Hey all! Congratulations! If you are here, that probably means you are attending your first important trade show! If not, then it’s something you are seeking and you want to prepare ahead.

Up to early this year, I was fortunate enough to participate in several local events. Most of them focused on the tech industry where I’ve been working for the last few years, so I thought I already knew a thing or two about this.

However, in 2023 I had the amazing experience of attending MWC in Barcelona and it was even greater than I could imagine. Most of the things I learned before at local events were practically useless here. That’s why I’ve paid close attention and took note of all of the things I thought were useful.

I will break down this article into a few sections so you can go straight to whatever you think will bring the most value to you.

So yeah, this is me sharing my experience with you. Hopefully you’ll find this useful. Let’s get started!

Dress code

This might feel obvious, but since most likely you are traveling to the event and won’t have much time to go shopping, you need to be prepared.

Your outfits will heavily depend on the kind of event you are attending. It might be an enterprise event like MWC, or a more “modern” event like the ones happening over Web3. Anyways, there’s at least one thing all events have in common: there’s a loooooot to walk, so packing a good pair of elegant yet very comfortable shoes is something you definitely want to do.

If you are wearing a more casual outfit then that shouldn’t be a big challenge, but if you are on the more formal side, better to invest in a nice and comfy pair so you can enjoy and avoid damaging your back or bloody ankles.

Also remember to check the weather, if not you might end up carrying things that you are not going to use. In my case, a nice blazer was quickly replaced with a winter jacket.

Types of Attendance

There are several ways to participate in these events, but assuming you are not from the media, it splits into basically two groups:

• Exhibitors: You are representing your company standing in a booth, giving information about what your company does, and trying to catch users, customers or potential business allies.

• Explorers: You could be representing a company or not, but you walk through the event looking at all these fancy screens trying to find some purpose.

I’ve never had the experience of being an exhibitor but I know it has its pros and cons. If this happens to be your case, good luck!

What I can advise here is to not expect to experience too much of the show since most likely you are going to spend all day on your booth, but most importantly, try to evaluate well who you talk to. A lot of exhibitors just want to pitch what they do, no matter who approaches, and that can sometimes be a big waste of time and energy.

However, if you are going to be a explorer like I was, then I have some tips for you.

Being a good explorer

Now that you have some comfortable shoes on, it’s time to start walking around the show. Heads up, you are going to be overwhelmed. There’s no chance you go there for the first time and you take it easy because it’s a lot!

You’ll find yourself surrounded by the latest advancements in your industry, plenty of screens, bright colors, and loud noises. There are going to be a lot of big companies that will make you feel small. It’s ok, just breathe.

Most of the big and pompous booths you are going to see are huge companies that just need to compete to see who has the biggest budget.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t go there, quite the opposite. Some are really interesting and is good to see what they are up to. Some even have some fun experiences for you to try, so you can go ahead and collect some cool stories and souvenirs. However, if you are looking to talk with some important person in that company you should probably schedule a meeting a few weeks before attending the event, and that brings us to the next tip.

Scheduling meetings

Most big companies have a reserved space for private meetings but you are not going to be able to just get in and talk to Google’s CEO.

You need to plan your objectives, which companies are the ones you want to have meetings with, and attempt to schedule them in advance so when you get to the event, you already have everything set.

This is not a requirement. If you don’t have any specific objective or company you want to talk with, that’s fine. But just be aware that if you have, is better to plan ahead. If not you’ll end up talking to some sales representative that probably won’t be able to help you the way you need.

Proper time management

After you go around for a few hours you are going to start noticing that people on the booths are desperate to pitch their company to you and show their latest advancements.

Avoid doing eye contact or standing too close to a booth because you might end up hearing a 15 minutes pitch that you have no interest in.

Be selfish with your time and only approach booths that are interesting to you and your company’s interests.

It’s tempting to approach attractive companies to learn more about them, but remember, you are looking for opportunities to scale your business, not to buy another service that will make your costs go up. If you spend too much time hearing what other companies do, you might leave the event empty-handed.

Finding opportunities

You are going to find a lot of companies, but many times, the most approachable person is not going to be someone that can make a business decision. Most of them are sales reps that just want to tell you how amazing their company is.

If you want to make any good contacts but you can’t find the right person, your best shot is to ask for the person in charge of the booth. It sounds logical but maybe you don’t notice unless somebody tells you like it happened to me. So I’m telling you, now you know.

Look for the small booths

Most trade shows usually have some place for smaller startups that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw away on fancy booths, but to my surprise, sometimes they are far more interesting.

I know I know, they don’t look as good and exciting as the ones from big companies like Microsoft or Samsung, however, you’ll be surprised to see the cool ideas they have, sometimes even more disruptive.

Think of it this way, big companies have a lot to lose every time they make a move, so every decision must be conservative and toughly evaluated. Startups have nothing to lose, so they can be a lot more adventurous and risky in pursuing crazy ideas.

Also, there's a high probability that you’ll find founders or directors in those booths so there’s a big opportunity for networking in there. Don’t miss it.

Being prepared

Let’s say that after a few hours, you finally find some interesting people you want to pitch your company to. Great work! It’s not easy. Now that you found them, you must be prepared.

First of all, you are going to need some people and selling skills, which unfortunately we are not going to cover here. However, assuming you did all of that right, you will need to make a fast demo of whatever your company does. Be it a few slides or screenshots, showcasing your app, or pulling some devices out of your pockets, just be sure to be prepared to show all of that.

People will be way more interested and engaged if they can see what you are saying is real. But that’s not all!

Imagine that everything above went great, now you need to exchange your contact information. I’m not sure about every event in the world, but at least at MWC, believe it or not, physical business cards are still a thing, so be sure to pack some of those.

If you don’t have any or you think they are too old school for you, you can also use some QR v-card websites. There’s plenty on the internet that should work just fine. Anyway, if you ask me, I think the old-school ones work much better (experience-wise).

Final thoughts

That’s it! Now you have a nice set of basic, yet powerful insights that should make your trade show experience way more pleasant and productive. If you have other tips, please share them so we can all have a better experience the next time.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I wish you a productive and fun trade show. Travel safe.

Cheers!