Instead of a small token of appreciation given to celebrities at parties, now it's a "swag suite" full of long tables of iPods, digital cameras and designer clothes, which VIPs stuff into luggage. The goodie bag has come a long way. The practice has become so excessive, so key to luring stars to awards shows and parties, that there's now a college class devoted to it.

"The Art of the Goodie Bag," a three-hour, four-part class at the Fashion Institute of Technology, teaches budding publicists how "to procure goodies with ingenuity and creativity." "It's becoming a serious industry now," says Jane Ubell-Meyer, a former TV producer who teaches the class and owns goodie bag company Madison & Mulholland. "A great goodie bag is a fabulous event. An OK bag is an OK event. And a terrible bag is a forgettable event."

As such, every event tries to top every other. Even Live 8, a free concert to battle African poverty, gave its participants $4,000 gift bags. Ubell-Meyer is responsible for the Hamptons Jitney gift bags, where certain lucky riders get a cushy Vera Bradley travel case filled with an Equinox membership, Everlast boxing gloves and knitting kits. The spunky former TV producer also designs "The Ultimate Nominee" bag for the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tonys, as well as the VIP goodie bags during Fashion Week.

Ubell-Mayer explains that every successful goodie bag must have three essentials: the Wow factor (a BlackBerry), the Oh My God I Need That factor (Bose headphones) and the Filler (candy, pens, gift certificates, makeup).

She teaches how to pitch big corporations and persuade them to donate their products. She emphasizes the power of trade shows. And she has the students role-play, pretending they are executives at Clarins or Estee Lauder.

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