If you were to organize conferences or seminars at your workplace, you would usually give away some stationery — disposable plastic pens, note pads, and what-have-yous. Or if you were organizing an event and you needed to prepare some Press Kits for the pressmen, what would you include in the Press Kits?

During my tenure as a part-time reporter for a local English daily, I’ve received some really absurd Press Kits, containing some really useless stuff. The last one I received was a plague that had the name of the event printed on it. When I got home and took it out of the paper bag, I was like, “OK, what am I supposed to do with this plague?!” But when I got up the next morning, I had an idea. I could paste my picture over it, and it would make a sturdy photo frame :)

And during our recent Terrapin Independence Day, we prepared Press Kits that contained the norms, such as speeches and program leaflets, a terrapin postcard, a terrapin waterproof sticker and a T-shirt. We did not include anything plastic or hazardous to the environment.

So, if you need to give away some environmentally-friendly gifts, please consider some of these:

• Reusable shopping bag/tote bag (think IKEA)
• Locally produced items — local nuts, salad dressing, restaurant meals, candles or art
• Garden seeds that carry a message about uniqueness and growth
• Recycled paper pads

Do you have other suggestions? What green items would you give away at conferences??