Ordering Swags & Prizes

Adding a physical touch to your events!

When it comes to prizes and swag, you should do what your budget allows. While swag is great for marketing/branding, you do not want to sacrifice quality of the other aspects of your event.

Prizes

Prizes are a great way to reward hackers for their hard work. When selecting them, it’s important to consider why you are giving a prize, what sort of behaviors that prize rewards, and how you can go about motivating those behaviors. No one wants to be seen as stingy, but prizes say a lot about who you are as a community, why you are there in the first place, and they influence the vibe of your event — big time. Check out this article for a larger discussion on hackathon prizes.

While cash prizes are easy for events, we do not recommend them. The perceived value of a cash prize is much lower than traditional prizes.

Save the receipts for any prizes. If a winning team has 3 members instead of 4 you can return the prize to add to the next year's budget. You could also raffle the extra prizes or do social media challenges.

Many cool items will be backordered. Order prizes early to have them in time.

Prize Ideas

Gear – Cool Items To Use With Future Hacks

• Oculus Rift

• Arduino kit

• Sphero

• Unreleased hardware

• Rechargeable battery packs

• Laptop, tablet, etc.

• Drones

• Parts or Gift Cards for Inventables, Sparkfun, or Adafruit

Novelty – Things Hackers Love, But Might Not Buy For Themselves

• Retro Video Games

• Custom Trophies
• Limited Edition Swag

• Personalized action figures

• Polaroid Camera

• Audible Subscription

• Geeky posters

• Office Warfare gear (ping pong ball launcher, nerf guns, etc.)

• ThinkGeek.com

Experiences – A Memorable, One-time Adventure With Friends

• Movie Tickets

• Trip to Medieval Times or an amusement park

• A trip somewhere (may cost $1000/person, but still less overall than many cash prizes)

• Lunch with your hero

• Laser tag tournament

• Conference tickets

• Company trip – visit and hang out with your favorite companies for a day

Budget Conscious Prizes

Numbers may vary, but when collected these options were approximately these ranges.

$25+	$50+	$75+
Wireless Earbuds	Yubikey Security Key	Drawing tablet
128 GB USB Drive	Anker PowerBank	Hardware / Development Kit
USB Converter	Echo Show 5	Bluetooth Speaker
128GB SD Card	TB External	Fire 8 Tablet
Anker Wireless Charger Bundle	Gaming Mouse	Blue Yeti Nano USB mic
Anker USB-C Hub	Anker Wireless Power Bank	Mini Projector
Soldering kit	LG XBoom Speaker
LED Desklamp with Wireless Charging	Belkin Face Tracking Phone Mount
Reusable Notepad by Rocketbook	Blue Snowball Mic
Anker Wireless Charger Bundle
Apple AirTag

Swag

If you have a significant budget surplus, consider making swag bags for everyone, this can be as low cost as $5 per participant.

If you have multiple types of swag, consider distributing the swag throughout the event at different workshops/mini-events to keep hackers engaged.

If you plan to get t-shirts, remember to collect t-shirt sizes so you know the approximate % distribution you want of each size. You can also use the % below that we use here at MLH.

Type	Percent
Women's XS	1.48%
Women's S	6.84%
Women's M	5.39%
Women's L	1.54%
Women's XL	0.27%
Unisex XS	0.72%
Unisex S	13.60%
Unisex M	42.94%
Unisex L	21.02%
Unisex XL	6.19%

Article: Are Hackathon Prizes the Worst Thing Since Moldy Sliced Bread?