You've confirmed the venue, locked the booth slot, and briefed the team. Then someone asks: "What are we doing for merch?" - and suddenly you're eight weeks out with a list of questions and no plan. This checklist is designed to fix that. Use it at the start of every event cycle and you'll never arrive at a conference booth wishing you'd planned differently.
Start Here: What Kind of Event Is This?
Not all events are the same, and your merchandise strategy shouldn't be either. Before anything gets ordered, get clear on three things:
- Who is attending? A developer conference crowd has different tastes to a corporate procurement summit. Your merch should signal that you understand the room.
- What's the booth goal? Lead generation, brand awareness, client entertainment? The goal determines the product. A quality item that starts a conversation is worth more than a pile of branded pens.
- How will items get there? Shipping to a venue, sending to a hotel, hand-carrying, or fulfilling directly to attendees post-event? Logistics shape product choice more than most teams realise. We cover the venue and hotel side of this in detail further down.
The Merch Timeline: Ideal vs. Realistic
Most event merchandise problems are timeline problems. The version of this timeline you'll see on most agency blogs assumes a clean 12 weeks of lead time and ignores public holidays, decision-making delays, and the speed at which most marketing teams actually work. Here's what we see in practice with our crypto and digital-native clients:
8-Week Ideal Timeline
Best outcome, full creative options
- Week 8 - Confirm budget and product categories. Brief us on event context, audience, and brand guidelines.
- Week 7 - Product selection finalised. Design files submitted or design support engaged.
- Week 6 - Samples approved where the product warrants it. Production confirmed.
- Weeks 5–3 - Production runs. Customisation applied. Quality checks completed before dispatch.
- Week 2 - Shipping and delivery logistics confirmed. Quantities locked. Hotel or venue delivery arranged.
- Week 1 - Final count checked, fulfilment tracked, on-site contact briefed on delivery.
4-Week Timeline
Workable for most stock customisation
- Week 4 - Budget and brief confirmed with us. Fast decision-making is essential at this pace.
- Week 3 - Product selection from in-stock items. Design files submitted, no sampling round.
- Week 2 - Production and customisation. Quantities locked early.
- Week 1 - Delivery logistics confirmed, shipment dispatched, on-site contact briefed.
A note on working days and holidays
All timelines here are measured in working days, not calendar weeks. A "four-week" lead time across August or December can lose five to eight days to public holidays in Europe alone. If your event sits close to a major holiday period, treat the timeline as tighter than it looks on paper and start the conversation earlier. We flag this routinely with clients planning summer events or January conferences.
Getting It to the Venue
This is the section that catches most event teams off guard. Producing the merchandise is only half the job. Getting it to the right place, at the right time, and accepted by the right person is where event programmes most often go wrong. Here's what to plan for, based on what we coordinate every week for our clients.
Hotel Delivery
If you're shipping to your team's hotel rather than the venue, the hotel needs to know in advance. Hotels routinely refuse to accept deliveries they haven't been notified about, particularly for larger commercial shipments. We've seen full pallets sent back to the warehouse because reception hadn't been told to expect them.
What needs to be in place before shipment leaves:
- Advance notification to the hotel — typically requires the booking reference, expected delivery date, number of parcels or pallets, and the recipient's name on the booking
- A named contact and phone number at hotel reception who is authorised to accept and sign for the delivery
- Confirmation of the hotel's delivery window — many hotels only accept commercial shipments during specific hours or via a service entrance, not the main lobby
- Storage arrangements if the delivery lands more than 24 hours before your team checks in
Conference Venue Delivery
Venues operate under stricter conditions again. Most major conference venues only accept exhibitor deliveries within a specific window, often just one to two days before the first conference day. Trying to deliver a week ahead is usually not possible, and the venue will turn the shipment away.
What the venue typically needs from you:
- A named on-site point of contact with a working mobile number, available during the delivery window
- Confirmation of the exact drop-off location — loading bay, exhibitor entrance, or stand number — agreed with the venue's events team
- Booth or exhibitor reference numbers on all packaging so the venue can route shipments correctly
- Awareness of venue restrictions on pallet sizes, parcel volumes, or specific carriers
How we handle this for clients
Coordinating delivery into hotels and venues is one of the most time-consuming parts of running an event merch programme, and one of the easiest places for things to go wrong. We handle the full delivery chain for our clients: liaising directly with venue ops teams, briefing hotels, confirming windows, naming the on-site contact, and tracking the shipment in real time. By the time the event starts, the merch is exactly where it needs to be, and you haven't had to email a venue logistics manager once.
Customs and International Logistics
Customs is the area most event teams underestimate. For shipments crossing international borders — into the EU, into the UK post-Brexit, or further afield — duties, taxes, and customs declarations apply to commercial merchandise even when it's being given away. Clients new to international event logistics often discover this when an unexpected fee lands at the destination, sometimes after the shipment has been delayed at the border.
Typical considerations:
- Import duty on the declared value of the goods, calculated according to the destination country's tariff schedule
- VAT or local equivalent applied at the rate of the destination country
- Customs declarations requiring accurate product descriptions, HS codes, country of origin, and commercial value
- Carnet arrangements for samples or returnable items entering a country temporarily
- Brokerage fees charged by the shipping carrier or local customs broker
None of these are insurmountable, but they need to be planned for. The teams that get caught out are usually the ones who didn't know the questions to ask before shipment. The teams that don't get caught out have a partner managing it.
Why this is part of our service
International logistics is built into how we deliver event merchandise. We handle the customs paperwork, advise on duty exposure before items ship, factor brokerage and tax costs into the original quote so there are no surprises, and work with carriers and brokers who specialise in commercial shipments. For clients running events across multiple countries in a year, this is one of the most valuable parts of working with us, they brief the event once, and we handle the international complexity behind it.
Quantities: The Most Common Mistake
Over-ordering is expensive. Under-ordering is worse — running out of your hero item on day one is a missed opportunity that can't be recovered. A reliable starting framework:
- Order hero items at roughly 60 to 70% of expected footfall — not everyone will take one, and scarcity creates value
- Order utility and conversation items at 80 to 100% of footfall — these move faster
- VIP gifts: small batch, 20 to 30 units, purpose-built for specific meetings
- Always add a 10 to 15% buffer to your hero item order to cover damage and late additions
The On-Site Setup Nobody Talks About
- Don't put everything out at once. A curated display creates more interest than a pile. Restock throughout the day.
- If your hero item is high-value, keep it behind the desk and give it contextually — after a conversation, not on arrival.
- Brief your team on the story behind each product. "This is made from recycled materials" or "we only make 200 of these per event" changes the perceived value immediately.
Pre-Event Checklist
- Budget confirmed and signed off
- Event date, venue, and logistics method confirmed
- Audience profile understood (industry, seniority, size)
- Brand guidelines and approved logo files ready
- Product categories decided (hero, conversation, utility, VIP)
- Quantities per product agreed with a 10 to 15% buffer
- Hotel notified, named contact and phone number confirmed
- Venue delivery window agreed, on-site contact and drop-off location set
- Customs declarations and duty exposure understood (international shipments)
- Design files in correct format (vector, CMYK, correct colour profiles)
- Sample review scheduled if lead time allows
After the Event
Most teams stop thinking about merch the moment the event ends. The ones who get the most value don't:
- Photo and video content at the booth is brand content. Make sure merchandise is visible and looks good on camera.
- Leftover stock can be repurposed for client gifting or the next event if stored correctly. Factor this into your logistics plan from the start.
- Gather feedback from the team on what worked and what didn't. The best event merch programmes get better with every event.
Planning your next event? We manage everything from product selection and design through to production, international shipping, customs, and on-site delivery, so your team can focus on the event, not the logistics behind it.
Brief us on your event