Trade Shows 2022: 10 Promo Essentials to Delight Event Attendees

While some conferences, events and tradeshows have been canceled or are still virtual, we know that some trade shows in 2022 will be back in person.

It’s no secret that trade shows are a great way to interact with and strengthen relationships with your current customers, as well as a great opportunity to get your products or services seen by potential customers.

Trade show event booth design is an important aspect of drawing people into your corner of the event, but it’s the trade show giveaways that will keep your company top of mind for days, weeks and months after your initial contact at a trade show in 2022.

Scroll through top trade show giveaway picks from previous years and peek at a few ideas for any trade shows you are attending in 2022.

Best Trade Show Giveaways of 2021

Sometimes taking a page from history is a great approach to planning your giveaways. We’ve curated a handful of our best-selling promotional products to give you an idea of what others are ordering.

• Bags. As you stroll through the busy aisles of a convention hall, packed with exhibitors and booths, you’ll notice the attendees have their hands FULL. Providing a bag, such as the Deluxe Boat Bag or Metro Enviro Shopper gives people who stop by your booth something useful, but even more powerful, your logo and company name are being prominently displayed as people walk throughout the expo hall. You may even become a sought-after booth thanks to the usefulness of your giveaway item.

• Water bottles. An ever-popular giveaway, water bottles make a great promotional item to help keep event attendees hydrated well beyond the day’s events. Consider the best-selling contour bottle with flip top lid.

• Fans. Whether it’s a cellphone fan or a plastic hand fan, if your event is occurring when or where the weather will be hot, hot, hot, providing a fan will make you one of the most popular booths at the trade show.

• Buttons. Give your cause or product a voice using buttons. They are a tangible and very visible way for your customers or supporters to become walking billboards for your brand. Consider the 3” full color round button or a smaller, yet still impactful button.

10 Trade Show Giveaways Under $1

If you’re like many other businesses, 2021 brought just as many challenges as 2020 and you may be faced with tight budgets and a push to land more clients. We’re here to help you with inexpensive, yet memorable and useful, trade show giveaways for your next event. Check our top 10 trade show giveaway items for under $1:

2. Travel Items: Often times trade shows bring attendees from all over the country (or globe!), so travel giveaways can be a very immediate and much appreciated item that attendees can put to use right away. Options that work well for all genders include a small mirror, nail file in a sleeve, lip balm, mints and wireless earbuds with a case.

3. Stress Relieving: While attendees are likely very excited to be at trade shows again, that doesn’t mean they aren’t experiencing stress (especially if they’ve been having issues with their flight or other travel and lodging reservations). And stress is also a fact of life, especially with increased challenges across all industries, so stress relieving promotional products are a much-welcomed giveaway. Consider a football stress reliever, star-shaped stress reliever, relaxing lotion pocket pack or colored pencils for doodling.

4. Office Supplies: Whether it’s at the trade show or back at their home or office workspace, office supplies are a trade show promo item that never goes out of style. A few customer favorites include business card magnets, sticky note sheets, wooden rulers, calendar magnets, translucent vinyl pocket planner, monitor and keyboard cleaner or a press-and-stick calendar.

6. Healthcare and Safety: Top of mind during the pandemic is taking care of personal health and safety. Show your customers and prospective customers how much you care with useful and relevant giveaways. Consider a bandage dispenser, bottled spring water, full color tissue pack, skinny tube lip balm, ear plugs, cylinder bottle hand sanitizer or face mask ear saver.

7. Food Giveaways: Treat your trade show attendees to something sweet with food giveaways. Some favorites include individually wrapped mints, mint cards, a goody bag with Sour Patch Kids, foiled chocolate squares or a goody bag with jelly beans.

8. Flashlights: Help your brand stand out and quite literally shine with flashlight giveaways. From a rectangular flashlight keychain to a safety whistle and light keychain or reflector key light.

9. Bottle Openers: Beverage openers are a popular giveaway at trade shows, especially with many networking events coupled with trade shows. Choose from the clip-on bottle opener keychain or the aluminum bottle opener keychain.

10. Pens: Used by most people almost every single day in their personal or professional lives, pens are a handy giveaway that gets your brand seen daily for months (or years) to come. Choose from a variety of styles, like a wide body pen, the Javalina Stylus ballpoint pen, a chill ballpoint pen, curvy ballpoint pen, or a rollerball pen.

Delight your customers and prospective customers at trade shows in 2022 with promotional items that will keep them talking about you long after the event is over. Work with a trade show promos specialist today to customize your order — just start a chat or email us today.