Door gifts for a corporate event: what guests keep, and how to hand them out

A door gift is the last thing a guest is handed and the one thing every guest carries home. Whether it is kept has less to do with what it cost than with three plainer questions: is it useful, is it light enough to carry, and does it suit the night?

At a company dinner it closes the evening, which is why it sits in the same plan as how we run a company dinner and dance. Here is what makes one worth keeping, how to match it to the event, and the three ways to hand them out.

What makes a door gift worth keeping

It gets used, or it gets eaten. Things people use, such as a bag they carry or a cable organiser on a desk, stay in sight. Food and drink are finished rather than stored. Anything in between tends to end up in a drawer. Boxed chocolates, each in its own case, are a good example: easy to carry home, and finished rather than stored.

It travels home. After a dinner, guests leave in evening wear, many of them by train or taxi, often late. A gift that fits a small bag or a pocket makes it home. A heavy box or a tall bag gets left on the table.

The branding is light. A small logo, or one inside the lid, gets used in public. A large one stays at home.

It comes as one set. Several items in one bag are easier to hand over, and easier to carry, than three loose things.

A door gift and a lucky draw prize do different jobs. A door gift is the same for everyone and is about thanks. Lucky draw prizes go to a few, and are about the moment of winning. Keep the two clearly apart in the budget.

Match the gift to the event

Three things narrow the choice: the event, how guests leave, and when the gift is handed over. A kit for a team day is handed out on arrival and used on the spot. A dinner gift is handed out on the way out and only has to survive the journey home. Filter the list below by your event.

How many to order

Start from the confirmed guest list, then add spares for the people who are not on it: speakers, performers, a guest who arrives with a plus one, and replacements for any that arrive damaged. Ask the supplier two things before the order goes in: its minimum order, and whether unopened spares can be returned.

Three ways to hand them out

On arrival, at registration. Right for anything used during the event, such as a kit on a team day. Wrong for a dinner, because guests then carry it all night.

At the table. One at each place setting before guests sit down. Tidy and certain, as long as the table has room for it next to the cutlery and the glasses.

On the way out. The usual choice for a dinner. It needs a staffed table, one gift per guest, and a way of knowing who has had one. A room that empties all at once queues, so open the gift table before the last song rather than after it, and let the emcee say where it is.

Whether a door gift is kept depends less on what it cost than on whether it is useful, light enough to carry, and suits the night.

Lead time, and what to put in the brief

Anything printed or engraved needs its artwork signed off first, and that date comes well before the event. When time is short, anything made for the night is the first thing to slip, and a gift is made for the night.

• The event: what it is, the dress code and the time it ends.
• The headcount: confirmed guests, plus speakers, performers and crew.
• How guests get home: by car, by train, or straight back to the office.
• When it is handed over: on arrival, at the table or on the way out.
• Branding: where the logo goes and how large it is.
• Food: allergens, and whether any guest needs it halal-certified.
• Delivery: when it reaches the venue, and where it is stored until it is needed.

For a whole dinner, start with planning the annual dinner itself, and put the gift in the event brief with everything else.