Help me give away books

Thought that would get your attention. :-)

I'm planning to give away copies of each of my books at my PDC pre-conference sessions, and I need your help. See, giving stuff away at conferences is sometimes challenging. Not that there aren't more than enough people who want free stuff, but rather the challenge is in how to give stuff away without just having people charge the stage and mob you (I once saw a presenter offer a box of books at the end of a conference, and she literally had to drop the box and jump out of the way to avoid being trampled).

I've tried holding drawings with business cards, but unfortunately, too many people don't bring them (or run out). So I'm hoping that some of the fine folks who read this blog can help me come up with some clever ideas. I need them soon, because my presentation is on Sunday, so as an added incentive, the person who comes up with the cleverest workable idea (in my sole judgement) will get a free copy of one of my books (their choice).

So how about it? I need something that:

  • Distributes freebies fairly (or at least randomly)
  • Doesn't take a lot of time
  • Doesn't result in injury to my person
Let's hear the ideas!

UPDATE: If you want to be in the running for a book, please leave your email address...if you don't want to leave it in a comment, you can use the contact link to email me your idea.

9 Comments

  • yikes... you are a prolific author..!

  • .NET Trivia contest...

  • Hey,

    I would make a web service to register. Then we would have to write a client in the hands on labs session to call your web service with our appropriate information. You could then just use the Random class to determine the winners!



    Maybe a little far fetched, but a thought :-)



    Nathan Neitzke

    neitz33a@erau.edu

  • Have them answer three technical questions from your presentation/class. This shows that they paid attention and got your ideas.

  • I've successfully pulled off Sam G's suggestion before. One thing to do that always works (for me) is random current events stuff, who won the world series game, losing team's score, etc. Asking stuff related to the book/lecture isn't as much fun, I don't think.



    desmondb@payton.cps.k12.il.us

  • have someone in the audience pick a number from 1-31, then whoever was born on that day gets a book! seems simple enough... don't forget to announce that you will be checking ids to keep everyone honest!



    tiverson9 at mchsi.com

  • Maybe if you linked it somehow to the "speaker feedback" survey or the handouts. Draw five speaker feedback forms at random. Or put a symbol of some sort in the corner of a few dozen feedback forms. "When you turn in your feedback form, if it has a star, you win a book (while supplies last)." Just some crazy ideas, I have no idea if they will work.

  • Take a picture of the conference hall before the audience come into it. Randomly put circles on seats in the pic. Project it as your last slide and give books to ppl sitting on circled seats. If the seat is empty the neared person gets it.



    Another version, take a live pic of the audience overlap it with a picture with holes, the faces which show through get the books.

  • Use one of those gigantic water balloon sling shots to fling water balloons out into the crowd. If you get nailed, you get a book. Another variation would be to slingshot the actual books into the crowd. For added entertainment, light them on fire. :-D

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