-Sustainability and Event Swag - Turn That Trash into Cash - And Give the Earth a Cool Gift

After several decades of talking about “green events” with little or no real action, the tradeshow and conference industry has now been making substantive strides to address issues regarding sustainability. The growing elimination of aisle carpet is one prime example.

However, the issue of ‘tradeshow swag’ is one that has not been adequately addressed to date. Simply put, even attempts at making ‘more responsible' or ‘recyclable’ physical swag’ still produce mountains of trash; much of it plastic… and the production and distribution of these items uses resources and energy, as does the recycling….which leads to both the question and answer:

What’s in Your Universal Digital Swag Wallet?

The concept is straightforward and doable. Instead of the usual physical swag, exhibitors would simply scan a QR code from an attendee badge and/or smartphone, and a certain amount of “points” would be sent to the attendee’s digital wallet.

The wallet would be ‘universal’ in the sense that all exhibitors in any show would be sending their points to the same digital wallet clearing house...thereby allowing attendees to accrue points from various events, to be combined and used at their discretion for items or gift cards from the usual loyalty program sources (Amazon, Best Buy, Hotels, etc.). It would allow the attendees to actually get something they need and can/will use. Of course, the points could be donated to charitable causes, including organizations devoted to sustainability…

...but not so fast; it actually gets better. The process would entail sending an email to the attendee after the event, which they would have to open and activate by clicking a link to their wallet in order to deposit the points.  Of course, the email would include reinforcing promo and info about the exhibitor and their products/services; which is the ultimate objective of swag in the first place. Clearly, that degree of promo is far more effective than a physical item of dubious value with a simple corporate logo and little else.  And the rate of opening, reading, and acting...the Holy Grail of email...should be exceptional.

 Plus…

There could be additional incentives in the email to provide even more points, based on additional attendee interaction(s) e.g.: clicking on a link to view a video, filling out a questionnaire, or clicking on a link to a corporate landing page which can be personalized to suit the viewer’s specific demographic buying profile, etc. 

Plus...

As with the post-show email activation message, there could also be tiers of points awarded based on the activity of the attendee in the booth while at the show...more interaction, more points.  A 'sticky' booth, if you will.

It must be recognized that in addition to the waste of physical swag distributed at the show (and in many cases, thrown away shortly afterward) much of the swag produced never actually gets distributed at all!  It is simply discarded by the exhibitor en masse at the show, or is returned to collect dust in a warehouse…and eventually thrown away.

A perennial question on the part of exhibitors is “how much promotional material should I bring to the show?” Well, in the case of physical swag, the answer is “None.”

The single universal platform is an important cornerstone. In addition to the obvious one-stop value for the attendee, this model helps to level the playing field for the smaller exhibitors with limited budgets. They will now be offering something of real value to the attendee, and thus be part of the same program as the big dogs on the exhibit floor.

While not the primary focus of the program, event organizers could also benefit by offering incentive points for attendees to register early; a problem that has been discussed in detail post-covid. The points would be delivered after actually showing up at the event of course. Plus, based on the everlasting quest to acquire more data regarding attendees, additional points could be awarded to attendees who complete more detailed questionnaires when registering for the event, or even when providing information for future promo when visiting the show website without registering.  The post-show mailing could obviously be used to promote future events. If this seems a bit commercial, it’s really no different than hosted-buyer programs, which are ubiquitous and quite popular.  The participation of show organizers would also be quite beneficial in terms of promoting the program to all exhibitors and thus gain rapid traction and adoption.

The question of who develops and operates the platform is also a critical consideration. This is clearly not a project to be undertaken by Alliance Media Strategies alone. While there are costs of development and maintenance, as with any loyalty program, there are revenues accrued via charging the exhibitors and organizers for the points they purchase. I would envision that the most suitable prime mover(s) would be an organization(s) addressing the events industry. It could be run as a revenue neutral or non-profit after operational expenses and staff salaries are dispensed...a true service to the industry. Obviously, there could be any number of industry and corporate “participating partners” and initial investors... whose investment could be returned over time and/or classified as a donation to the project.

Rather than send this project proposal individually to the dozens of possible entities, I’ve chosen to release it into the wild to see who, if anyone, is interested in discussing it in detail, publicly or privately.

Big picture: Live events, and all of the benefits they provide, are as robust as ever; and they are not going away, or being replaced. They are one of the few industries not being disrupted in any meaningful fashion by digital alternatives. *Although, while difficult to believe, within the past month I had to repost my article from July, 2021 “Why the B2B Virtual Tradeshow Will Fail...Yet Again” to respond to some comments on LinkedIn still beating that deceased horse, and/or claiming technology was the problem. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-b2b-virtual-tradeshow-failyet-again-part-1-robert-weissman

It’s clear that live events will continue to grow in sheer numbers and frequency, with new shows and events being announced on a daily basis.  And since tradeshows are the second largest producers of industrial waste trailing only the construction industry, it is mandatory to take all reasonable steps to reduce their carbon footprint in any and every way possible, as quickly as possible. 

I believe that eliminating the “physical swag industrial complex” can be a very significant step in the right direction.

Final Note and Shout-Out: I actually began writing this article a few weeks ago, but became further energized after visiting The Nest Climate Campus (Britton Jones, Sharon Enright, NXT Events Group) as well as the Sustainable Events Summit (Marty Glynn, Martha Donato, Mad Events Mgt.) at the Javits Center ... which, led by Alan Steel, is really “walking the sustainable walk”...during Climate Week in NYC last week

*The following is a public service announcement. While pulp in orange juice is healthy, pulp in fiction can be detrimental to your health. Therefore, if Samuel L. Jackson should ask you “what’s in your digital swag wallet” it is strongly advised that you don’t answer “what?”...and certainly not "what" twice.

About the author:

Rob Weissman is president of Alliance Media Strategies which provides bespoke consulting services to the exhibition, conference, and events industries, utilizing the best practices of observational analysis, scientific method, and social, behavioral, and group psychology; combined with more than two decades of hands-on event creation and management. For info regarding biz-dev, event production, speaking, and writing, visit www.alliancemediastrat.com or http://www.linkedin.com/in/robweissman