How far in advance to order conference swag: a week-by-week timeline

Order ready-made branded products four weeks before the event, and custom items five to six weeks or more. Three weeks is the last call: with two weeks left, there is no time to produce, ship and fix a delayed parcel. Below is what happens in each of those weeks and what your team needs to do.

Six weeks out: send a brief

You don't need a full brief to start. We need the event, city and dates, what you want to order or what the merch is for, roughly how many items, and a budget. The budget can be per item ("power banks, around $30 each") or in total ("welcome packs, $100 per person"). Either way, we know what to look for.

Next we ask for your logo, brand guidelines and any references. If you want us to come up with the direction, we also ask who the merch is for, what it should do, what is off-limits, and whether you care more about usefulness or the wow effect.

It helps to know which of three requests you're making:

• Selection. "We need mugs, T-shirts and pens." We show the best options in each category within your budget.
• Concept. You bring a theme, such as space, the 90s or a campaign colour, and we pick and brand every item to fit it. Most event teams ask for this.
• Idea. You ask us to invent the theme itself. This is rare.

Before iGB in Barcelona, StarCrown came to us with an idea: a new brand, bright, neon, a space adventure. We turned it into a concept. Holographic bags, bright pillows, silver reflective materials and branded balloons matched the booth design, and electronics and cups covered the practical side.

Five weeks out: approve samples

How you approve a product depends on what it is and how much time is left. There are three common formats:

For mugs and T-shirts, a digital mockup is enough: the product is standard, and what you check is the size and position of the logo. A custom product is a different story. For example, one of our current orders is branded LEGO for a client. Every step is approved by video, because sending a physical sample from the factory and back would take weeks the project doesn't have.

Physical samples are quoted separately, because one branded piece costs more than the same piece in a run of a hundred.

Four weeks out: order and production

This is the point to place the order for ready-made items. We produce with manufacturers we have worked with before. How closely we check depends on the product. A €100 backpack or custom-cut apparel is checked twice: on a sample before the run and again when the order is packed, and you get photos and video. Simple, inexpensive items are produced from approved layouts.

One order often involves several suppliers. For StarCrown, the balloons were made and delivered in Spain, other items came from a second EU country, and standard products were collected at our warehouse in Czechia. The order travelled as three or four separate shipments, each with its own tracking number. The account manager and production lead tracked them all.

Two weeks out: shipping inside the customs zone

We produce in the country or customs zone of your event, so nothing goes through customs. Within Europe, delivery takes from 3 days to 2 weeks, depending on the shipping option. A single product can ship straight from the manufacturer. Orders with several products are usually collected first and shipped together.

Event week: the last mile

The last leg of delivery is where parcels get lost. We once had a parcel disappear on the final leg in Portugal. It turned up two weeks later, after the event was over. Since then we ask every client for three things:

• Deliver to the hotel, not the venue. Booths are usually built the day before opening, and organisers who accept parcels often charge for storage.
• Name one person on your team who receives the boxes.
• Give a local phone number. Couriers call. They don't use WhatsApp or Telegram, and if nobody answers, they leave.

What to order

At iGaming and affiliate events, booth merch has two jobs. Bright, limited items bring people to the booth and end up on Instagram. Practical items, such as thermo mugs, notebooks, charging cables and tote bags, stay on people's desks for months. If a booth has nothing to take away, visitors assume the company is short of money. For e.PN at Affiliate World in Dubai, we combined both: the booth looked like a merch shop, with shelves of branded towels, Crocs, T-shirts and mugs. Business development teams who walk the floor need small gifts that fit in a backpack and cost little enough to hand out after every meeting.

Checklist

• Six weeks out: brief sent, budget agreed.
• Five weeks out: selection or concept approved, samples chosen.
• Four weeks out: order placed, production started.
• Three weeks out: last call for ready-made items.
• One week out: tracking numbers received, hotel and recipient confirmed.