What’s a conference without promotional conference bags? It’s like a festival without the cotton candy and popcorn or a party without the goodies. Promotional conference bags are one of those traditions that have become much anticipated among those who attend conferences as part of their business or professional lives. Whether they’re handed out at check in or picked up at a table when the conference starts, conference attendees thoroughly enjoy rifling through the contents to find all the promotional goodies provided by conference sponsors and look forward to using the bag itself again and again.



If you’re in charge of ordering the promotional supplies and goodies for your organization’s conference, getting the goodies into the promotional conference bags is a process that started months earlier. If this is your first time planning a conference, here’s a quick countdown of things you need to consider and a timeline for ordering and organizing everything that goes into putting out a memorable promotional conference bag.

Six Months or More

Decide on the levels of sponsorship for your conference and what sponsorships at each level will entitle sponsors to. Among the perks that are typically given as considerations to contributors and sponsors are “real estate" on the front of the promotional conference bags and the right to distribute promotional materials and items in the conference bags that are distributed to each attendee. These sponsorships are highly valued, since any promo items or materials included in the promotional conference bags will be placed directly in the hands of each attendee.

Develop a promotional sheet describing the sponsorship levels and distribute it to all potential sponsors. Develop a database to track responses to your solicitations. Be sure to note contact persons and responsible persons for important details like providing artwork for logos and providing finished promo items and materials for inclusion in the promotional conference bags.

Three Months

Contact all conference bag sponsors to find out what they will be including in the conference bag from their company. This is especially important for those who’ll be including a promotional item in the bag, since you’ll need to be certain that the item will fit into the bags that you choose.

Start pricing and comparing promotional conference bags with different promotional products companies.

Contact the major sponsors who will have their logos or taglines on the front or back of the promotional conference bags. You’ll need to get their camera ready art in hand so that you can supply them to the promotional products company for production.

30 to 60 Days

Check in with all those that will have inclusions in the promotional conference bags to remind them of your timeline – you should have all products and materials in hand at least one week before the conference date to give you time to assemble the materials and fill the bags. Between now and the conference date, plan on contacting those who will be supplying promotional materials for your conference bags at least once a week until the products are in hand.

Get your artwork for the imprint on your promotional bags in to the production company for approval. You’ll need 15-30 days lead time for the production of the conference bags, and at least another week between delivery and conference date to prepare them and fill them.

30-45 Days

Finalize artwork for any customizations and sign contracts to get the order for your conference bags finalized.

Contact any stragglers on your sponsor list who have not yet responded about the products or materials they’ll be supplying for the conference bags.

14 to 30 Days

Take delivery on the promotional conference bags. Continue prodding any sponsors who have not yet got their materials and products in for the conference bags. (Trust me, there will be at least one or two.)

7 to 14 Days

It’s time to fill the conference bags. Depending on the size of your order, you may have employed a fulfillment company to actually do the assembly of all the promotional materials. If so, you’ll have to work with them to ensure that the bags are delivered on time and filled as expected. If your budget doesn’t allow for farming the work out, gather several co-workers to help assemble the promotional materials and fill the conference bags.

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