Supporting Small, Local Businesses—No Matter Where We Land
When we travel for meetings and events, we don’t just arrive with an agenda—we arrive in someone else’s hometown.
Recently, while hosting a program in San Diego, we were sourcing attendee gifts and paused to ask a better question than “What can we put our logo on?”
Instead, we asked:
“How can this gift tell the story of this place—and leave it better than we found it?”
So we skipped the mass-produced swag and built a gift bag rooted in the city itself:
Handmade local soap
Custom, artisan chocolates
Locally flavored gourmet popcorn
A beautifully designed beach towel from a San Diego company that started small and grew global
Each item had a purpose. Each had a maker. Each had a story.
Why This Matters (Now More Than Ever)
Supporting small, local businesses isn’t a “nice extra.” It’s an intentional choice that creates ripple effects:
It keeps dollars in the local economy
It supports artists, makers, and entrepreneurs doing meaningful work
It creates authentic, memorable experiences for attendees
And let’s be honest—no one gets excited about another logo’d tchotchke destined to be forgotten in a hotel room drawer… or worse, a landfill.
That’s bad for:
The budget
The environment
And the experience
Memorable > Disposable
The goal of gifting should never be volume—it should be impact.
When attendees take something home that:
They actually use
They associate with a beautiful destination
They can tell a story about
That gift keeps working long after the event ends.
A bar of soap becomes a memory.
A beach towel becomes a reminder.
A locally made treat becomes a conversation.
That’s brand extension without waste.
A Better Way Forward
As planners, hosts, and business leaders, we have a responsibility—and an opportunity—to do better:
✔ Choose quality over quantity
✔ Choose local over generic
✔ Choose meaning over marketing fluff
No matter the city. No matter the size of the program.
Because when we support small artisans and local businesses, we’re not just giving a gift—we’re making a positive impact in the places that welcome us.
And that’s something worth remembering.
Cheers,
Bethany
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the moose in the picture, that’s Rocky. He’s not part of the swag, he’s our VP of Good Times and was checking over all the bags to make sure they’re ready to go for guests!