Event Swag & Inventory Tracker: Stop Over-Ordering Tees and Running Out of Pens
Track every box of booth swag — what's on hand, what's reserved for which show, what got used, and what to reorder — with an event lead approving each allocation and reorder before stock is committed.
A web tool where you import your swag inventory, reserve items to specific events through an approval gate that blocks over-allocation, log what actually got used at each show, get low-stock flags, approve AI-suggested reorders, and export a clean inventory snapshot plus a reorder list.
Before you start
- A Supabase account (free)
- A Vercel account (free)
- A Resend account (free)
- An inventory CSV (item, on-hand qty, reorder point, cost)
- Your list of upcoming events
- Claude Code or any AI coding agent
The problem this kills
Event swag lives in a spreadsheet that nobody trusts. You ordered 500 t-shirts for the spring roadshow, but how many went to the regional conference last month? Did the pens come back, or did they vanish into a hotel ballroom? When the next show comes up, you guess — and you guess high, because running out at the booth is embarrassing. So now there are three boxes of small tees you'll never use and you're somehow out of pens again.
The real problem is that nothing ties stock to events. You can't see what's reserved for the show next week versus what's actually free to grab. Two people allocate the same 200 mugs to two different events and nobody notices until the booth is bare. There's no record of what got used, so reorder decisions are a vibe, not a number. And there's no gate — anyone can "claim" stock with no approval, so the numbers drift away from reality until the spreadsheet is fiction.
You don't need a warehouse system or a developer to fix this. You need a small tool that knows what you have, what's spoken for, and who approved it.
What you'll build
A simple web app for your event/field marketing team that tracks physical swag from stockroom to booth and back:
- Import your inventory from the CSV you already keep — item, on-hand quantity, reorder point, cost.
- Allocate items to events — reserve 150 tees and 300 pens for the June trade show — with the tool refusing to over-allocate beyond what's actually on hand.
- An approval gate: the event lead reviews and approves each allocation before stock is reserved, and approves usage and reorder requests before anything is committed.
- Log post-event usage — what actually went out the door at each show — so on-hand counts stay honest.
- Low-stock flags and reorder suggestions computed from your reorder points, ready for the lead to approve.
- Clean CSV exports: an up-to-date inventory snapshot and a reorder list in the exact columns your purchasing system or supplier expects.
What's inside the Implementation Plan
The plan is a runbook you paste into an AI coding agent (like Claude Code), and it builds the tool with you step by step — no coding required from you.
Crucially, it starts by interviewing you about your business. Before it builds anything, the agent asks how you run events today, what your inventory CSV actually looks like, how you name and code your items (SKUs, kit bundles, sizes), your typical and peak volumes, who approves what, and the messy edge cases — returns from a show, shared stock across two events, items that come as a bundled kit. Then it reflects a short tailored spec back to you and waits for your thumbs-up. The result fits your swag operation, not a generic template.
From there it walks through login and security, importing your data, the allocation and approval flows, usage logging, reorder suggestions, and the CSV exports — each step ending with a ready-to-paste prompt.
The governance it includes (this is the point)
This isn't a toy spreadsheet replacement. The plan builds in real controls from the start:
- Login so only your team can use the tool.
- Row-level security so each organization only ever sees its own inventory and events.
- A complete audit trail — who allocated what, who approved it, who logged usage, and when.
- A human-in-the-loop approval gate — the AI drafts allocations and reorder suggestions, but a person (the event lead) reviews and approves before any quantity is committed or a PO is suggested.
- Duplicate guards — the same item can't be allocated to the same event twice by accident (the dedupe key is item SKU + event).
- Over-allocation guard — you simply can't reserve more than you actually have on hand.
Who it's for
Event and field marketing ops who manage physical swag and booth materials across multiple shows — anyone who's ever over-ordered shirts, run out of pens, or lost track of which box went where. If you live in a swag spreadsheet and wish it would just tell you the truth, this is for you.
You've got this — paste the first prompt and let the agent interview you.