Swag

[#1]

My dad was a shameless collector of swag from old-school conferences like Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, Macworld, LinuxWorld, and I feel like he must've made his way to CES once or twice. (Sidenote: he pulled me out of school to go to the great granddaddy of tech conferences - the West Coast Computer Faire in 1979. Notably, I lost my conference pass and my dad flagged down the roller-skating organizer Jim Warren who hooked us up with a replacement.)

My family always had so much branded junk. It was almost a bit too much, especially as we clean up his stuff now that he's passed on.

SO, my swag addiction? "It's hereditary"

Having attended Teams and Summits off and on since 2013, I've collected a lot of swag. Here's just a fraction from last year:

Team '24 Europe - Barcelona

Team 24' US - Vegas

But I'm also constantly fighting the relentless clutter in our small home. So I've tried to be more thoughtful about what swag I take. It's got to be a t-shirt I actually might wear. Or a gadget that I could see me or a family member actually use. Blankets? Sure. Those make fine gifts. Fidget spinners and lip balms? Enh, maybe ONE of those, at most.

But then I realized my mistake. I was keeping it all to myself!

Many of my fellow Community Leaders are veterans of what we like to call the "Swag Sweep" which happens when the Expo is about to close (this year it's at 3:15PM Thursday - put it on your calendar). Some of thing bring extra bags or suitcases specifically for swag.

When I joked about "How much swag could you possibly need?" after viewing photos of "swag hauls" laid out on hotel beds, I think it was @Susan Hauth _Jira Queen_ that pointed out that she is grabbing it for her local ACE meetings where she can give it out in "What you missed at Team" events, or as prizes in games, etc.

Brilliant!

So I don't "do" live ACE meetings (I'm strictly an on-line Community Leader), but I realize I do have my _own_ in-person "community". My users! I'm thinking maybe this year we'll host a "Team 25 Roundup!" where my colleagues and I will share things that we found relevant to our company. And yeah, we'll have plenty of swag.

Anyways, feel free to share your swag hauls, and let us know what your plans for all your freebies.

(To spare my family from piles of swag, in recent years I've just been putting "extra" swag on tables at work and then letting my team, and then the larger company know that it's up for grabs. Mugs, t-shirts, totes, etc. are always popular. Pens and stickers? Not so much, as much as I try to convince people that kids love stickers.)

[John Funk]

Thanks for the article, @Darryl Lee  - I can relate! And looking forward to you offloading any unwanted swag to me in Anaheim.  :-)

Always better to give it away instead of throwing it away. 

[Susan Hauth _Jira Queen_]

@Darryl Lee , I love swag and proudly wear as much swag as I can as well as my desk is littered with great swag.  My current favorite is my mug "World's best Jira Admin" courtesy of Valiantys. 

But it's true, every year I gather up extra swag in the swag sweep.   The vendors are always happy to share it with me, especially when I tell them it's going to the Toronto ACE Team wrap-up event where I put out the swag for our members and/or use it for prizes.

Swag on!!!

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I don't get to go to a lot of conferences, but I generally end up with pens, highlighters, branded pads of paper, and such. I remember using a triangle-shaped 3-color highlighter for years. Ahh, the days when we printed everything out. 😊

I did benefit from the swag that a coworker picked up at JavaOne though—a laptop backpack. This was very handy on flights between London and San Diego, CA, since I had to carry on my laptop, but I could also fit in all the small things I wanted to use on the 12-hour flight—lip balm, contact lens solution, case, glasses, sleep mask, and a book. This was in the days when you couldn't turn your laptop on while in flight. I miss those days when no one expected you to work on the plane. 

[Gabriella Evans _K15t_]

Hi @Darryl Lee , I spy K15t's 'Know How' zip bag in there! This year we have a new tagline, which means all new SWAG. 🤩 So hopefully you'll drop by booth #3 to collect some new stuff. 😁