The RecFest UK Merch Review – What Recruitment Event Swag Actually Works?

Welcome back to RecTalk, coming live from RecFest UK 2026!In this special RecTalk episode, Nitin Sharma and Sean Kennedy are joined by Harry Portch and Dominic Joyce for a brutally honest, very British review of the recruitment industry's event merch.The team rummages through bags, rates the swag out of five, calls out the good, the bad and the completely pointless, and crowns the best merch of RecFest.From Metaview's basketball-inspired jersey and sliders, to Pinpoint's curated collection of branded goodies, Teamtailor's rethink after last year's merch got roasted, Screenloop's trainers and socks, and the many hats, bags, bottles, toys and questionable promotional items in between, the episode asks a bigger question:What makes recruitment-event merchandise memorable?The conversation covers:• Why creative, niche merch can beat expensive generic giveaways• The importance of giving people something they'll actually use• Why another branded water bottle or notebook isn't necessarily going to cut through• The value of strong design and subtle branding• Whether making people play a game to win merch adds or subtracts value• How personalised and curated giveaways can make an impression• Why useful items such as sun cream, speakers and quality clothing score highly• The role of nostalgia, humour and novelty in event swag• Whether companies should focus on quality over quantity• Why "less is more" might be the future of recruitment event merch• How merch can help people remember your brand after the event• The importance of thinking about the event experience rather than simply putting a logo on something• And, crucially, what the panel thinks companies should be doing differently at future recruitment eventsThere are also some strong ideas for future merch – including event-appropriate drinkware, practical summer giveaways and things people will genuinely want to take home and use.GUESTSHarry Portch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harryportch/Dominic Joyce: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-joyce/HOSTSSean Kennedy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanthetaguy/Nitin Sharma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitin-rectools/SPONSORED BYNOVA by Dweet — Define what good looks like. Screen, source, and shortlist talent automatically. Nova works with your hiring team to build structured scoring criteria for each role, then screens every applicant, resurfaces past candidates, and finds new ones automatically.https://nova.dweet.com/Zyverno — builds Frontline Hiring Intelligence for logistics, care, hospitality and retail: the sectors where a single vacancy can attract hundreds of applications that never get properly assessed. Its AI agent, Lina, conducts structured screening interviews against manager-defined criteria and returns ranked, scored shortlists. Lina screens and ranks. Hiring managers make every decision.https://www.zyverno.app/Screenloop — is the all-in-one ATS built for SMEs. Replace your scattered stack of tools, from ATS to interview intelligence, scheduling, scorecards, and note-taking tools with one intuitive platform. Backed by AI time-saving features and an award-winning support team. That way, you save time, cut tooling costs, and make smarter hiring decisions faster.https://www.screenloop.com/Find out more about RecFest UK: https://recfest.com/uk/Discover recruitment tools and services: https://www.rectools.io/Listen to RecTalk on another platform: https://rectalk.co.uk/#RecTalk #RecFest #RecFestUK #Recruitment #RecruitmentMarketing #TalentAcquisition #EmployerBrand #RecruitmentTech #RecruitmentEvents #HRTech #TA #RecruitmentIndustry #MerchReview