LONDON — Every Friday in February 2026, we are highlighting an event technology from this month’s print Tech Trek feature. Our third spotlight is on Grip.
Managing your time during a busy trade show can be challenging. Between attending education sessions that interest you, viewing products that will help your business and making vital connections that boost the show’s return on investment, you’re probably stretched so thin you don’t know how you’ll juggle it all.
Thanks to Grip, attendees and exhibitors can begin networking and managing their show time before they even board the plane for an event.
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Months prior to a show, the platform allows attendees to review and filter recommendations on the web or mobile app so they can think about who they may want to meet and block out time on their schedules.
Tim Groot, Founder and CEO of Grip, says this solution can help show stakeholders get the most out of their participation and take the guesswork out of effective networking.
“You can see who else is attending, then filter and search, and get recommendations of who to meet with,” Groot explained. “Then you can request meetings with them and we make it really easy to accept those meetings and get them on your calendar. We facilitate all of that up to having a table on-site or meeting at the booth. We really facilitate that entire customer journey.”
If you’re attending a large show, this may seem overwhelming at first. After all, how are you supposed to potentially field hundreds of recommended connections and meet with all of them?
Groot says that even for the largest of shows, you can control your visibility to other attendees, as well as define the types of recommendations you’re open to receiving. These robust permissions allow users to manage the volume of messages they receive, so they can best utilize their time and get the show ROI they’re looking for.
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On the show level, Grip has guardrails organizers can take advantage of that control the flow of messages, which goes a long way toward protecting participants’ privacy.
“If you have some super-exclusive VIPs attending your event, you might want to make sure that not everyone can request meetings with them. You can set up permissions between different groups of people on the platform to make sure your VIPs are protected,” Groot explained. “We have some anti-spam mechanisms, so an individual can’t just request a meeting with everyone. They might only be able to request ten meetings at a time until people have responded — so we try and manage those types of things.”
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