You hear the term "swag," and your mind goes to trade shows filled with free pens, stress balls modeled to look like a bastardized version of a product, and crap Wayfairer knockoffs of sunglass with the company's logo washed over the lenses.
All tagged promotional
You’re producing an upcoming conference, and you have a thousand items on the to-do list. Layer on top of that a budget and needs assessment to go along with the thousand tasks.
Reality check: You need to sacrifice a few darlings on your list. Prioritize based on the wants and desires of people attending the event. Your main concern should be the owners of the butts that occupy all those folding chairs. They even supersede your the wants and desires of sponsors. This little detail often seems to escape the novice event producer.