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SWAG

What stuff should you look to give to participants to encourage them to come? In the end, it probably doesn't matter a lot, because trinkets will get lost or forgotten about, so focus on spending your budget on things that matter and are memorable. To that end, here are some ideas.

T-Shirts

Yes, you need to have these. First, it's something everyone likes, second it's a great way to get your brand out there. Finally (and this isn't something we've accomplished yet) it gives you an opportunity to offer it to sponsors. Sure, it's not NASCAR, but anything you can do to help your budget, helps your event and the NPOs.

All that being said, really nice t-shirts aren't that much more expensive than the standard t-shirts, and it is something that will make your event memorable. Through various trial and error, we've settled on [these shirts](insert link). No, they don't pay us to advertise them, but it's a good idea. These shirts have a great fit and are incredibly comfortable. The company is easy to work with, just make sure you give yourself 6-8 week lead time in order to make sure you can get all the sizes you want. Speaking of sizes...

Sizes

We did a pretty bad job of documenting and planning for sizes over the years, but we've gotten better now that Nicole took that over. In particular, she actually researched good distributions. Here is our standard order ratio:

Hackers

Since the hackers tend to be younger, they also tend to be smaller because of their young hummingbird-like metabolisms. Those jerks. But, because they're introverted computer people like the rest of our peers, they also tend to have a need for some much larger sizes as well. Here is our current best estimates:

(add the estimate)

Volunteers

It's nice to have a separate shirt for volunteers. Makes them easy to distinguish and gives you an opportunity to have another shirt! They tend to be older, so with our slowing metabolisms, they've moved up the size scale, but there also don't tend to be as many at the extremes. Here is that estimate:

(add the estimate)

Colors

Pick something memorable. We've stayed away from blue, black and grey, just because we have so damn many of those colors, but if they appeal to you, go for it. Change it up year to year. Have fun with it.

Other

The best item we've come up with, and where we tend to go now is just small overnight bags. These contain things like:

  • Toothbrush (with toothpaste)
  • Mouth wash
  • Eye mask
  • ...

Here is where we get ours. Since you can get them branded, another opportunity to have a sponsor pick up that cost and get their name out there.

What else we've done

We've done backpacks, shot glasses, hats, sunglasses, batteries, charging cables, ... in the end I just don't see we've gotten that much value out of them.