Treating these as the same purchase at different price points is why so much event gifting disappoints in both directions: the attendee item is too expensive to give away freely, and the VIP gift is not good enough to be remembered.
Attendee gifts are a volume problem
Given to everyone, largely unsolicited, judged in about two seconds. What matters is that it is useful enough to survive the walk to the car park, and cheap enough that giving away a thousand does not distort the budget.
Practical beats clever. A good bottle, a proper tote, a genuinely useful charging accessory.
VIP gifts are a relationship problem
Given to a known, named, short list — speakers, sponsors, target accounts, people who traveled to be there. They are opened in a hotel room, sometimes photographed, and remembered or not.
Here the packaging matters as much as the contents, personalization is worth its cost, and one considered object beats five acceptable ones.
The middle tier is the one people skip
Between the giveaway and the VIP gift sits the person who had a real conversation at the booth. Something better than the general item, given deliberately rather than handed out, is often the highest-return spend at the whole event — and most events do not have one.
Budget them separately
A single average across all recipients produces something wrong at both ends. Count each tier, price each tier, and let the totals differ sharply.
Order them differently too
Attendee volumes are estimates and want items that survive being wrong. VIP quantities come from a list you already have, so they can be specified precisely — and should be ordered early, because they are the ones most likely to involve custom packaging.
Event programs covers both tiers, and corporate gifting covers the premium end.