CHICAGO — Trade show organizers and suppliers educate exhibitors on maximizing the return on their investment with pre-show playbooks and strategic webinars. Exhibitor surveys and post-event interviews are useful tools for feedback. But what are exhibitors and attendees saying off the record, to one other?
Trade Show Executive (TSE) dug deep on Reddit, visiting the pages r/tradeshows, r/TradeShowDisplays and r/smallbusiness, and LinkedIn, and discovered candid insights from exhibitors and attendees about their experiences — and whether they feel that trade shows are worth the investment at all.
It’s Not About the Booth
If one message came through loud and clear, it was that, repeatedly, exhibitors miss the mark.
One Redditor estimated that 50% of the booths they see at shows are not advertised, staffed or prepared correctly.
The people working the booth — not the booth itself — make all the difference.
“Why would you have someone sitting behind a booth with a laptop open ignoring everyone walking by?” said another Redditor.
Equally unappealing, said another, is “a bunch of salespeople standing around doing nothing, just waiting to pounce on you.”
Everyone agreed that bashing a competitor’s product is off-limits.
“You should always focus on positives,” one post said. “Talk about what makes your product unique or different. It’s unprofessional and reflects poorly on your company.”
One term came up over and over again: “booth energy.”
“Even great activations lose momentum if staff are standing behind counters waiting for attendees to approach instead of creating conversation and movement around the space,” a Redditor said.
Learn the Rules
A lot of first-time exhibitors design booths before understanding venue rules, electrical requirements, freight deadlines or labor regulations.
“That’s usually where budgets get destroyed unexpectedly,” said one Redditor.
Also, companies can spread themselves too thin by participating in too many trade shows each year, which drains both budgets and logistics resources.
“Instead of doing 10 average shows, many would benefit from choosing fewer, more strategic events that truly fit their goals,” said another Redditor. “This gives them more time to build a strong pre-show campaign, execute proper follow-up afterward and create a more impactful booth experience with the same budget.”
Booth Design Misses
According to many Redditors, the most effective booths feel intentional and focused, instead of trying to do everything at once.
“I always say to new exhibitors: The number one crime you can commit is having an attendee look at your booth and not know what your product/service is or does. You’ve got five seconds (in a small booth), be crystal clear,” one post read.
“Booths with too much text, too many product callouts or cluttered layouts tend to get ignored even if the actual company is great,” another said.
Designing purely for appearance without thinking about what it will be like when the booth is busy — where staff will stand, where conversations will happen, how traffic will flow and where to store samples and personal items — is another miss.
Sub-Par Buyers
Reddit’s message boards are a safe place for people to air their complaints — and there was no shortage of those.
“In my industry specifically, the crowd in the last 10 years changed so much,” said one exhibitor. “It used to be more intimate but serious, now there are more people but they are there mostly for the freebies and mingling.”
“Typically the last day of these three-day-long shows … 90% of the people [are] trying to sell us stuff,” said another. “Those days are brutal.”
On the flip side is what one poster called “adult Halloween trick-or-treating” — people who walk the floor gathering up the tchotchkes.
Quality Over Quantity
Ellan Campbell-Swann, Director at Revamp Marketing Limited, posted on LinkedIn about how quality always wins over lead quantity.
She explained that smart companies measure the qualified opportunities created, pipeline value, customer engagement and market intelligence gathered, as well as sales won.
“For many businesses, the true return on investment isn’t visible until months after the event, particularly where sales cycles are long,” Swann said.
“Perhaps the biggest difference between successful and unsuccessful exhibitors is what happens after the show closes,” a Redditor said. “Leads followed up quickly and consistently are far more likely to convert than those left sitting in a CRM system for weeks.”
To Exhibit or Not to Exhibit
There was much debate online about whether it’s important to keep exhibiting just to avoid not being there at all.
“Especially in relationship-driven or legacy industries, not showing up consistently can quietly signal decline or lack of investment,” one exhibitor said. “Sometimes the value is visibility and credibility, as much as immediate leads.”
Most people disagreed.
“Trade shows definitely are not automatic lead machines any more,” a poster wrote. “If your company is spending money repeatedly with no measurable outcomes, then it probably is the wrong event strategy for your market. Focused customer events, smaller niche conferences or direct outreach can absolutely outperform giant trade shows depending on the space.”
“Walking the show, signing up as conference speakers or setting up specialized meetings are way more beneficial than lead hunting at shows,” said another. “Plus, it gets sales out of wasting marketing’s budget and time, and sales can still get their ‘show fix’ by attending.”
Another argued that getting speaking slots, ideally as a presenter instead of being on a panel, “raises far more credibility and awareness with the right buyers than the fanciest booth.”
Another poster advised a fellow exhibitor that they would be better off hosting a private executive roundtable across the street.
“Invite 12 target buyers,” they wrote. “Give them a brief they can’t ignore. Spend $10,000 on steak, wine and a killer presentation, then walk out with actual deals. It’s intimate, measurable and pipeline-focused.”
An exhibitor who dropped out of the main trade show in their industry shared their experience: “A handful of regular spenders just stopped spending, [and] they wouldn’t say why. But then we returned after a four-year hiatus, doing a medium/small-sized stand but with sponsorship (we sponsor the lanyards), and we’ve had some of these lapsed customers come back. It definitely helped reestablish those connections.”
Kostantinos Kovanis, Founder & CEO of the Kovanis Group, questioned what he called “The $50,000 Handshake” on LinkedIn: “In an era of instant digital demos and Zoom-based dealmaking, why are we still flying halfway around the world to stand on our feet for 10 hours?”
To get more events industry news, subscribe to TSE’s free e-newsletter on LinkedIn or through your email.
