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Comment by CPLX | Hacker News Reader

As someone who’s the owner of a national conference business my tip is branded chargers. Literally everyone needs them and is incentivized to keep it around.

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A medieval war horse is too much responsibility for a gift and it isn't ethical to brand one. But a Dodge sports car is acceptable.

Counting down until somebody names a sports car Destrier

I have a SUSE power strip (1-plug-to-3) that I pull out at airports when everyone is contending for outlets - very popular move. I have a little bag with pouches for chargers and adapters.

Really anything that is handy for business travelers is going to land well with a lot of people at conferences.

Definitely a popular item, though in certain markets (like HNers), there may be considerable hesitation to plug a phone/computer with sensitive business info into a charger of unknown provenance.

I used to take these but no longer do, since I don’t want to risk any shenanigans anywhere in the supply chain.

Where do you source your chargers now where you can track the entire supply chain?

Most of my chargers came with the devices, and I assume Apple checks those pretty carefully. I have a couple bricks from Belkin or other well-known brands that have never had issues with security. I don't think most charger companies are at risk for this, but I think the very cheapest ones might. For example, the cheapest TVs are monetized by telemetry because the purchase price alone doesn't make for a sustainable business model. I would think the same thing might happen with chargers.

Or it can be a classic eavesdropping device.

Malicious charger = Trojan horse?

Is it still the case though? I am very picky about my chargers nowadays, doesn’t take much savvy to realize a top of the line charger will juice your phone much faster than some freebie. Unless you’re handing out multiport anker GaN chargers in which case tell me where you’re heading next lol.

Anything involving power is a good option - travel adaptor plugs, 1 to 3 adapters, USB cables, etc.

Those little USB-A to C/mini/Lightning adapters are gold, and I'm up to like 6 of them now, all get regular use. They can't be as expensive as a shirt or some of the other knick-knacks.

Otherwise, stress balls and bouncy balls are always a hit to bring home and give to the kids.

Anything travel related probably, as a good number of people will have traveled to the conference, and will likely travel to other conferences and will take the banded thing with them. Where it's probably even seen by the correct audience.

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