Be thoughtful about your swag and speaker gifts

Conference swag and speaker gifts are a nice gesture, and well-intentioned. But be wary of common gifts that can be inadvertently insensitive.

Here are a few gifts that can sometimes go awry:

• A bottle of wine? Not everybody drinks alcohol.

• Chocolates? Make sure you’ve checked for dairy and nut allergies, and your speaker doesn’t have an eating disorder.

• Neckties? Yes, this actually happens.

• T-shirts that are only available in a men’s cut or men’s sizes.

Two possible alternatives:

• Socks. We had Python-coloured socks for PyCon UK 2017, because socks are an item of clothing that most people are likely to wear.

• Water bottles. I think this was another PyCon, but I’m not sure. It’s another accessory that most people use, and may be grateful of before going on stage!

I’m sure you can think of other ideas that have universal appeal. And whenever a conference does this, I see a flurry of goodwill and nice tweets about it.