I Unpacked the Giant Swag Bag That Every Attendee at TED Receives. Here's What's Inside.

VANCOUVER — "Well, it looks like all the Apple Watches and BMWs are gone," an attendee shouted in line as I waited to pick up a gift bag at TED.

She was laughing with mock disappointment, but she had a point.

The freebies distributed at most conferences hardly warrant a stop. (You can keep your stress balls and USB drives pre-loaded with marketing videos.) At this festival of big ideas, where people pay $8,500 to attend, the gifts are so extravagant that they fill a room.

The windowless "gift cave," as TED calls it, opened at 8 a.m. Monday as the conference kicked off and immediately drew a snaking line through the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Continuing our long series of "what's in that swag bag?" posts, I hopped in line to see what everyone was so excited about.

Before entering the "cave," there's a guide to navigating it, a six-step process that begins with picking up a Moleskine gift bag and ends with an option to ship everything home via UPS.

A staffer manning the door instructs attendees that they get 10 minutes to spend in this room. There's so much stuff – books, gadgets, toys, shoes with anti-microbial soles – that the 10 minutes goes by quickly.

Stop No. 1 is the gift-bag stand, where attendees pick up a black backpack with the TED logo on it. (See below for what's inside; there's a lot, from a Google Nexus player to a one-year digital subscription to WIRED.)

Next up, there's the "discover" table, filled with books and toys. You can take three items. Some people immediately went for the old-school Radio Flyer scooters.

Others picked up books like a New York Times compilation of "36 Hours" travel columns from west-coast cities, or this "scratch and sniff" guide to becoming a wine expert.

Next up is the "learn" stand, with gift cards for $100 worth of Bitcoin (provided by Xapo, a vault for the crypto-currency), an e-course on "persuasive presentations" by Nancy Duarte (a LinkedIn Influencer), or a one-year license to Indigo Studio, a tool for designing mobile app prototypes.

Gadgets come next: Attendees select one item from a wall of digital goodies. There are GE lightbulbs that can be turned on or off with a phone, a polygon-shaped Bluetooth speaker, fancy headphones from Humlan, and a "brain-sensing" headband that seemed to draw the most interest from the crowd.

Near the end, it's time to pick up a free t-shirt and a pair of shoes.

That brings a logical question: Carry it all back to your hotel room, or pay to ship it home?

Many people walked out with their loot, only because that provides the best opportunity to root through the backpack to see what other stuff you've just picked up and not realized. There's a lot.

In fact, there's so much stuff, that there's another guide.

Let's quickly hit the highlights, starting with the electronics. Google has traditionally had a big presence at TED, so it's no surprise that the bag comes stocked with a Nexus player, a Chromecast and a Nexus controller.

Then there are the fun items: shoelaces that promise to never come undone again, custom 3-D printed earbuds, mints with smiley faces on them, a Moleskine notebook, or a water bottle that can keep coffee hot for 12 hours.

There are also cards to try out various services: a $50 DonorsChoose.org gift card; a 100-day trial of HealthTap, which gives access to doctors on call; a six-month membership to CLEAR, meant to help travelers speed through airport security; a $25 Skype credit; three months of music-streaming on Rdio; a chance to donate a digital learning course to a school with EverFi...

Wrap it all up with a very TED-friendly snack, like an organic, palm-oil free peanut-butter cup made from Fair Trade cocoa from Congo:

And that's the bag.

Readers: What's the best freebie you've picked up at a conference?

More coverage of TED on LinkedIn:

• I've Hardly Socialized for Two Weeks: A TED Speaker on What It's Like Prepping for This Week's Talk (Tim Leberecht)
• Why Is Monica Lewinsky Giving a TED Talk? (Rob Wyse)
• You Could Be in the Dullest of Jobs, and Your Presentations Will Still Be Compared to a TED Talk (Carmine Gallo)
• If You Watch a TED Talk and Then Feel Inadequate in Your Own Life, Read This (Carson Tate)
• Forget All the TED Cynics for a Moment: These Talks Will Just Make You Smile (Diego Rodriguez)