Lanyards or no lanyards?

troubalex

So... You've been to a conference. If you were lucky you took a goodie bag home. If you weren't all you got was a branded lanyard.

Tell me about the neat things you saw or would have loved to see in your bag. After all it's the Holiday Season. ;)

lydia

Qt-towel, MeeGo umbrella, rubber duckie debugger were all pretty neat :D
Goodies get bonus points if they are:
*useful or just neat/pretty
*subtly branded enough that you're not ashamed to use them after the conference
*somehow related to place or theme of the conference
*are something to talk about
*not too big to carry home

Question to think about: Does one goodie fit all?

DenisKormalev

At last QtDD there was a branded pen, but nothing to use it on.

troubalex

[quote author="lydia" date="1290636532"]
Question to think about: Does one goodie fit all?[/quote]

Probably not. I heard some guys were not particularly into purple umbrellas. ;) OTOH, is it feasible (and wanted) to give out a collection of different things? And do logistics permit?

troubalex

[quote author="Denis Kormalev" date="1290638080"]At last QtDD there was a branded pen, but nothing to use it on.[/quote]

Hum. Good point. Do you every use a pen anymore anyway? I use one maybe once a week or so...

DenisKormalev

Alexandra, sometimes it is quicker to write a small note by pen than in phone, or laptop. And quick notes are something really often at events (so you have to write it on business cards or some old papers).

troubalex

Point taken.

Now, I wonder, how important the "smile"-factor is compared to the "useful"-factor. Would you keep something around just because you think it's funny? Or does it have to be really useful? And would something really useful get away with not being fun at all?

goetz

The best would be funny and useful goodies (just like the debugger duck :-) ), but if I had to choose I'd slightly prefer the useful things.

giesbert

I see iot the same, funny and useful would be the best. But useful is more important than fun I think...

DenisKormalev

As for me I will keep something funny if it is not to big. But of course funny and useful are better than only useful and only funny :)

milot.shala

I have a wish-list :)

Nice and small USB desk lamp with Qt logo
USB 2.0 (not 1.0!) hub beautified with Qt logo
Qt mug
Qt frisbee (although I made my own :D)
Qt beanie
Nice key holder with Qt logo

Franzk

Useful is good. Funny is good as long as it fits on your desk (regexp alert); (under|behind|on|around) your monitors?. Useful and funny is best of course (like the RDD).

troubalex

Hehe, I'm happy that my duck is appreciated. I had fun when coming up with it. :P

A USB lamp sounds like a neat idea. I shall look into this.

leinir

i would like to echo the voices above speaking of the debugging duck - it is one of the quirkier things that i've had in a goodie bag, and it's also one which is spoken about. It's cute (see what i did there? ;) ), it is the sort of thing which makes you stop and go "...eh?" for a moment, and it is even useful. Not in the traditional sense of "Yay, toy!", but as an actual productivity aide. It is, after all, the objectification of a technique, rather than a thing in its own right. It is this sort of profoundness which shows someone thought about it, as opposed to someone just going to a store and saying "Yup, I'd like our logo on item number six" :)

DenisKormalev

Hehe, looks like duck was really appreciated by all :) By me too, thanks for it :)

goetz

Oh yes - when had landed from my flight back and sat in the bus heading downtown, I just read the page on the devnet and that made me smirking the rest of the trip :-) A very good end for a very good conference.

GordonSchumacher

The duck is awesome. I have a rubber chicken that I have used - to great success! - in fixing recalcitrant servers or uncovering obscure bugs over the years; it hung over my desk at my last two jobs.

Also, my wife collects rubber ducks - so the "Qt duck" (ha!) fits in perfectly.

I need to reboot now, but I am pondering this - the one note I will add is that the thumb drive is indeed immensely useful (at least to me, who doesn't manage to go buy myself hardware very often, and whose daughter lost all the small USB sticks I had).

xsacha

[quote author="Milot Shala" date="1290910598"]I have a wish-list :)

USB 2.0 (not 1.0!) hub beautified with Qt logo
[/quote]
While you're on that, why not USB 3.0? Futureproof and a bit more unique so it's guaranteed not to be chucked in the bin.

I don't like getting stuff I already have ten of. Something a bit unique that I sort of want but have never been bothered to get is always nice. They are usually cheap things anyway.

milot.shala

Yes you are right! But I happen to have USB 1.0 hub which isn't that good, for that reason I said it should be at least 2.0. USB 3.0 would be perfect!

talmage

I liked the schwagg at the San Francisco Developer Days this year. There wasn't a duck in my bag but the Trolls in the Tech Lab gave me one. I carry it to work every day now. I appreciate the insulated mug and the thumb drive with the SDKs and example code. At first, I didn't think much of the lanyard until I realized that I could hook the daily schedule cards to it. The little sling bag turned to be more useful than I expected. It had enough space for my thin laptop, the conference folder, and some snacks, so I left my big napsack in my room.

The ACM and IEEE conferences I've been to just gave the proceedings on CD-ROM and maybe a mug.

I might wear a Qt hoodie if I had one and it was either subtle or psychedelic.