Pillow gifts are little things that do a lot to enhance an attendee's experience at a meeting or on an incentive trip. This article describes how to get ideas for pillow gifts and where to buy them.

DEFINITION

A pillow gift is anything left in attendees' guest rooms (and not necessarily on the pillow) as a token of appreciation from the organization sponsoring a meeting or incentive trip. Depending on the occasion, it may be edible or inedible, wearable or nonwearable, serious or humorous, generic or destination-specific. A pillow gift may be given at the beginning of the meeting as a welcome, at the end as a farewell, or on every day of the meeting. It may be used to reinforce the message of the meeting or to give people a memento of the destination. There are few hard-and-fast rules. While pillow gifts aren't strictly necessary to a program, they are a cost-effective way to boost morale and enthusiasm.

OBJECTIVES OF PILLOW GIFTS

Pillow gifts reinforce the relationship between the employee taking part in a meeting or incentive trip and the organization sponsoring it. They are a form of communication designed to express thanks or appreciation and, in that respect, resemble premiums and incentives (see Doc. 3010, Incentives Overview). They may telegraph the following day's activities or provide a hint of where next year's incentive program will be held. For pillow gifts to be effective, there should be a rhyme and reason to them.

• Welcome. Upon checking into the guest room, the attendee may find a basket of fruit, a bottle of wine, or a plate of cookies. Matthew Randall, media and communications manager for PGI, a meeting-services company in Arlington, VA, recalls going to a meeting in Tucson, AZ, where the welcome gift was a sombrero-shaped ceramic platter filled with tortilla chips and salsa. The gift served as both a fiery welcome to the Southwest and an attractive souvenir of the destination.
  
  
• Comfort and convenience. These pillow gifts are meant for attendees to use during their stay. For programs in a beach destination, a tote or basket filled with sun block, a visor, flip-flops, and sunglasses is an appreciated gesture. Neet Feet, Encinitas, CA, sells foam-rubber beach sandals with corporate logos cut into the soles. Wearers leave a trail of company logos in the sand.
  
  Chocolates, warm slippers, or a decorative mug filled with assorted teas all deliver aid and comfort to the attendee who is making do while away from home.
  
  
• Foreshadowing. These gifts anticipate events planned for the meeting, and thus help pace the program. The night before a golf tournament, for instance, a basket with a sleeve of golf balls, a golf towel, and other aids, all bearing the corporate logo, might be left in attendees' rooms with a handwritten tee-time reminder. A nautical gift could refer to the following day's dinner cruise. On incentive trips, companies often leave gifts reflective of the following year's destination as a way of motivating salespeople early on.
  
  
• Recognition and appreciation. High-end decorative gifts are often left as pillow gifts during incentive trips as a token of additional thanks and recognition for the attendees and, usually, their spouses as well. Ideally, these gifts should be a reflection of how the corporation views itself. Example: a fine piece of crystal.
  
  
• Remembrance. Attendees will better remember their experience if they go home with gifts that evoke the flavor of the destination (see below).

LOCAL FLAVOR

Anything can be a pillow gift, but it means a bit more when it is locally made and destination-specific. Food items are especially popular: everything from Texas barbecue sauce to Goo Goo Clusters, a chocolate confection popular around Nashville, TN. Attendees literally take home a taste of the destination.

For meetings in Hawaii, gift baskets containing Kona coffee, macadamia-nut products, and such locally grown fruits as papayas, bananas, and pineapples are popular giveaways. More expensive are plates, boxes, and other handicrafts made from koa, a rare luminous wood indigenous to the Big Island.

In New Orleans, food baskets usually contain hot sauce, Creole and Cajun seasonings, and beignets, the delicious local pastries, says Bonnie Boyd, of the destination management firm Bonnie Boyd & Co. Some nonfood pillow gifts that shout, New Orleans! include Cajun cookbooks, porcelain Mardi Gras masks (stamped with your corporate logo, if desired), and the beads and faux doubloons tossed from floats during Mardi Gras. Clearly, New Orleans is the only U.S. city where a meeting attendee is likely to find Mardi Gras memorabilia left in his or her room.

Pillow gifts are one area where a meeting or incentive planner can display resourcefulness and creativity. For a Travelers Insurance sales incentive trip to the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in California, the meeting planner commissioned a local artist to capture the coastline on canvas. The work was turned into five-by-seven-inch prints, signed and framed, which were presented to the 250 attendees. The gift showcased the Laguna Niguel area and served as a beautiful reminder of the group's trip.

COSTS

With so many items suitable for pillow gifts, it is not surprising that they run the gamut of cost. Usually, the more you order from a supplier, the lower the cost per item. Neet Feet's beach sandals go for between $5 and $8 a pair. You'll pay about $15 for a basket of local goodies. Example: the Tennessee Country Basket, which contains two Goo Goo Clusters, two miniature bottles of Jack Daniels whiskey, one package of cornmeal mix, a recipe pamphlet, a cookie cutter, and hot pepper jelly. High-end gifts, such as crystal and leather goods, cost much more. In formulating a budget for pillow gifts, you need to know how many attendees are expected, whether spouses will get separate gifts, and whether gifts will be given just once during the gathering or on several occasions. Also, take into account delivery costs and any costs associated with shipping gifts home for attendees.

PILLOW-GIFT LOGISTICS

The hotel staff, not you, places pillow gifts in attendees' rooms. Hotels charge for this service, and, like most meeting-related expenses, it is subject to negotiation. At some properties, nonfood gifts are delivered by the bell staff, and food gifts are delivered by the room-service staff. Gratuities are at the discretion of the meeting planner. Obviously, the cost of delivering pillow gifts can run into hundreds of dollars, even more if gifts are given every day of the meeting. Be sure to budget for this expense.

Tell the hotel staff how you want the gifts presented and when you want them delivered. Pillow gifts should be dropped off when attendees aren't in their rooms, such as during meeting sessions or evening activities. Clothing should be laid out on the bed, neatly folded. Small items, such as chocolates, can be placed directly on the pillow. Food baskets are best left on a table. A handwritten card is a nice accompaniment to any gift.

CONSIDER PORTABILITY

If the pillow gift you plan to leave seems too heavy or unwieldy to take back on an airplane, it's probably not a smart choice, unless you intend to ship the gifts directly from the hotel to attendees' homes. (Be forewarned: That's a step toward blowing your budget.) Portability is key. Coffee-table books with color photos of a picturesque destination are a lovely remembrance, but they weigh several pounds and are not a welcome addition to luggage. At the other end of the scale, silver Native American jewelry, a classy choice in the Southwest, can literally be worn home.

If you plan to give several small pillow gifts during the course of the meeting, a sturdy tote, perhaps emblazoned with your company logo or the conference theme, makes a thoughtful gesture. If you give gifts that might be damaged in transit, see to it that attendees also get a suitable container to transport them. For instance, a mailing tube should accompany an unframed poster or print.

A clever way to get around the portability issue is to leave in attendees' rooms a card describing the pillow gift and letting them know it is being shipped directly to their home or office.

FINDING PILLOW GIFTS

• To find a supplier, go to #9520, Supplier Finder.
  
  
• Hotel food and beverage department. The chefs can provide edible gifts meant to be consumed during the meeting.
  
  
• Destination management companies (DMCs). Besides arranging tours and ground transportation and planning special functions, DMCs can tap local suppliers for pillow gifts reflective of the destination. They will even purchase the gifts on your behalf.
  
  
• Tourist boards and convention and visitors bureaus are no stranger to pillow gifts. After all, they provide them for the meeting planners, travel agents, and travel writers whom they host on familiarization tours. They can provide the names of local suppliers, but they normally will not acquire the items for you.
  
  
• Hotel gift shops are a convenient source of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and beach or resort gear. The downside here is cost: Hotel shops are not known for bargain prices. But if your meeting is under way and you haven't yet arranged for pillow gifts, this may be your only option.

ASSOCIATIONS

• Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) represents manufacturers and distributors of some 15,000 types of promotional items, many of which are suitable as pillow gifts. It provides free geographic listings of gift distributors. Call 972-252-0404 or go to http://www.ppa.org.

TRADE SHOWS

For a list of Industry Events, go to #9510, Calendar of Industry Events.