As the Christmas season descends upon us and you stress out over that perfect gift for that special presenter in your life, I’m here to help you with a variety of presenter gifts at various price points. I’ve intentionally kept each of these gifts relatively small in size because presenters are constantly traveling and need things that are easy to cart around – whether simply moving from their desk to a conference room, or perhaps they’ll need to pack these things in a carry-on and haul it across the country or around the world.
Presenter Gifts Under $10.00
1. The Perfect Flip Chart Markers. I’ve raved about Mr. Sketch markers in the past – they’re long-lasting, they don’t bleed through the paper and they smell good. And just in time for the holidays, you can even get holiday-scented markers!
2. A Beach Ball. Having one or two of these around will give you the opportunity for an easy icebreaker – either planned or on the spur of the moment. I like this soccer ball-style beach ball because there are a lot of different, well-defined spaces. Write a get-to-know-you question (or a debrief question) in each panel and toss it around the room. Each learner needs to answer the question closest to their left thumb when they catch the ball. Want a fancier version (which may not quite fit into a stocking)? Try these pre-made activity balls from Trainers Warehouse.
Presenter Gifts Under $50.00
3. Presentation Remote. Who wants to have to stand near their computer in order to advance slides (unless you’re planning to lecture and you have to look at your notes at the podium… but who wants that??). There are less expensive versions than this Logitech model, and I’ve gone cheap before… and I’ve had the remote fail on me as my presentation was about to begin. My advice here: go cheap at your own peril.
4. A Flip Camera. I purchased several of these earlier in the year for a project in which we had people create learner-generated content in order to assess what they’d learned. This particular model runs twenty bucks. The sound and video quality isn’t perfect, but it’s easy to use and a fun way to mix things up in the training room.
Presenter Gifts Over $100
5. A Prize Wheel. This particular version is 14″ in diameter, so you’ll need a big stocking for this, but it’s the smallest one I’ve found. Having a wheel can turn your presentation more dynamic and the wheel can allow you to choose which topic to cover first (if you have flexibility with the order of your content) or it can be a simple way to choose who will volunteer to answer your next debriefing question. The possibilities for this are limited only by your own creativity.
6. A Decent Video Camera. I purchased a small Samsung camcorder several years ago and it’s served me well. Apparently, Samsung doesn’t churn them out any longer (at least I couldn’t find a similar model on Amazon), but I’m not suggesting you need to spend a lot of money here. A decent video camera can allow a presenter to record himself while practicing, similar to the way in which a professional athlete will watch game film after a game. The camera can be fairly unforgiving, but that’s how we get better in our craft.
7. A pocket projector. Not all presenter gifts are created equal. Sometimes we need a projector in a conference room to show someone something we’ve been working on and don’t want to have everyone huddle around our laptop. Sometimes we need a second monitor in our hotel room. Sometimes we’re in a training session and we don’t want to pay inflated hotel A/V pricing in order to project a few slides. I’ve used this pocket projector from ASUS and it’s served me quite well. If there’s a lot of light in the room, it doesn’t show up quite as well, but it’s very easy to throw into my computer bag and have an option to pull it out whenever it’s needed.
What did I miss? Have anything to add to this list of presenter gifts? Maybe there’s something on your wishlist? Let’s hear about your gift ideas in the comment section.
