What does a light saber have to do with space industry professional development and training?

Maybe nothing, but it sure had attendees of the 37th Space Symposium, held last week in Colorado Springs, flocking to the Nova Space Inc. booth to grab one. Whether it was for the children, or themselves, didn’t much matter. Either way, something with Nova Space’s name on it was heading back to someone’s home.

And maybe, just maybe, it might spark a conversation or — ideally — a new client for the company.

Swag. You find it at almost any business convention as a marketing tool to raise the profile of the company. Sure there’s the pens, notebooks, eyeglass cleaners, and hand sanitizers — lots of hand sanitizers since COVID-19 hit two years ago. But there’s also creative swag that links to a company’s mission or is just plain fun and sends a buzz through the crowd and draws attendees to the booth.

“The goal is to just get your name out there, your brand, and hopefully get the conversation started,” said Melissa Potts, Nova Space’s chief financial officer.

The Minneapolis-based business also brought shot glasses, coffee cups, water bottles, pens, coins, stickers and travel cups. But the light sabers were the most popular.

How do you tally the return on investment for giving away free merchandise? It’s not an easy calculation, but even one or two new clients — or a new connection or business partnership — make the cost worth it, Potts said.

“People’s kids take these water bottles to school every day with ‘Nova Space,’ so it continues the conversation when they get home,” she said.

Digital engineering company Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) always has a popular booth, as the company gives out free ice cream daily to attendees. But it made a swag splash at the 36th Space Symposium in August when they handed out branded boxers.

Yes, underwear with the message “cover your assets.”

“It’s all about recognition and memorability,” said Kate Flood, a senior tech support manager for AGI. “Look there’s more than 10,000 people and more than 200 companies here. You have to give them something to remember you. That’s why we have ice cream.”

When people asked about the “assets” boxers, company officials got to tell the story of Comspoc Corp., a company that spun off from AGI in late 2020 after AGI was acquired by Ansys.

Comspoc provides ground-based equipment that tracks a satellite wherever it is in space, allowing the satellite’s owner to “cover its assets.”

Get it?

Affiliated Engineers Inc. (AEI) gave away another popular item — a rocket pen with four different colors (you push one of four tail fins to change colors).

“I had one guy that told me he had seven kids and asked for seven of them,” said Brett Friedman, principal of Aerospace & Test Systems. “People are just loving these and they’re generating a lot of traffic.”

They cost AEI $1.50 each. And, no, the “large family guy” didn’t get to walk off with seven of them.

Some companies enjoyed trading swag with each other.

Serco’s Chris Hammond, contract director for the company’s Space Serco Defense in the U.K. and Europe, said they traded some of their collapsible fans/frisbees for Nova’s light sabers.

“One of our guys, a former astronaut, was just having so much fun. He got two light sabers,” Hammond said. “Sometimes we have practical things, like our hand sanitizer here that looks like a pen, but we also like to have a lot of fun with our merch.”