Ask HN: What is good swag in Hackathons?

[mickaelkel]

As I go more and more in hackathons, I see very often bas swag, stuff that I will never use after, or completely useless. Sponsors are throwing their money. I'm organizing a hackathon in the next weeks , I wonder if HN knows some specific swag that are good for developers. (not the classic "stress ball" or "branded pen", you see what I mean)that I could share with my sponsors to provide the best for hackers that will attend. Any ideas?

[mcarrano]

My favorite swag to get at hackathons have always been the credits to use a service. I also enjoy t-shirts, especially if they are quality and a service/company that I like as I actually wear the shirt.

Example: Last hackathon I was at, Amazon was giving away $100 credits for AWS. I never used Amazon but I am more inclined to keep my projects up there after the credit runs out.

[ohashi]

Favorites:

Credits (AWS)

T-Shirts

Water bottles (this one surprised me, but I got a couple from Palantir and I use them every day)

Maybe it's a geographical thing but I've never seen a stressball at a hackathon as swag (based in DC)

[throwaway1979]

1) Gift cards for AWS (top of the list ...by far)

2) Ebook Coupons (e.g. OReilly)

3) Mugs (have dozens of MongoDB cups but can always use more :) )

4) People love laptop stickers ... I don't get it but anyways

[aorshan]

I'd definitely say a t-shirt if you can afford them. I have t-shirts from multiple hackathons and wear them all the time. They get far more mileage than any sticker or pen I've received.

[ig1]

They need to be good t-shirts though, which means a decent design, good fabric, light-on-dark, well fitting (hint: female attendees have different body shapes to male attendees).

All of which can push the expense up quite a bit.

[nadiac]

Toothbrush and mouthpaste for the 2nd day morning

[callmeed]

I have an idea I've been kicking around for printed cards ... drop me an email and I can give you details

[lifeguard]

little moleskin notebooks?

http://www.moleskineus.com/mbxs717-moleskine-extra-small-pla...

iTunes gift cards?

[callmeed]

I agree notebooks are cool. Twilio gave them away at their conference. Very cool.

[scodger]

NFC programmable stickers

[swah]

Linode/AWS coupouns

[entelarust]

Bottle opener keychains