Some nice, well made hipflasks. You can send one to me so I can check it for you

USB sticks
Pens
Screen dusters
Bound notepads

None have ever influenced me to use or purchase a product though.

Most of thestuff I get goes to the kids.

Stuff I’ve kept – decent leather folder from a software manufacturer, really nice pen from a top end consultancy, a nice pack of top end olives (from Dell of all people).

Stuff I’d like, but haven’t been offered – portable USB charger thingy, mini hub for hotel rooms, really good pens like the one above (can you send me one please :)) and a decent travel mug.

Tote bags – get in the sea.

Bottle openers and golf balls – if you want to impress my blokey dinosaur bosses. Throw in a set of glamour cycling socks for that matter…

Don’t give out tools and knives if the recipients are all flying back short haul as they will just get them taken off them.

Big boxes of sweets that recipient can leave in the office (it’s the rule in our place that you have to bring smith back for everyone if you travel abroad for business).

I was at a conference in Las Vegas last week and someone had sponsored the hotel key cards. Utterly pointless waste of money!

I’ve just released that I’ve spent half the day bouncing a small red visitMALTA.com stress ball on the desk next to my keyboard 😆

As many have said, a half decent pen and USB sticks.

I have had a couple of pens that take Parker ballpoint refills that have lasted years.

My favorite USB memory “stick” was the credit card style one, kept in my wallet so always available. Plenty of space on it for the Company info as well. Dies on me after a couple of years.

Depends on the delegates. At Drupal conferences, you need stickers…

oh – and t-shirts.

Rachel

The mini USB ‘bullets’ which go into car ciggy lighters are good, as are decent pens.
Good quality bottle openers are nice, I also got a mini first aid kit, and a nice 6″ steel ruler from the DSEI show in London last month.
I have a lifetimes supply of pens and neck lanyards in my desk drawer.

Things will be kept (and used) by people for a lot longer if they are good quality.

Only really ever been to one decent conference, a gas turbine user one in Budapest, which TBH is a bit of a blur*. The only things I still use from that are a Dutch GT blade manufactures Delft style tea bag caddy and a nice crystal booze decanter. No one else up there has either of those!

Also, stuff that I’ve been given by reps visiting the office, a good quality karabiner and short lanyard my security pass hangs off, a wind-tex type jacket, decent A4 lined notepad and the ubiquitous USB memory sticks.

*edit – free booze – another thing not mentioned, and much appreciated!

I prefer propelling pencils to pens, but maybe I’m just weird……….. 😳

Freeagent. I missed out on the rulers, but the iPad case came from there. I got some great hot sauce from another stand there the time before. Lethal it was, but great on toasted cheese. I think the bloke was flogging video comms hardware.

Just remembered one! While at a previous employer, they of the notepads, we had someone hand making cigars at one conference as our booth freebie.

The mini USB ‘bullets’ which go into car ciggy lighters are good

I took one of those apart once in a bored moment. The ‘fuse’ was just a wound spring. It went in the bin…

I have a perverse affection for one of these that I picked up at some stall years ago, so much so I went and found another when it wore out after about 10 years.

Two things I’ve actually used, apart from the usual pens and USB sticks, are a reasonable quality 20cm stainless steel rule and a small plastic vernier caliper – but useful for a quick check on, say a ball bearing diameter: not accurate enough to tell me it’s exactly 1/4″ but if I know it’s that or 3/8″ then it’s good enough.

On Wednesday I picked up a small folding stand/support for an iPhone or tablet. Cheap as chips and really useful already for propping my phone up when I’m watching video/tv on it … Can’t remember the sponsor though …

What about branded USB booster battery things – for charging Phones etc?

What about branded USB booster battery things – for charging Phones etc?

Got one of those from a recent conference, very good freebie. Coincidentally, from a company I’m looking to either partner with or acquire, so that’s even better! 😀

A stick of rock with the company name running through it would be my suggestion.

Harry_the_Spider – Member
What promotional gifts have you received that you actually use?

Good stainless steel pen. Stainless steel pen is cheap nowadays if you know where to buy or source for them.

What have you had that has been binned at the first opportunity?

The company brochure.

What has made you go “oh, I like that!”?

Stainless steel pen …

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.

Good solid stainless steel pen with one end you can rest your thumb on without hurting …

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

The following are shite:

1. Avoid cheap mug. Get Denby instead.
2. Avoid cheapo key chain. Get a stainless steel one with a chain.
3. Avoid cheapo Parker pen. Get a stainless steel pen that can use different refill.
4. Avoid cheaper coaster. Get proper ones made from soap stone.
5. Avoid cheapo fake leather. Give some stainless steel name card holder.
6. Avoid cheapo T-shirt. Give a 3 to 4 oz whiskey hip flash instead.
7. Avoid leather man/hand bag. Give proper man/hand bag instead like those for courier cyclist.

😀

A nice quality luggage tag – big enough to take a business card.

Canvas type shopping bags were going as fast as they could b e chucked out at the game fairs. Worth keeping as shopping bags now that England pays for carriers.

Laptop bags if not too garish
Nice pens
Glasses wiping cloths
Woven shopping bags
Slap wrap reflective wrist bands

Good course documents too not just a copy of someone’s PowerPoint

Anything else gets left behind except the fox’s fruits. 😀

I like something like this … CountyComm Stainless Embassy Elite Pen with Fisher Space Pen cartridge.

Best I things I have kept and still use

Leather travel docs case. Really useful
Moleskine notebooks
Minature laptop mouse on retractable cord
Travel plug thingy with all the plugs built in and a usb slot

Stuff I bin
Usb memory sticks
Crap travel mugs that don’t seal shut
Notepads
Cheap pens

Edit: ooh forgot. Travel connect four was brilliant 🙂

a nice 6″ steel ruler from the DSEI show in London last month.

Very useful for slitting open the brown envelopes that were distributed.

Pack able shopping bag like this – http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00SBBTGU0/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1445024576&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&keywords=shopping+bag+fold&dpPl=1&dpID=41sdTNrve9L&ref=plSrch

Is very useful.

After years of trying to give away stuff with some relevence, and failing miserably, we got 5000 adorable stress relieving cows made up this year. Ludicrous success, we’re aiming at teenagers not business users but parents went absolutely nuts for them, it was basically impossible to keep them on the booth tops- I had a minion working almost fulltime restocking. Relevant is irrelevant, it turns out.

We did frisbees one time, that was both a great success and a predictable total ****ing nightmare- if you want a vision of that day, imagine a frisbee bouncing off a human face forever.

Really good cloth bags. Not the rubbish ones we had a while back that smell of butter and fall to bits. Our PR people were convinced it was better to save 25% of the budget, and give people promotional items that would actually generate ill will.

My wife got a pocket USB phone charger one which I’ve used on long bike adventures

Reflective snap on trouser anti flap things

I’ve got a few on my commuter for extra visibility, always popular in cycle mad london
At a recent event loads of bags of retro sweets; prawns, bananas, bon bons, all sorts etc

Mrs gd used to get cuddly microbes from some events.

Cuddly tummy upset anyone? Or perhaps you’d like a fluffy flu instead… Ahem. 😯

I’ve got cuddly HIV somewhere. I was given it after a random encounter with a complete stranger.

Lego…. Not a cheap option but incredibly popular

Brolly – really good quality storm proof branded golf brollies are excellent to have. Helps if the conference is at a time of year when it’s raining… 😉
Maybe not if people are travelling by air, as has been mentioned.

What promotional gifts have you received that you actually use?

The weirdest was a promotional survival axe. At a software conference.

Just what you want to fly home with. In case the plane crashes in the woods and you have to butcher your fellow passengers for food and fashion a rudimentary shelter. I didn’t need it in the end.

Good quality notebooks (think Moleskine, Field notes etc, particularly if customised). That’s about it.

Good quality notebooks that aren’t saturated with branding.

USB keys are always useful, unless they’re horribly slow, in which case they’re occasionally useful.

Stickers go straight in the bin unless they’re really beautiful ones, likewise pamphlets, catalogues, flyers and all the other guff that gets stuffed in conference bags: in the first bin I see after registration rather than carry it round for the week.

The Clif bar reusable bags that fold up into their own bags are ace. I have ones from successive bike shows. And now everyone is getting charged for bags they will be more popular. Pocket sized and durable and save you 5p every time you use them.

I would keep a nice refillable coffee cup with lid.

Cheap things are a disappointment. Nice quality pens, rulers etc are kept.

Mousemats in the style of a giant post it note that could used for random notes/doodling during the day were the only thing I’ve ever given out that had people coming back for more. The ability to stick a brand name of a relevant company, on a product they liked, that sat under the mouse of a client all day was a winner.

Everything else I’ve used was a waste of time compared.

Except Haribo.

Obviously I’m attending the wrong conferences – I don’t see much apart from rubbishy pens. A long while ago there was a fad for stickers from oilfield service companies to put on your hardhat. Some (Red Adair etc.) attained collectible status.

Mousemats in the style of a giant post it note that could used for random notes/doodling during the day

Those things are useful – I spend my own money on them!