HLAA Conference Annual Freebie Report

 By Cheryl Heppner

Editor: Cheryl has been publishing her "freebie reports" at hearing loss conventions for some time now, and they are really popular! I bet most people who received one of these bags don't know as much about what was in it as those of you who read this article! ;-)

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One of our NVRC News readers has been remarkably persistent in wanting a report about the conference freebies (you know who you are). Yesterday I laid all the freebies out for the NVRC gang and took votes. Here are the results so far:

Most Fun: Cochlear's blue plastic "massage star".

Most Clever: Oticon's golf case with two golf balls and 10 golf tees inside. Take out the golf stuff and it's a perfect case for glasses. It opens and closes with a zipper and the attached keychain can help you keep from losing it.

Joan's Choice: Clutter & Buck leather and canvas luggage tag from ATIS, perfect for our cruise expert.

Galaxy's Favorite: Soft, round, stress balls. Available at many exhibits such as AT&T, RIT, and Oticon. They're great for tossing in a hotel because they can't hurt anything or anyone.

Gay's #1 Gizmo: Cell Mate from Oticon. Put it on the dashboard of your car and it will keep your glasses, cell phone, etc. from sliding off.

Most Far Out: A tie between soft plastic ear and heart-shaped pin of two ears facing each other from Widex and the Williams Sound 30th Anniversary chocolate ear lollipop. Runner-up: ATIS brain-shaped stress ball.

Freebie That Raised the Biggest Question: HLAA wooden ruler. Why is it only 6 1/4" long?

Cool New Idea: AT&T small bottles of SPF 15 suntan lotion and vanilla lip balm.

Always Smart Giveaway: ASHA's boxed ear plugs.

Theme Award: Advanced Bionics for its Harmony color-coordinated freebies. These included pens with the top shaped like a musical note, bars of chocolate wrapped in foil, pencils with the eraser end shaped to form a treble cleft.

Stylish and Useful: Oitcon Delta white key chain and Phonak silver key chain. Both of these classy key chains also hold hearing aid batteries.

Among the variety of other freebies were:

Baha Intenso boxes of mints TFCU (credit union) toothpick dispenser cases Pens of all sizes and colors Bottle opener/keychain from hearingimpaired.net Keychains from ASHA, Oklahoma Employees Cochlear "raise your hand" plastic bracelets Vancouver pins from Canadian Hard of Hearing Association Letter openers from Hearing Haven Small writing pads from Alternative Communication Services and others Sticky notes from Dry & Store, ASHA and others

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