Are you a maniac for merch? Or a goodies grinch? - Share your swag desires and disappointments

[Kat Warner]

Summit means many things and one of those things is SWAG!

• What sort of swag do you like to be offered?
• What swag have you been offered by left on the stand?
• Do you have any swag on your body or desk right now?
• Has swag encouraged you to investigate a product? Or even purchase a product?

It would be great to hear lots of responses from the community as not only am I curious, I am also part of a team that will be distributing swag again soon.

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Hi @Kat Warner

I absolutely love any kind of swag - as I already mentioned in my desk answer, I'm a magpie when it comes to any kind of pens :) 

Another great swag is definitly Shirts. T-Shirt, Longsleeve, Hoodie - doesn't matter. As long as they have a nice design - just love it. Right now I'm wearing an Atlassian Shirt I got from the last roadshow. What a pitty that I don't have so much time to visit more events like fairs, summits aso. 

What is also nice are well designed buttons and pins. Call me a raider but I love pinning them to my bag.

What is really important is that everything has a cool design and quality. Functionality is also nice but not that important to me. 

In one of the user group events I got shirt with different addons for Confluence and Jira - I only knew one of them and looked for the other ones in marketplace. Now we are using 2 of the ones that were on the shirt because I liked what they can do. 

Hope this helps ;) but it's only my opinion - a swag hunter ;)

[Kat Warner]

I am a swag magpie at events. My favourite swag in 2018 was socks!

I like to share the swag with my team. I guess I am a swag hunter - collecting for the good of the tribe :P

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Totally forgot the socks - we had these for students over the last years

Always for the tribe ;) 

[Scott Theus]

I'm with @Fabienne Gerhard...I love swag, but especially when a company ships it to me as a reward for something. T-shirts and reusable shopping bags are the gold standards of swag, because I actually use them. I like little stress balls, squishy things or something to fidget with to keep on my desk, and memo books or sticky notes get used too. 

For me, form follows function...I get more enjoyment out of something I can use, bonus if it has a cool design or logo. 

A gift of swag is a way to either entice me to write a review or say thanks for my participation in a case study, beta test, or such. (I'm not doing for the swag, mind you, but it doesn't hurt :) ) 

I'll pick up pens and stuff I'll use from trade shows, but tend to leave the marketing pamphlets and books on the table because I don't use them and would just contribute to a landfill. Give me something with a name, logo, and web site instead and I'll do my own research, thank you very much, and yes, once I get back to my desk the swag will remind me of who I talked to, what I liked, and if I wanted to explore further.

Here is what I have on my desk atm...

[Kat Warner]

Those ALM pens are great. I just wore mine out.

I am not a big fan of 'paper' collecting at booths. I have internet and will Google :P I will get business cards as reminders of what to Google sometimes.

[Scott Theus]

I just realized...Community Badges = Electronic Swag.

I was searching though the Community for questions I could answer and stumbled across a badge challenge and thought "Oooo Badges! I can do that.)

[Kat Warner]

Hmmm - maybe I should think of some way to 3D my electronic badges so as a first-timer to the Summit I can feel like one of the in-crowd!

Or that could be trying too hard. 

[Jeff Tillett]

I LOVE SWAG. (pics to prove below.....)

The things that stick with me the most are things I can use every day. My favorite items have probably been unique, multi-purpose chargers/adapters and pint glasses. On me right now, I am wearing an Atlassian shirt, and have a community pop socket on my phone, a usergroup pin on my backpack, and 3 stickers on my laptop. That's just atlassian ;)

My backpack is AppDynamics, and I also have an AppD sticker on my laptop. 

My backpack is also sporting a cool velcro "handle wrap" from QuakeCon 2002 on the handle, a Boy Scout luggage tag from the Alumni swag pack, and a Pokemon Go pin. 

I can also often be found sporting swag socks, hoodies, and hats as well. Backpacks, organizer bags, and nice notebooks are always useful as well. :)

Now for what I leave on the table - Accessories that are outdated. Laptop accessories that plug into USB-A ports - that I don't have. Flash drives that are in the single digits for GB space. There is a particular summit vendor that has had the same 8gb flash drives (that wont plug into my laptop) for the past 3 years. Even 3 years ago, 8gb wasn't that useful. Temporary tattoos. Kids love these....until they are about 10. These are insta-passes for me, and it's single use advertising for the vendor - if it applies correctly.

Stickers have to be really funny or super clean looking, but most get a pass from me as well.

All in all, myself and most of my family are almost always advertising for someone, so I'm just looking for the companies who are interested in being promoted. :)

Now for the pics of Summit Swag:

2016:

2017:

2018:

[Kat Warner]

*drools* How did those photos not end up in the Summit18 swag thread?

#SummitGoals #BeLikeJeff

I own (and wear) way more t-shirts within a year of working at an Atlassian Solutions Partner than the previous couple of decades.

Thanks for your feedback and the eye candy.

[Jeff Tillett]

HAHA, I dunno, I usually try to get in on all the swag topics :)

[Fabienne Gerhard]

@Jeff Tillett - wow!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Oh my! The swag pictures are phenomenal!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

I attended GTEC for 10 years (Government Technology Exhibition and Conference). The first few years I collected swag, and loved the Monster and Telus stuffies. Then a few years later I became a minimalist and didn't take any swag. The weirdest swag I ever saw were these little nuts or beans that jumped in their container (they were jumping beans). Then to find out they were little bugs trapped inside the beans, that were trying to get out. It was very disturbing and did not make me remember their products at all.

My favourite Swag item is my Trello taco plush, he sits right on the top of my monitor.

[Jeff Tillett]

That's horrible about the bugs!

Your bump reminded me to come post my 2019 Swag pic from this year's summit. :)

Had to go with "one of everything" for this year. The rest of the extras that were taken back to the Dallas Community  can be seen below. :)

[Kat Warner]

Wow - I am humbled by your swag hunting efforts!

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

Oh, my favorite platypus! I lost mine due the long trip back home :'( Still sad about that.

Great collection, you are a true swag believer!