We’ve tried to move away from shirts as a speaker gift, most speakers have them so we only get them if it’s a brand new speaker or someone needs a new shirt. Last time here in Orlando we came up with some nice leather business card holders with the SQLSaturday Orlando logo embossed. This year I wanted to experiment again, try to find something that speakers would use and/or show off at the office, something that they would continue to enjoy.
Of course, finding that ‘something’ is easier said than done. Budgets are limited, tastes vary. I spent some time looking, was hard to decide, but finally thought a coffee cup would be a safe bet. Easy enough to get the logo applied, but that seemed…too blah. First thought was to get someone to hand paint the logo locally, couldn’t seem to get that to happen (this year anyway!), kept looking and found Mug Revolution, they will do a custom stamp of a logo and apply it to the cup.
Not cheap, but I think a little closer to ‘one of a kind’ as you see in the cell phone taken picture below. It’ll be interesting to see how the speakers react. The one downside is the cost, I hate to start setting the expectation that we have to spend a lot on gifts. I think gifts are important, because speakers spend a lot of time (and often money) to travel to our events, but I also think it’s still the thought that counts. I’d like to see us spend less next year, say $10-$12 per speaker, and find another creative gift that will be as much keepsake as useful.
As I think about it, I think that might be pretty interesting for Chapter speakers too. Something to work on.
