Finding and giving gifts for your event?

Gifts can be used as effective business tools or a memorable souvenir to remind attendants of the event. Do invest some time thinking before spending.

Why are you giving gifts?
Before your selection of a gift for your event, ask yourself what do you want to achieve with your gift giving? Introduce a new product or service? Thank a customer for his business, recognise an employee’s outstanding achievements? Select a gift that will say what you mean, find out what would the attendant appreciate most and be comfortable receiving? Have these gifts that you had in mind been given before in the earlier events?

Put some thought into your gift selection. Buying cheap or just throwing a big amount of your budget on a gift a recipient doesn’t have any interest in, can’t use or that may be in poor taste, defeats one of the main tenets of gift giving: to build positive relationships or to reinforce the image of your company and of your event.

Choose your gifts wisely. Have you an allocated budget or are you looking for appropriate gifts and then put the costs into your budget? Check the corporate gift policy of your recipients (if they are not for your staff) before embarking on your gift search for any caveats. You do not want your recipients to return gifts because they have company policy to comply to.

Gifts can be found in these categories (& some general examples):
Office & stationery – clocks, desk accessories, photo frames, writing instruments, paperweights, desktop sets
Accessories – T-shirts, caps, jackets, key chains
Leather goods – bags, agenda, folder
Gadgets – innovative products like currency converter, world time clock
Sports – accessories, bags, equipment
Travel – vouchers, travel related accessories
Gourmet & wine – fine dining, vintage wines
Flora – flower bouquets, baskets
Beauty – beauty & spa products
Home appliances – tableware, crystalware
Awards – trophy, medals
Electronics – electronic agenda, sound systems

Gift presentation
Personalise your gift with a hand-written note or print your organisation’s logo. You can also incorporate the logo of the event if you have one. Personalising provides a good sense of identity but it has to be tastefully done. You want your recipients to feel good with this identity association.

Whatever you have selected, remember that they represent and project the image of your company and of the event. Presentation is also important. Many corporate gift suppliers and service people handle wrapping, packaging and other product customisation options.

So the next time you give a gift, think carefully and spend wisely.