From branded mugs to interactive workshops and thank you notes, finding the perfect gift ideas for event attendees can feel daunting, but worry not. Discover the key factors to consider when selecting event gifts, along with practical and impactful suggestions to keep your brand in your attendees’ minds.
Ditch the overdone pen and pocket calendar throwaways, and leave your guests impressed.
Factors To Consider When Thinking of Gift Ideas for Event Attendees
When choosing a gift for attendees, you want it to fit the event and its theme. For example, at a tech conference, rather than giving away frisbees, you could provide guests with portable chargers or power banks.
The type of event should also motivate gift selection. For conferences and professional events, focus on practical and useful options. Consider branded items for trade shows or expos, and for workshops or skill-building events, focus on continued learning and offer resources.
Practical and Useful Gift Ideas
Practical or useful gifts are the most common event swag and can foster positive emotions and responses. The potential gift ideas for attendees are limitless.
Tech-Related Gifts
Tech event gifts can include portable chargers, headphones, USB drives, or phone cases. With USB sticks, you can include preloaded event materials and other helpful resources.
Eco-Friendly Gifts
Reusable water bottles, tote bags, and recycled notebooks can all appeal to environmentally conscious attendees. Water bottles are a wonderful gift because they are stylish and sustainable, and they encourage hydration while reducing plastic waste.
Travel-Friendly Gifts
Travel essentials include eye masks, neck pillows, luggage tags, travel adapters, and toiletry bags. These gift ideas for event attendees are excellent options for destination conferences where you know that most of your guests traveled long distances.
Productivity Gifts
Productivity tools are excellent and valuable gifts for attendees. Possibilities include notebooks, planners, sticky notes, highlighters, pens, and even portable document scanners. These gifts are best for professional events, workshops, and conferences.
Branded Gifts
Any of these practical gift ideas can work great as branded swag. Usually, such gifts are best for trade shows, exhibitions, and other events meant to highlight your brand and company. They aim to solidify your brand in the minds of your attendees. You want them to think of your business every time they use the gift, so the more useful the gift, the better.
Experiential and Memorable Gift Ideas
Sometimes, the best gift ideas for event attendees are not tangible but experiential. You can offer a variety of activities or workshops to make memorable experiences for your guests.
Local Activities
Where is your event? What tasty restaurants, bars, or unique locations are nearby? Work with local vendors, businesses, and municipalities to find gifts that support the community. Depending on your budget, you can gift food tours, brewery visits, cultural performances, or even museum tickets.
Interactive Activities
Look for less expensive interactive options if you have a tight budget. For example, you can position photo booths throughout the venue, allowing guest to capture fun memories with their contemporaries. You can also host trivia nights or games. A VR experience may be an exciting but affordable option, depending on the event and the number of guests. Keep in mind that most of these gifts or activities require outside vendors.
Skill-Building Workshops
Workshops have fantastic potential for enhancing attendees’ skill sets. Depending on your event, you can provide brief sessions on relevant topics, such as coding basics or resume writing. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box; if your guests work in high-stress environments, offer mindfulness sessions, stress-reduction workshops, and guided meditation.
Virtual Event Gift Ideas
If you’re hosting a virtual event, tangible gifts are generally impractical. Gift ideas for event attendees should match the event and theme, so why not try out these virtual gifts for virtual events?
Digital Content
There is a world of possibilities in digital content. First, you can provide downloadable resources for the event, including templates or cheat sheets. You can also offer online courses through third-party sites like Udemy or LinkedIn Learning. Finally, you can provide exclusive e-books as downloadable guides and reports.
Beyond offering downloadable materials, you can connect with industry experts or guest speakers and produce live webinars or sessions. With live events, you can include interactive elements like live Q&A sessions.
Discounted Subscriptions
Key to any professional event is networking. Connect with relevant software companies or online services to find gift ideas for event attendees that make a real-world impact on their daily lives by making important services more accessible.
Many big companies are happy to partner with small organizations or other enterprises to expand their consumer base. If you can show the value of your event to potential partners, you may be able to secure extended free trials or other unique deals for your attendees.
Virtual Experiences
Virtual experiences have natural synergy with a virtual event. With the growing popularity of virtual reality, you can work with museums, historical sites, and other remote locations worldwide to provide attendees with a unique remote expedition.
You can also partner with musicians or artists to organize online concerts, shows, or live performances your audience will love. Consider an online cooking class with a local chef if you want to offer something more hands-on.
Virtual gifts are flexible and provide many options for customization. Be open to stepping outside of your comfort zone and thinking innovatively.
Memorable Events With Seamless Event Planning and Gift Ideas for Event Attendees
From tech essentials that fuel productivity to unique virtual experiences that spark wonder and encourage innovation, there are endless options to delight and satisfy the guests at your next event. The keys to captivating your audience with a gift that resonates are understanding their needs, aligning with the event’s purpose, and promoting memorability.
Even after you’ve found the perfect gift ideas for event attendees, putting together a great experience requires skill, patience, and organization. Work with Evey Events for a seamless event planning, ticketing, and real-time analytic solution. Check out pricing options to learn more and sign up for a 14-day free trial.
