Our coach and I have been thinking about ideas on how to give potential sponsors infomation about our team beside just a bunch of paper work and a DVD. One of the ideas was to get a ton of 512mb jump drives and putting all the infomation about our team(brochures,handouts,videos,ext…) in addition to the raw paper work and folder. That way the PR person we had the meeting with could print out as many copies of what he needs to go forward with presenting it to the big guys(and they can just keep the jump drive as our token for their time). I was wondering if any one has tried this before and what you guys think about.
Sounds like a great idea. The only problem might be the cost. If it’s a flashdrive the sponsor could easily send any files to employees as email attachments.
I think that’s a good idea. Free and useful items are always a plus when you’re asking for something.
We considered doing this last year and having a company print our logo on the drive as well. This would personalize it and could even be sold to team members if they want them. Generally when you buy them with a logo on them the more you get the cheaper they are but I am not sure how many you are looking at buying.
I think a jump drive with lots of information along with a few hand outs is best. Most PR people would rather look at a sheet or two of information about you, FIRST, and your robot, then move on to the more detailed stuff later. Just giving them the USB drives requires too much work to read some basic information (something that you can just provide on 2-3 sheets of paper at the start) and can get lost. Hook them in with just enough to capture their imaginations and then give them the USB drive and let them go nuts. If you have a bored HTML/CSS scripter you can have them make a good start page where they access all the information.
This is a great idea to pitch your plans or business to other companies. My dad does it for his business and it works out great. See if someone on your team has their own business so that they can buy the drives and write it off as a business expense. I know that’s what my dad does. I’m pretty sure you get around %50 off when you do that. Hope that helps. Good luck! 
This is a good idea. I know the branding is cheap because my apartment unit (about 500+ college kids) each got a 1gb flash drive with “mustang village” printed on it. When I was picking up my mail I asked how much they payed out of curiosity, and they said they paid $11 each. 500 is a lot more than you’d be ordering, but a 1gb flash drive from newegg is only $20 anyway.
Our school was looking at doing something similar. This http://www.hitechvendors.com/ offers custum USB Drives, and they have Educational Discounts.