AsyncAPI Hack & Conf 2021 - Swags

[derberg]

Let us discuss here all the options on:

• how to organize swags
• how much money we need
• who will get swags
• swags distribution
• others

---

in 2020 we provided swags for presenters only and distributed them using AsyncAPI swag store but it was super time consuming as there was no way to share with users a coupon, I had to distribute all the orders on my own manually. I'd like to be more efficient this year. I think we need better shop than https://asyncapi.threadless.com/, but maybe they already enabled a coupon sharing 🤷🏼

[derberg]

@fmvilas threadless docs suck big time, hard to find if they finally have a functionality that you can distribute free coupons to your customers and pay for them to threadless. Can you check in the management UI for AsyncAPI shop if this is available, like some new option to enable it.

I really do not want to do it manually this time and don't want anyone else do the ordering process through a single coordinator, should be as minimal effort as possible

[derberg]

Swags will go after the event. Hard to say how many people will get them, at least 20 (guessing now). It depends on costs, and what we can do here. Basic is t-shirt, but would be cool to see other options, like in our shop.

Last year we had 50bucks (including delivery) per person to spend in our shop. It was good as people could choose on their own what they want.

The budget will be large I think, last year we had almost 3400$ from our conference sponsors. This year I bet we will double. Of course, not all goes to swags, but still, even if we spend 50$ on 20people, it will be only 1000$ from the entire budget.

[Barbanio]

Thanks Lukasz, and is there a pre-event registration?

[Barbanio]

Hi! These are the companies I have found that meet the requirements we are looking for:

1. they print the design we want on the products;
2. they ship internationally;
3. they take care of individualized shipping (they work by sending them a CVS document with all the information about it).

They don't offer quotes if you don't know exactly what items you need, how many you need and where you want to ship them to. Some offer general costs that hover around:

• 14$/package for domestic shipments.
• 34$/package for international shipments.

International shipments take about 5 weeks.

I have selected US, EU and UK companies because I believe that depending on the nationality of most of the participants we can choose one or the other, thus making shipping costs cheaper, since shipping in the same continent is much cheaper than international shipping.

Companies:

• Greengiving, EU (waiting for an answer if they make customized shipments).
• Extravaganza, UK.
• Swag-Box, UK.
• Gemnote, USA.
• Gift baskets overseas, USA.
• Swag, USA.
• SwagUp, USA.

[derberg]

I think the best would be to pick one to not overcomplicate things.

After browsing through those https://swag-box.co.uk/ looks like a good choice because of swag boxes. We could just prepare a 3 different sets and then let people pick one.

followup questions:

• do they give a kind of unique view that we can share with people, like a link that people click and see a list only of our swag packs and can just quickly purchase one?
• how the purchase workflow looks like? is it coupon-based?

[Barbanio]

Ok, I just talked to them.

followup questions:

• do they give a kind of unique view that we can share with people, like a link that people click and see a list only of our swag packs and can just quickly purchase one?
• how the purchase workflow looks like? is it coupon-based?

They have a minimum spend requirement of £10,000 for this option. However, for our needs (20-30 swags*), they offer us to choose the same swag for all participants, and they will print, package, and ship it.

[derberg]

sound good, t-model approach is fine as well imho. Now just check with competition, as I think they have something similar -> https://www.extravaganza.uk.com/virtual-event-merchandise/ and compare, maybe they do good discounts to get us on their side 😄 basically, negotiate 💪🏼

[Barbanio]

At first, I asked Swag-Box about the choice of colors for the objects, they told me they were customizable. I asked again today to make sure and was told that since the number of orders was very small, it was not possible. The colors we could choose for the steel bottle would be white, black ,or yellow.

The exact colors of AsyncAPI can not be ordered, but we can order the logo because we deliver it ourselves. We can design the white bottle with very similar colors like the green and blue that appear on the Printful bottle, but only up to half of the bottle, we could not print the whole bottle.

[derberg]

We can design the white bottle with very similar colors like the green and blue that appear on the Printful bottle, but only up to half of the bottle, we could not print the whole bottle.

this is ok, right? I mean on screenshot it looked nifty

[Barbanio]

I think so, and the quality of the prints looks good.

[Barbanio]

@fmvilas What do you think about the colors and design? Any preferences? I'm making several bottle and bag designs, and I thought about making a poll in Slack with the two best of each object. Can it be a good idea?

[derberg]

I thought about making a poll in Slack with the two best of each object

love the idea!

[derberg]

@Barbanio hey, can you put here a final update for the swags topic, like:

• final costs peer pack with and without shipping
• provider that we selected
• what products and design

[Barbanio]

Yes, of course!

[Barbanio]

Swags final summary:

The company from which the swags will be requested is https://www.printful.com as it is the best option we found for price, quality, and service.

Following the survey on Slack about products for swags, this is the result:

• Sticker kit: $4.95
• Organic cotton bag: $17.61
• Stainless steel water bottle: $19.95

Total without shipping: $42.51

Shipping costs depend on the country to which the swag is sent. I have made a calculation testing different destinations, and approximately the shipping cost is between $10 and $20 more.

If anyone has any final suggestions, they are of course welcome :)

[Barbanio]

Hi! When will we order the swags? The average estimated delivery time is 25-30 days.