always welcome.

    Coolest freebie toy I got was a laser pointer/pen that also contains a USB stick. Boring enough, you might think, but the cool feature is that the laser is rechargeable not battery powered, you just plug the USB stick in and it’s working immediately (probably a capacitor). That has proved to be useful at numerous conferences, not just by me but saving others. Lost count of the times that the organisers haven’t got a decent pointer, or the battery runs out…

    brassneck
    Full Member

    Got a travel plug adapter that has every combination imaginable. Also has 2 USB ports in the side. Pretty cheaply built but it works, use it at the moment just for the USB sockets

    That’s a good one though I stole mine from one of our own drug launches.

    Had lots of USB sticks but they are always behind the useful size curve.

    RedHat gave me RHEL MagLight, when MagLights were the peak of mini torches – love that, it’s still in my Camelbak for emergencies

    hels
    Free Member

    I usually make a big point of stopping at the stand, pulling out all the bits I want (the schedule and names of attendees etc) and handing back the reams of advertising crap.

    Really – you plus in USBs you got given at a conference ? Do you not watch CSI Cyber ?

    richc
    Free Member

    USB sticks are good, as are compact retractable USB charging cables.

    Anything else bar pens goes in the bin.

    I don’t worry about shit on the USB stick, as Linux is pretty safe and I format them 🙂 Wouldn’t save me from the USB stick of dooooooooooom though. http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=18983

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    Ceramic knives
    Silk scarf (i thought it had a minging pattern but my mum liked it)
    business card holder is useful, but seems odd to have someone elses branding on it…

    My old boss was mental for collecting free stuff, I once saw him collect 8 logo bugs – when told “take one for your children” – “I have 7 kids” he said stuffing them in a carrier bag.

    His youngest was 32 at the time!

    Danny79
    Free Member

    USB charger for car, good pens or notepads too.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Really – you plus in USBs you got given at a conference ?

    They do, and my 100k node botnet confirms this!

    surroundedbyhills
    Free Member

    I am a stationary geek

    Immovable object?

    Still Pedantic?

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Too many conferences myself! Stuff I’ve swagged that was worthwhile include;

    Pens – Biro/touchscreen stylus combined is good and useful.
    Phone power battery thingy, again useful.
    Hand cleaning gels
    Sunblock stick. Was in Vegas, so a useful thing!
    Maglites. No other torches.

    Stuff that gets binned, or not picked up include,

    Notepads. I have a big stock of Moleskin from a previous employer after they had a logo change!
    USB sticks. So over!

    NJA
    Full Member

    I was involved in some research on this in a previous life turned out the two things that everyone had on their desk were a coaster and a mouse mat. So we made a really nice coaster and mouse mat set – everywhere I went for a couple of years after that they were on peoples desks for everyone to see. We were dealing with insurance companies with big call centres at the time.

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    We’ve been giving out a branded version of these pens for the last few months. You know it’s a good giveaway when a customer phones you up to ask for another one as someone has ‘borrowed’ theirs.

    USB keys are pointless. I have a drawer with about 50 unused ones in.

    razorrazoo
    Full Member

    One thing that I always have with me is a USB to iPhone/mini usb/micro usb adaptor. This sort of thing.

    Has the company logo in the middle, sits in my laptop bag replacing multiple cables and have used all the time since I got it a few years ago.

    Bottle opener key rings are always good too. I have various ones attached to car and house keys as they are so handy.

    toby1
    Full Member

    Coke and hookers?

    Perhaps I just go to a better level of conference 😉

    I like stress ball type stuff, but then that’s usually because I want to strangle someone/something.

    Depends on the business you are working with/for, buffs and saddle covers are pretty good, if there’s a chance of people being cycling oriented. A local Cambridge food shop did saddle covers to get noticed around town, worked brilliantly in a town like this.

    Magnet based toys also seem to keep people entertained in my office.

    MrNice
    Free Member

    based on one of our clients, it’s USB sticks that are popular. Conversation last week went: “I never buy memory sticks, I always use free ones from <MrNice’s employer>. Have you got any more?”

    br
    Free Member

    A lot depends on how people will be carrying it home

    Once I got given a small black attaché case with ‘samples’ in it, along with the other +500 people there. Fun at the airport 🙂

    Otherwise about the only thing I ever kept was a bottle opener, really well designed aluminium one.

    twixhunter
    Free Member

    Golf balls.

    End of thread.

    joshvegas
    Free Member

    5 way (like an octopus) usb charger/data. all the common phone tablet connections permanently connected to my keyboard usb port unless one of the people in my team needs it.

    Engineering? Scale rule we have one dating back 30 years.

    Little mini staplers save having to wander round having to find the office stapler.

    the wee swiss army knives if budget is saweeet

    mark90
    Free Member

    My thoughts when I opened this have already mentioned on this thread, retractable USB phone cables (eg http://www.miniinthebox.com/retractable-usb-2-0-to-micro-usb-2-0-data-charging-cable-0-6m_p691399.html) or phone battery power sticks.

    40mpg
    Full Member

    Freebies I have on my desk right now:

    Scale rule with useful scales that arent on the cheap ones work buys
    Nice milled steel coaster from a structural steel company
    And in my drawer a mini toolkit which has Saved The World many a time

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