Ever been to a conference, you surely know the industry leads swag. You know, those free branded stuff they give out to attendees. Swag may be free to attendees, but it's no small industry. The promotional products industry is estimated at $23 billion. Companies spend heaps of money to offer products for free. Why? Well, there are two reasons. Branding - when a company gives away 1,000 lanyards, that's 1,000 advertisements for their company floating in the ether. It's nearly impossible to measure exactly how much impact an item has on your brand awareness, but there's no denying that the more people who wear or use your branded product, the more your brand will be seen. Goodwill – if you came to industry leads my house and left with a free shirt, do you think you would come back the next time I invite you? You probably would, assuming everything else for the visit went well. When you give people free things, you are buying goodwill to some extent. That doesn't mean you'll get unconditional love in return, but it certainly doesn't hurt. If you host or sponsor a conference and don't give a small gift, the attendees won't be mad. You probably won't lose all of your customers, but it will hurt your margins. It will shake your reputation a bit. So, better to just throw some swag at industry leads your guests than to hold on. The question is what kind of loot is best at a conference. Well, as you'd expect, there's no right answer, but there are plenty of good options. So we are going to go over 16 of the best conference swag ideas. Let's go. Here are 16 conference swag ideas: brand clothes screen cleaner extended free trials gift cards books bottles of water portable coffee mugs bluetooth anything bags laptop charger notebook snacks sun glasses pop socket toiletries industry related articles