David Van Couvering 's Blog

Say "No" to Schwag

I just learned the term "schwag" at this JavaOne. I am so behind the times. I don't even know if I'm spelling it right. But as I understand it, it's all the "stuff" vendors foist on you at these conferences -- T-shirts, pens, USB hubs, laser pointers, memory sticks, badges, little flashing logos, you name it.

I mentioned in an earlier blog the lengths I went to (including giving away my soul) just to get some water-bottle schwag. On an internal list at Sun, somebody said it didn't make a lot of sense to hand out big green plastic bottles that end up in landfills as a motivational force for bikers. That hit home; I had to admit it felt kind of odd. On the same thread, somebody said that perhaps we should eliminate schwag altogether.

Well, now that's very interesting. Sun and other companies talk a lot about reducing carbon footprint and the overall ecological footprint a conference has. Well, let's start with the schwag.

Here's my idea. Let's put those Java Cards to use that we get at the conference. When we register, rather than picking up our goodies (the nifty backpack and all the ads and CDs), we scan our card over a "no thanks" reader, and we get a certain number of "eco-points." Each time we say "no thanks" to a vendor for some schwag, we get another "eco-point." Eco-points for riding to the conference. Eco-points for not grabbing one of those massive program guides.

At the end of the conference, we cash in our eco-points for some real $$$.

The only problem is, vendors love handing out schwag as it increases awareness for their product. I think JavaOne could just say "too bad, that's how this conference runs." But we could also reward vendors for reducing waste by giving them kickback for how many eco-points they hand out rather than schwag...

Anyway, that's the high-level idea. Lots of details to work out. But it's time for us to move away from the huge amounts of waste generated by schwag to another, more eco-friendly model.

By the way, thanks, IBM for the pen (they did a drive-by schwag drop at the Apache Derby booth in the .orgZone). I can "take notes" with it at my 1-1 meetings with my manager, just to keep him honest :) :)

Comments

• FWIW, I recently got corrected on the difference between swag and schwag, though it seems many people use the terms interchangeably for conference goodies/junk.

  Posted by: invalidname on May 14, 2007 at 11:05 AM

• I couldn't agree more....Years later I still have JavaOne junk following me around, and a collection of conferences bags that of dubious quality...

  You should echo your comments here: http:www.care2.com/

  Posted by: jonbruce on May 14, 2007 at 08:27 PM

• in my experience, 'swag' is taken, as in stolen, and 'schwag' is gifted to you in exchange for favorable treatment.

  i agree with you, though i think the eco-points idea is a little 'meh.' not that its a bad idea, i'm definitely pro-environment. problem is that with that money people are going to buy more junk that will just wind up in a landfill.

  rather than pens, flash drives, mugs, t-shirts, and other junk, why don't vendors give out books? Books can't possibly be any less applicable to a vendor's Grand Plan(tm) than a pen that has nothing to do with a vendor's Grand Plan(tm).

  People *like* books. People *keep* books. Knowledge is gained by reading books.

  Another idea: development/documentation tools. scientific calculators cost less than $25 (not the graphing calcs) and are tremendously helpful when implementing all but the simplest math in your software.

  I kinda rambled, but I guess my point is that the stuff vendors give out should be stuff that people want to keep. Stuff that people give to friends rather than toss away because it is something they already have or don't need. Putting your logo on it and making it a neat color don't make it hard to throw away. Once the "hey, cool" feeling is gone, its garbage. Books spread knowledge, and aren't readily tossed in the garbage (though they could be recycled.)

  Posted by: naikrovek on May 15, 2007 at 05:53 AM

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