We are starting to plan out the nitty, gritty details of the workshops. Something I wanted to do was have little workshop gift/care packages for everyone that attended. Most importantly would be the information packet that would cover the lessons / shooting techniques we would go over, but I also wanted to throw some fun things in there too. Obviously, we would need to try to keep the costs down, and we would want them to be related to photography or the workshop in some way. Food for the workshops will be covered, but I thought I would ask, what would be some neat and useful things to include in the Gift Packages that dont cost an arm and a leg? This is my list:
– Workshop Notebook Packet
– Name Tag Necklace
– Writing Utensils
– 2-3 Special Gifts from Michael- I have a couple of these, I wont share because they are a surprise, but they are COOL!! 🙂
– Lens cleaning kits
– Camera Bag goodies (need some more ideas on these)
– Tee-Shirts?
– DVD Coupons (3 Day workshop Event Attendees)
How about a picture frame?
Honestly, when I was a Sales Rep and the company wanted to get us something nice… we were given every odd creative thing you can think of… but the one thing we always liked the most, was a REALLY NICE PEN with the meeting logo (heavy silver metal). We’d go back in the field and Drs and others we called on would do their best to steal it away… it always reminded us of the meeting. I would have gladly given up the: beach towel, the floating sponge sailboat, the art deco plate, the t-shirts that were child-sized (big opps), flip-flops, ball cap, jump drives, hotel internet cords, highlighter sets, portable cd players, flu shots (really happened), lawn chairs, starbucks gift cards, leather notepad portfolio, mug, hand sanitizer… The only other thing besides the pen that I can say I used more than once… was a black leather shoulder bag (It was big and open, I threw power cords/cables, portable hard drives in it. Again had the logo embroider on it and people often asked me about it in airports wanting to know where they could get one.)
-One Idea would be to network with your photo lab and give a certificate for 10- 8x10s hopefully they would donate it and it wouldn’t cost MA a dime.
free lollipops or paintballer pro? surely if you give away one, people will buy the other. or you could have some drawings for a few DVD’s at the end of the event. bing a big guy, T-shirts are never big enough and I usually end up giving mine to someone else. I like Kcox’s idea about partnering. you may be able to partner with a company like borrowlenses.com to get an additional week free on a rental.
Michael, maybe at one of the locations made a video that would be available to those of us who cannot attend?!?!
Lens cleaning pens – I’m stocked with them right now, I just ordered them in bulk on ebay, they are a great, and fairly inexpensive give away – just a little twist on the pen give away, though pens are Great too!