Trade Show Coordination Tips

is the traditional B2B roadshow dead? no, but it needs life support. over the past decade, I've watched companies pour millions into events with diminishing returns. the problem isn't face-to-face connection. it's using yesterday's playbook in today's multi-channel world. the highest-performing B2B companies follow this three-phase framework: before: build momentum through strategic targeting and multi-channel outreach before anyone walks through the door. during: create experiences that extend far beyond the physical venue through hybrid design and real-time content. after: convert momentum into revenue with sophisticated follow-up systems that actually drive pipeline. our clients implementing this approach have transformed their results. with one single campaign: ↳ pilot generated 100+ high-quality leads and saw 132% LinkedIn engagement surge ↳ elation lighting achieved 500% increase in impressions and won a prestigious industry award all in one trade show ↳ aeroflow healthcare achieved 47% higher acquisition at 34% lower cost bottom line: the companies gaining market share are treating roadshows as integrated campaigns rather than isolated moments. remember: face-to-face still matters, but only when it's part of a seamless journey that matches how today's B2B buyers actually make decisions. #b2bmarketing #b2bpr #gtm #eventmarketing #roadshow #cmoinsights

B2B companies in energy, heavy industry, and manufacturing often view overseas exhibitions as essential for global expansion. However, these events are increasingly seen as traffic black holes, characterized by high costs and uncertain returns. The challenge lies in outdated tactics like posters, roll-ups, and candies that have long been ineffective. LinkedIn's "pre-during-post" strategy for offline event provides a solution to these challenges. Consider our energy storage client: - Pre-Event: Targeted ads aimed at clients and media achieved a click-through rate (CTR) that was 156% above the industry average. - During-Event: Utilizing trending industry hashtags resulted in a 120% increase in engagement through shares, likes, and comments. - Post-Event: Videos from the event, including signings and executive interviews, garnered over 5,000 views within days. The key takeaway is that enhancing exhibition exposure necessitates generating industry buzz and synchronizing content across all three phases. Next, we will explore how another client successfully leveraged LinkedIn ads to connect with target customers. #LinkedInMarketingSolutions #LinkedInAds

I’ve been having lots of conversations about LinkedIn for events from organisers wanting to drive visibility and engagement, to exhibitors heading to upcoming tradeshows, and everyone in between. Whether you’re hosting, exhibiting, or attending LinkedIn can help you get more out of every event: ✨ More visibility 🤝 More connections 📈 More business outcomes Yet LinkedIn is often underused in the event space. A one-and-done post. A quick thank you. A flurry of activity... then silence. But here’s the thing: the event isn’t the beginning and it shouldn’t be the end. To get the most value, LinkedIn should be part of your strategy before, during and after the event. Here’s how to make the most of it: 🌠 1. Be LinkedIn Event Ready Your profile and company page shape your first impression often before anyone meets you. They should tell a clear, credible story that aligns with your event involvement. Organiser Tip: Create a LinkedIn Brand Kit for your speakers, exhibitors, and team – banners, hashtags, talking points, and example posts. Exhibitor Tip: Use an event-themed banner to show your stand details or branding. 🌠 2. Build Relationships Before the Event The most valuable connections rarely start cold on event day. The lead-up to the event is prime time to increase visibility, build familiarity, and position yourself as someone worth connecting with or visiting at the stand. Organiser Tip: Spotlight speakers, exhibitors, and sessions early and use tags to amplify. Exhibitor Tip: Shortlist people you want to meet - clients, prospects, collaborators, media and start connecting early. 🌠 3. Maximise the Event Experience Use LinkedIn to take people behind the scenes, amplify moments as they happen, and make your presence visible to those who couldn’t attend. Organiser Tip: Have someone live post from the floor, tagging participants and sharing session soundbites. Exhibitor Tip: Make it easy for people to connect with you it creates immediate pathways to keep the conversation going. 🌠 4. Keep the Momentum Going This is the stage where most people go quiet, but this is when the real relationship-building begins. Use LinkedIn to keep the conversation going. Share your takeaways. Follow up with new connections. Repurpose content into future posts. Organiser Tip: Share a highlight post and set the stage for what’s next even a “Save the Date” works. Exhibitor Tip: Send a personalised follow-up message referencing your chat. 🌟 Key Takeaways LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools you have to extend your event beyond the room. It allows you to build relationships before the first handshake, stay visible throughout the event and strengthen credibility and connection long after the banners are packed away. And if you'd like support to develop your own LinkedIn event strategy that's more than one and done, I’d love to help. Because showing up is just the beginning. #linkedin #events #eventmarketing

Investing in an exhibition stand? LinkedIn® needs to be part of your marketing before the doors open. That was our conclusion during a recent Disruptive Business Leadership event exploring LinkedIn’s True Role in the Age of AI. Roy Kowarski, exhibition specialist and Lynnaire Johnston, LinkedIn and AI visibility strategist, identified a significant missed opportunity. Companies invest heavily in exhibition space, displays, collateral and staff time, yet many fail to use LinkedIn to build interest, demonstrate expertise and encourage people to visit them before the event begins. Simply turning up at an exhibition is not enough. Before an event, an organisation and everyone representing the company need to know what it wants to achieve and how their activity contributes to it. LinkedIn can then support the strategy before, during and after the exhibition. Before the event, organisations should use LinkedIn to explain: 🔷 Why they are exhibiting 🔷 What they will be doing there 🔷 Why people should visit them As Roy puts it, “The trick is before the event to tell people on LinkedIn what you’re going to do and why they should visit you.” That requires more than a solitary “Come and see us” post. The marketing options include posts from the personal profiles of those exhibiting and from the company page. The organisation could also create a LinkedIn Event, publish an article demonstrating its expertise or feature the exhibition in its company newsletter. People can also be invited through the LinkedIn Event page, but the aim is not simply to increase attendance. Sharing genuinely useful information can position the company as the go-to organisation in its industry. That content might answer questions attendees are likely to have, share insights connected with the event theme or give people a compelling reason to seek the team out once they arrive. During the exhibition, personal profiles and the company page can continue working together to share expertise, conversations and insights from the event. Afterwards, LinkedIn can extend the relationships and visibility created, instead of allowing the entire investment to end with a celebratory photograph and a “What a great event” post. There may also be an AI discoverability benefit. When personal profiles, company pages and published content clearly associate people and organisations with an event and its subject matter, they create evidence of that involvement and expertise. That could increase the likelihood of those people or organisations being surfaced when someone asks AI about the event, its exhibitors or the specialist topics it covers. But this requires a coherent body of evidence created before, during and after the event. We explored this and more during the panel discussion which you can watch at the @LinkAbilityNZ YouTube channel. #LinkedInStrategy #EventMarketing #AIDiscoverability

Your best lead? It might come from a handshake or a hashtag. Trade shows once ruled industrial sales. Three days of booth duty, a stack of cards, and a few follow-up calls could keep the pipeline full for months. Fast forward to now: your next high-value lead might come from a LinkedIn post that took five minutes to write. Why traditional still works: 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗲-𝘁𝗼-𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 Shaking hands still builds rapport faster than a thousand impressions. 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 Conversations at your booth uncover pain points data can’t. 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵 In-person meetings cement bonds digital alone can’t match. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗿 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 Your message is working while you’re sleeping—or flying home from that show. 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 Find exactly the right people, in exactly the right roles. 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 See what’s moving the needle and double down. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿: 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗯𝘀 Record demos, snap photos, share them online while the energy’s high. 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 Follow up with content that addresses the questions people asked in person. 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Book meetings before the show starts to maximize floor time. 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 Use email, LinkedIn, and gated resources to stay in their world long after the event ends. Trade shows give you the spark. Digital keeps the fire burning. When you connect the two, you don’t just generate leads, you build a growth engine that runs all year. --- Follow Michael Cleary 🏳️🌈 for more tips like this. ♻️ Share this with someone still relying only on trade shows.

The biggest trade show mistake? Treating it as a 3-day event instead of a 90-day content engine. Every conversation. Every demo. Every presentation. That’s content waiting to be repurposed. I had a conversation with a prospect who was complaining about his leadership. “Our leadership was furious. We only got 40 leads from the trade show.” That’s what a prospect told me this week. 3 days. 40 leads. Only 2 were considered “warm.” Their average deal size was $100,000. All it would take is one closed deal, considering their LTV was over $1,000,000 They’d invested $60K+ on booth, travel, and team, and were labeling it a failure. But here’s the thing: Trade shows don’t fail because of attendance. They fail because of pre-booking, follow-up, and content strategy. Here's what I told him: "Don't give up so quick." The show isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of a 90-day content engine. (I was just featured in vFairs. Check out the full article "Why Trade Shows Are Worth the Hype" here: https://lnkd.in/e9kJkwga Thanks to their team for including me!) Here’s how the smartest teams turn one show into months of pipeline and engagement 👇 1️⃣ Film everything. Don’t just record the keynote, capture booth chats, behind-the-scenes moments, Q&As. Short clips = authentic LinkedIn gold later. (Even shaky iPhone footage works better than polished nothing.) 2️⃣ Collect “micro-stories.” Ask team members to jot one lesson or funny moment per day. Those become quick, relatable posts that humanize your brand. 3️⃣ Turn FAQs into lead magnets. The 10 questions prospects asked most? Package the answers into a PDF guide: “Top 10 questions we got at [Event Name], answered.” 4️⃣ Reuse your talks. Each presentation = 5 LinkedIn posts + 1 email + 3 short clips. Slice insights into snackable, story-driven pieces. 5️⃣ Create educational content that positions you as the expert. Break down your demo into a mini training — “Here’s the 5-minute version of what we taught at the booth.” Host a short LinkedIn Live or carousel recap: ➡️ Key takeaways from your session ➡️ 3 lessons the industry still misses ➡️ “If you couldn’t make it to [Event Name], here’s the 3-slide summary” That turns your trade show booth into an always-on classroom, not a one-off pitch. 6️⃣ Follow up with value, not “just checking in.” Send attendees a clip or quote from your booth chat instead. Feels personal. Builds trust. Converts faster. When you treat the show as a content engine and pipeline catalyst, those 3 days can drive growth for months to come. 👉 Curious, how do you repurpose trade show content after the event? ____________ #Sema #Fabtech #IMTS #MDM + Join 25k + people receiving tips via social and my free email newsletter, sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eRXtjQ_C ⚡ Need more leads from your trade show attendance and exhibits? Book a 1-1 free strategy call here: https://lnkd.in/eQDvNkRV

Why you're wasting your time and money attending tradeshows in China. Here's a real life scenario An international brand spent $50,000 on a premium Canton Fair booth in October, only to have Chinese buyers Google them during meetings on the tradeshow floor and find...nothing. No WeChat presence. No flagship store. No social proof. The result? Polite conversations that led nowhere. Here's the uncomfortable truth about tradeshows in China 🔍 Chinese buyers research BEFORE they meet - They'll scan your QR code, check your Weibo, look for customer reviews on XiaoHongShu. If you're invisible online, you're invisible to them. Distributors want proof of concept. In 2025, they don't want to gamble on unknown brands. They want to see that Chinese consumers are already buying, sharing, and talking about your products. Digital presence = credibility. A strong Xiaohongshu account with engaged followers carries more weight than a glossy brochure. Chinese business culture values social proof above almost everything else. This is what smart brands do in China 1️⃣ Build brand awareness first - invest in Xiaohongshu (Red Note), WeChat, and maybe even Weibo content that resonates with Chinese consumers 2️⃣ Generate online sales traction to prove market demand and make your case with distributors who will be watching to see if you are fully committed. 3️⃣ Collect and share social proof - customer reviews, user generated content (UGC), and KOC endorsements Once you have all of this in place, ONLY THEN attend tradeshows Boom! Now you're not pitching potential, you're showcasing performance A New Zealand skincare brand we work with spent 6 months building their digital presence before Shanghai Beauty Expo. Result? They had distributors approaching THEM, and closed 3 major deals because buyers could see real Chinese customers already using their products. The business case is simple and compelling ¥100,000 in digital brand building delivers more sustainable results than ¥250,000 on a booth where you're just another unknown foreign brand. Build the buzz, then show the business. -------------------------------------------------- I'm Iain Langridge 毅安 and I use my experience in China to launch, grow, and manage premium consumer brands. Follow or DM me to find out more. #chinamarket #chinabusiness #chinamarketentry #marketentry #tradeshows #digitalmarketing #brandbuilding #chinastrategy

The Truth About Trade Shows and Social Media While trade shows offer face-to-face engagement and high-quality leads, they come with limitations: high costs, limited audience reach, and short-lived impact. In contrast, social media and video marketing have transformed how manufacturers connect with buyers. Instead of waiting for the next trade show, companies can generate leads 24/7, engage global audiences, and nurture customers instantly. So, which strategy delivers the best Return on Investment? The answer is not trade shows alone, but trade shows combined with social media and video marketing. 1. The Reality of Trade Show ROI Trade shows are effective but costly: 🔹 Booth rental: $5,000 - $50,000+ 🔹 Travel & lodging: $1,500 - $10,000 per person 🔹 Shipping & logistics: $2,000 - $20,000 🔹 Promotional materials & setup: $5,000 - $50,000 🔹 Total: $50,000 - $500,000 per event Despite the investment, trade shows only reach 5,000 - 100,000 attendees over 3-5 days. Without a strong follow-up strategy, many leads go cold, and tracking direct ROI is difficult. ⸻ 2. The Social Media & Video Advantage Social media and video marketing cost a fraction of trade shows but provide global, continuous reach: 🔹 LinkedIn Ads (monthly): $5,000 - $50,000 (reaching 500,000+) 🔹 YouTube Video Ads: $2,000 - $20,000 (1 million+ views) 🔹 Organic Social Media Marketing: Free - $10,000 (unlimited audience) Unlike trade shows, social media scales, offering real-time engagement, measurable conversions, and automated lead nurturing. ⸻ 3. How Video Content Supercharges Trade Show ROI If you’re already investing in a trade show, not filming content is a missed opportunity. Video marketing drives engagement: 🔹 Social media videos get 10x more interaction than text-only posts. 🔹 80% of B2B buyers prefer watching a video over reading text. 🔹 A single booth interview can reach 100,000+ views worldwide. By partnering with MTDCNC or similar media teams, companies can turn a 3-day event into a year-long marketing campaign. ⸻ 4. The Best Strategy: Trade Shows + Social Media + Video Instead of treating trade shows as one-time events, integrate them into a digital-first strategy. By filming at trade shows, you multiply your investment, turning a temporary booth into evergreen marketing content that drives awareness, engagement, and sales long after the event ends. ⸻ 5. The Bottom Line: Invest in Digital Now If your company still relies solely on trade shows, you’re missing out on scalable, cost-effective lead generation. ✅ Trade shows create trust, but video and social media extend your reach. ✅ Filming at trade shows amplifies your presence beyond the show floor. ✅ Social media marketing ensures your brand stays top-of-mind year-round. 🚀 The most successful manufacturers today combine all three—trade shows, video, and social media—to dominate the industry. Are you ready to do the same?

A lot of drinks brands I speak with still treat social as a marketing channel -- upstream and somewhat divorced from sales. But in this week’s Business of Drinks episode, I was excited to hear Jesse Bongiovi, founder of Hampton Water, describe a more commercially impactful model: Social as a sales engine. In his experience, social media 1) creates demand, 2) gives distributors a stronger story, and 3) helps accounts drive traffic. For context, Hampton Water is now at ~150,000 cases globally, growing ~20% year over year (!!), with roughly 600,000 followers across platforms and more than 400,000 on TikTok alone. Amazingly, Hampton Water is now the most-followed alcohol brand on TikTok (and yes, its wine, not spirits). Key insights in this episode: 𝟭) 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻-𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 — 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗲 During Covid, Hampton Water leaned into digital with a twice-weekly social series, “Hampton Happy Half Hour,” featuring athletes, artists, yoga instructors, cooking lessons, and more. Jesse says they were getting thousands of people to tune in twice a week. That helped Hampton Water become the #1 rosé on Wine.com, with volumes jumping from ~50K to ~85K cases in a year. Importantly, the audience was not just consuming content; they were converting into buyers. 𝟮) 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱’𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 Jesse describes telling accounts: Hey, we have an engine we can mobilize for you. If an account is throwing a party, Hampton Water offers to create content, drive attention, send influencers, and bring consumers into the room. That capability turns a brand’s social footprint into leverage with accounts. The brand is no longer only asking for shelf space or menu placements; it's bringing demand-generation capacity to the account. 𝟯) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 In recent years, Hampton Water’s Rosé Summer Tour hit 11 cities, with hundreds of consumers showing up for bar crawls. In a California stop, for ex, Jesse says roughly 600 people rolled into a bar with them, and other customers asked if they could join the crawl. For operators deciding where to spend, the lesson here is not simply “invest in social.” 👉 Instead, it's to connect social to the commercial system, generating trial, traffic, distributor confidence, account activation, and reorders. Listen in for more insights on how to turn social into a sales engine. 👇 #businessofdrinks #winebusiness #beverageindustry #brandstrategy Caroline Lamb Scott Rosenbaum Hampton Water Wine Co.

If you think your trade show starts when the hall doors open, you’ve already lost the game. Many brands treat their three days on the floor as the entire event. They spend 95% of their energy on the booth design and worrying about logistics to only spend 5% on what happens before and after. Zero to poorly planed pre and post show strategy can ruin ROI and end up being costly. If you want to move from exhibiting to performing, here are 5 clear and proven tactics for your pre-show and post-show playbook... Win before you arrive: PRE SHOW ☑️ ABM Tiered Outreach: Stop the "come see us" blasts. Identify your Top 50 must-see prospects and send them something personalized. A physical mailer, a custom video, or a calendar link. ☑️ Create a compelling and valuable offer. Why should someone come to your booth or experience? Use this for marketing and invitations. LinkedIN, emails, social, etc. ☑️ Sales & Marketing Alignment: Your booth staff shouldn't be winging it. Run a pre-show workshop. Define exactly what a qualified lead looks like and ensure everyone knows the playbook for the customers experience at the event. ☑️ Digital Geo-Fencing: Run targeted social ads. Plenty of ways to get creative with this is you explore ALL digital options; airport, uber, taxi, billboard, hotels, etc. Some of these are better for larger brands with massive audiences and brand recognition. ☑️ Leverage the event app: Messaging in the app is a great way to set appointments. The key is to send pleasant, specific, and value driven messages, not spammy messages. POST SHOW is all about converting and carrying on opportunities: ☑️ The 48 Hour FollowUp Rule: Speed to lead is everything. Your tier A prospects and leads should have a personalized email, message or phone call before they even get home. If you wait a week, you’re a distant memory. I love tying this to your offer and having a clear reason to follow up. ☑️ Personalized Video Recaps: Instead of a generic "thanks for stopping by" email, have your sales reps record a 30-second Loom video mentioning a specific conversation point. It’s un-ignorable. ☑️ The Content Goldmine: You just spent three days surrounded by experts and customers. Record content for repurpose; booth interviews, demos, and man on the street interview clips into a 6-month social media strategy. ☑️ The Data Debrief: Don’t just count leads; analyze them. Where did they come from? Which demo sparked the most interest? Use this data to justify your spend and sharpen your strategy for the next show. ☑️ Lead Handoff Audit: The biggest ROI killer is the black hole where marketing leads go to die. Schedule a meeting one week post-show with sales to ensure every high value lead has a clear path forward in the CRM. The bottom line is, trade shows are one of the most powerful physical touchpoints in the customer journey, but they only work if you treat them like a strategic campaign.