Playing With Fire
Made from soy wax, these fresh-smelling candles burn for 50 hours. The real draw is their containers, decorated with playful designs by printmaker Lotta Jansdotter. Cost, $24; discounts are available on bulk orders. (847) 813-9866; crashcandles.com
Silky Sojourn
Before VIPs embark on an overnight flight, mail them a Restful Traveler kit from elizabethW. The package includes a handmade silk blanket, eye mask and pouch with earplugs, all in a matching pattern. Cost, $158 for single orders, $72 for corporate orders. If that's too steep an outlay, the company offers gifts for as low as $2 each. (800) 781-6126; elizabethw.com
Light My Fire
Skeem's candles come in gorgeously decorated glass containers that are meant to be reused for storage. Consider giving a candle ($14 to $36) and a matching matchbox ($5). Wholesale discounts on corporate orders are available. (215) 978-6240; skeemdesign.com
Stand and Deliver
Not every meeting has to be held in a room with tables. For table-less sessions, hand out these brightly colored clipboards for note-taking. They come in three sizes (the smaller two come with notepads) and can be put to all kinds of uses after the meeting. Cost, $7.99 to $19.50. (866) 806-2583; bluedogzdesign.com
Look Under Your Seat
Even when meeting attendance is high, some breakout sessions can fail to draw much of a crowd. Wilson Wright, CAE, executive director emeritus of the Florida and Tallahassee Societies of Association Executives, found a way to remedy that. For a recent convention, he had colorful "funny money" printed and hid under tables and flower arrangements in various meeting and event areas, and wherever else the staff could think to put it. At the end of the event, an auction was held for some great prizes, with one catch: Only funny money could be used to purchase items. Sessions were consistently full.
Rooms for Rent
Meeting planners who are suffering from falling attendance might have a solution in Event Space Bazaar, an online marketplace that helps planners unload extra rooms and meeting space at a discount. Hotels and conference centers also can post specially discounted slow periods on the site. Translation: Planners looking to book a last-minute meeting might find a great deal. eventspacebazaar.com
Spot Treatment
Survey on the Spot is a service that allows planners to solicit, collect and analyze feedback during the conference. Anyone with Internet access via phone or PDA can take a survey, though it works more quickly through a free iPhone app. The service also works well at trade-show booths; reps could carry iPhones and administer two-minute surveys one-on-one. Price: $500 to run as many surveys as desired for 14 days. (888) 330-7118; surveyonthespot.com
Copyright Control
People love Oscar parties, whether as a theme party for an awards ceremony or as an event held on the big night, March 7 this year. But the Academy Awards is very strict about protecting its trademark. To avoid litigation, don't use the terms "Oscar" or "Academy Awards," and find statuettes (such the one pictured) that have the elbows out or the arms up, breaking the silhouette of the body. If in doubt, check with an intellectual-property lawyer, says Bernie Gaps, president of Absolutely Fabulous! Events and Productions in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Open Invitation
Eventbrite not only sends out invitations to an event, it can be used to promote the gathering through search engines, blogs and social networks. It works especially well for events with a policy of "the more, the merrier." If the event is free, Eventbrite is free; if tickets cost money, the company keeps a small percentage of the price. (888) 541-9753; eventbrite.com
Invite Variations
With PurpleTrail, planners can create electronic invitations from dozens of templates and send them without advertisements. People with time and creativity to spare can design an invitation, with photos and embellishments, from scratch. The site also makes it easy to order printed invitations, for as low as 99 cents each. purpletrail.com
Express Mail
It can take hours to sort through which bells and whistles you want for your online invitation. Enclude simplifies matters. First, upload an image or use one of theirs. Next, type in a message. Tweak the font and background color, add recipients and send it out. The result is an eye-catching invitation without advertisements, and best of all, it's done in a few minutes -- and it's free. enclude.com
Guesstimator
Most people are familiar with Evite, the grandfather of online invitations. What many don't know is that the site offers a few rudimentary but highly useful free calculators to help estimate costs beforehand. For example, this drink calculator provides a suggestion for how many bottles of each kind of alcohol attendees will go through, depending on the length of the event and other factors. evite.com