In this tight economy, meeting professionals and event planners have been given smaller budgets with which to work. Even in these tough economic times, companies understand the value of welcoming their speakers and attendees, many of whom have traveled from across the U.S. or across the globe, with a welcome gift upon arrival to their hotel room.
In the past, those visitors have typically been welcomed with a gift basket filled with local or regional products that, in our case, might include California nuts, tortilla chips, salsa, a California hat, San Diego coffee table book, and gifts from local artisans representative of our host city.
As meeting professionals resources have tightened, extravagance can give the wrong message, so they are being extra careful on how they spend their dollars. Rather than large gifts, more companies are opting for a budget gable box or bag filled with snacks in the $15-$25 range. The important thing is making their guests feel important and sending a budget snack box filled with local items will do just that.
Most gift basket companies are happy to work within their client’s budgets, however, these lower budgets can create a bit of a challenge.
Budget doesn’t have to mean cheap, it just means we need to be more creative with the types of products we can provide to meet these lower budgets. Providing free imprinted ribbon tails on meeting and convention gifts and encouraging clients to provide their own promotional products for inclusion in their designs are just two of the things that can add perceived value to their gifts.
We’ve seen hotel amenity budgets reduced but not entirely eliminated because meeting and convention speakers and attendees have come to expect a welcome gift when they arrive at their hotel room and that probably won’t change anytime soon.
