Gifts for Guest Speakers - More Information

Guest speakers are at the heart of business events and fundraisers. A solid lineup can mean the difference between “wow” and “meh” for your attendees. After all, they come for a great experience, quality networking, and actionable advice — all things great speakers contribute to.

Your guest speakers will have put a lot of work into preparing for your event. If they have a good experience themselves and feel appreciated, they’re more likely to tell colleagues, fans, and other influencers how much they love your event.

For all of these reasons, it’s important to properly thank your speakers once your event wraps up. A handwritten thank-you note — delivered by hand or snail mail — is a great starting point. But you must do better than that should you desire to leave a good impression for the next time you would like the to speak at your event. 

When selecting a gift for guest speakers you will want to consider the following: 

  1. A gift they can really use. Speaker Gifts should serve a real purpose, something your guest speaker can use every day. Focus on gifts that help them to be more productive. This does not mean travel aides or gadgets, they already have what they prefer to use. 
  2. Not Corporate Swag. It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to pull a branded pen or golf ball set off the shelf at your office...and your keynote speaker will know this.    
  3. Quality and Thoughtful. It should be a quality gift which some thought was put into. This doesn’t mean you have to break the budget, but it does mean that a $25 gift card will not suffice.
  4. Be lightweight, small, and relatively unbreakable. Remember that in most cases your guest speaker will be traveling in and out of your city in a day so your speaker gift will most likely need to be packed in an over-night bag.
  5. Customs Friendly. If your speaker is from out of the country, a bottle of wine will not go through customs very well. So be mindful that your speaker gift needs to travel well. 

For these and many other reasons, Pitchman Pens are considered among the top gifts for guest speakers.