Customizing Trade Show Experiences

🚀 The Era of One-Size-Fits-All Events Is Over. Stop Doing It. Personalization isn't a single action, it's a series of intentional, strategic choices that come together to make every attendee feel genuinely valued. We’re not just organizing events anymore — we’re crafting journeys. 🧭 In today’s marketplace, attendees expect more than just a badge and a schedule. They want curated content, meaningful connections, and real-time relevance that makes them feel seen. That’s where hyper-personalization comes in. And no, it’s not just using someone’s name in an email. It’s about using data and technology to design experiences that feel custom-built for each person. 🧠📊 As an event marketer, I’m all in on data-driven strategy. This is where we move beyond logistics and design every touchpoint to be personal, memorable, and valuable. Here's some ways that can look like across the attendee journey: Before the Event: 🎯 Targeted Invitations & Content: Use behavioral data to send invites that speak directly to someone's interests. A marketer might get a blog post on campaign strategy, while a developer receives a product case study. 📝 Dynamic Registration: Ask tailored questions based on the attendee’s role or industry to build rich attendee profiles from the start. During the Event: 🤖 AI-Powered Agendas & Recommendations: Event apps can recommend sessions, speakers, and exhibitors based on real-time behavior, interests, and profiles — reducing decision fatigue and maximizing impact. 🤝 Smart Networking: Go beyond job titles. Use AI to match attendees with shared goals, values, or expertise for deeper, more meaningful conversations. 🎉 Personalized On-Site Experiences: Greet attendees by name on welcome screens, print session tracks on badges, or use RFID to tailor in-person interactions. 📽️ Customized Content Delivery: Make booth visits unforgettable. When someone scans their badge, show a video personalized to their company, role, or industry — turning a quick interaction into a memorable moment. 🧢 Personalized Swag: Skip the generic t-shirt. Offer attendees the ability to choose colors, styles, or even print their name on a water bottle or notebook. After the Event 📬 Tailored Follow-Up: Instead of a generic “thanks for coming,” send curated content based on sessions they attended, people they connected with, and their unique interests. 📚 Personalized Content Hubs: Create a portal where attendees can revisit the event — with homepages tailored to their track, interests, or role. 📊 Custom Surveys: Don’t ask vague questions. Personalize post-event feedback forms to reflect their specific journey. 🤔 What's one thing you're doing to add a touch of personalization to your events? Or, as an attendee, what's a personalization strategy that has truly impressed you? Let's share some ideas in the comments! #EventProfs #EventMarketing #HyperPersonalization #EventTech #ExperienceDesign #EventStrategy #PersonalizedExperiences

I’ve changed my mind about trade shows. 6 months ago, I talked about how ineffective they were as a marketing tactic. - Booths cost £1000s - No one gets new business. - You get ignored by attendees. - Everyone is just pitching at you. - There are 100s of competitors there. - You get drowned out by other vendors. They’re a massive waste of time. Or at least that’s what I thought… Then I got sent the photos (below) from one of our clients’ booths at a recent trade show. That’s when I realised trade shows aren’t the issue. ↳ It’s how companies approach them that’s broken. The key: Create a campaign around your booth. Here’s the playbook for getting noticed at trade shows: 1/ Don’t Make Yourself The Attraction Our client hired Kaleb from Clarkson’s Farm to be at their booth. Crowds flocked for a chat, photo, or simply to see what all the fuss was about. They came for Kaleb. ↳ But then they’d chat to our client. —— 2/ Turning a Booth Into an Experience They ditched the usual trade show freebies and brought in a VR welding setup. Kaleb set a time. ↳ People tried to beat it. ↳ If they did they won a prize. This meant visitors weren’t just walking by—they were staying, engaging, and talking about it. —— 3/ Force Them To Remember You Here’s where it got clever: Our client offered a hefty reward for the person who won the VR welding game. But they wouldn’t find out if they won until the end of the day. That meant the last booth people went to was there. ↳ Keeping them top of mind on the way home. —— Don’t get me wrong, most trade shows are a waste of money. But if you go into them: - With a clear strategy. - An approach to get noticed. - A campaign around your booth. They can really make an impact. Definitely going to be doing more of this with clients. P.S. Follow me to learn how to get your company noticed Niall Ratcliffe 📚

This happens a lot. 👇 A brand drops big bucks to sponsor a trade show booth. The team feels underwhelmed with the leads they collected. Repeat. I’m not anti-trade show booths. Sometimes they’re a great move, especially if they’re paired with strong pre- and post-event strategies. But often, they’re a missed opportunity to think bigger and more creatively. What if, instead of putting $20k into a booth, you sent a couple of sales reps to the trade show to network and set up 1:1 meetings? Then, after the event, analyze your leads: What city are most of these opportunities in? Take that data, and a month later, go back to that city for a high-touch, intimate field marketing event. Think out of the booth: - A private cooking class with a chef for your top 10 prospects - Renting out the Nike store and letting guests design their own sneakers - A small, private country concert where everyone leaves with custom cowboy boots These events aren’t just about lead generation—they’re about making your audience feel special, seen, and remembered. And honestly? For a fraction of the cost of some trade show booths, they can leave a much bigger impact. What’s the most creative field marketing event you’ve ever seen? I’d love to hear it! #fieldmarketing #eventmarketing

This week at HubSpot’s INBOUND in San Francisco, I spent a lot of time walking the floor of Club INBOUND, the sponsor expo where brands big and small spend a lot of money to have a visible presence in front of INBOUND's 10,000+ attendees. Here’s what stood out: Most booths get it wrong. Too many companies treat their booth like a library shelf - lined with brochures, swag, and a few team members standing around waiting for someone to stop by. The result? Empty booths. Low energy. Poor ROI. The booths that worked? They built experiences. Crowds gathered where something was happening - where there was energy, interaction, and a reason to engage that had nothing to do with the product pitch. (Shout out to the teams at Vidyard, QuotaPath, CallRail and Computan, all of whom understood the assignment 😉 ) If you're a marketing leader or CEO who's thinking of making a big investment in a trade show or conference booth, here's my advice: ROI from trade shows doesn’t come from how much you spend on square footage, or how glossy your collateral is. It comes from the experience you create. If you want pipeline from an event, you need to: ✅ Give people a reason to walk over that isn’t your product. ✅ Create a moment they’ll want to share or remember. ✅ Use that moment as the bridge to a conversation. INFORMATION doesn’t draw people in >> EXPERIENCE does. The companies that understand this stood out. The ones that didn’t? They’ll be the ones questioning whether their event sponsorship was “worth it.” If you’re planning to invest in a booth in 2025 or beyond, stop thinking about it as “presence.” Start thinking about it as theater. To all of my marketing peeps who were at INBOUND this week, which booths did you think hosted the best experiences? #INBOUND2025 #kathleenhq

Experience, design, and storytelling—everything a trade show activation should be. Some trade show booths talk about their products. We made people experience them. For the Post-it Extreme Notes launch, we didn’t just set up a booth—we built real-world environments that showed how these notes thrive in the toughest conditions: 👨🍳 For the Food Industry: We built a fully functional kitchen, where real chefs were actively cooking, using Extreme Notes to label food, ingredients, and prep stations—proving they could survive heat, steam, and refrigeration. 👷♂️ At Construction Shows: We recreated a job site, complete with brick, drywall, tile, metal, and wood—surfaces where attendees could stick, test, and try the notes for themselves. Dust, water, rough handling? No problem. 🎯 Why It Worked: ✅ Hands-on, not just hype – People didn’t just hear about it; they used it. ✅ Real-life storytelling – A job site should feel like a job site, and a kitchen should work like one. ✅ Memorable & fun – When attendees actively engage, they actually remember the product. This was one of my favorite activations ever—because the best trade show experiences aren’t just booths; they’re immersive, interactive, and unforgettable. What’s the most memorable activation you’ve ever seen? Let’s swap stories! ⬇️ #EventMarketing #TradeShowSuccess #ExperientialMarketing #EventDesign #BrandExperience

How do you create a memorable customer listening experience at exhibitions? I have often said that as well as storytelling, exhibitions should be for listening. Listening for client feedback, industry trends, user experiences, pain points, successes, well you get the idea... Last week at #CiscoLiveEMEA, the Cisco DevNet team absolutely nailed it. 👏 They didn’t just set up a booth and talk at people—they designed an interactive wall chart where DevNet users could share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences using simple post-it notes. The old fashioned way. You wouldn't expect that from a tech giant right? Sounds basic? Maybe. But it was incredibly effective. Here’s why it worked: ✅ It invited participation – People were drawn in by the simplicity and the opportunity to contribute. ✅ It guided the conversation – They asked specific questions that encouraged meaningful feedback. ✅ It showed impact – They shared a case study highlighting how past feedback had directly led to platform improvements and launch of new features like an AI summary tool. Most importantly, they didn’t just collect feedback—they made their users feel heard. While most exhibitors focus on telling their story, DevNet turned the spotlight onto their audience and asked, “How can we help you succeed?” Key Takeaway for exhibitors: Creating a listening experience isn’t about flashy tech or over-complicated setups. It’s about engaging visitors in a conversation, showing that their voice matters, and communicating the why behind your questions. A big thank you to Alejandro Marrufo for going through the whole concept and sharing the outcomes of this great initiative. So…how will you listen to your audience at your future trade shows? 👇 #exhibitions #tradeshows #engagement #customerexperience #listening