On the day
What to watch while the doors are open — the live view, checking people in, walk-ins, announcements, and helping exhibitors leave with something.
Everything before this was preparation. On show days the job changes from building to watching, and the platform's job changes from selling to counting.
The live view
One screen for what is happening: who has arrived, how the floor is filling, which exhibitors are checked in and set up, and what has been sold today.
The number to watch is not registrations. It is arrivals against registrations — the gap between the two is the real attendance story, and it is the figure next year's exhibitors will ask you for.
Checking people in
Passes are scanned at the entrance. Scanning does two things: it lets someone in, and it records that they actually came.
Walk-ins
Where your entry policy allows them, a pass can be issued on the spot at the door. Someone who turns up without registering does not become an untracked person in the hall — they get a pass like everyone else.
Different passes carry different access, so a contractor's pass that worked during build-up will not necessarily open the doors on show morning, and that is deliberate.
Announcements
Send a message to everyone taking part, or to one group of them. Useful for the things that always come up: a change of timing, a hall opening late, where the exhibitor lounge is, when dismantle can start.
Better than a WhatsApp group because it reaches the people actually registered for the show rather than whoever joined the group.
Helping exhibitors capture leads
The complaint after every show is that the leads went nowhere. It is usually true, and usually because there was no mechanism beyond a bowl for business cards.
Exhibitors scan a visitor's pass at the stand. Because the pass belongs to a verified identity, what they capture is a known business rather than a name they cannot read on Monday — and it continues afterwards as a real enquiry rather than a spreadsheet row.
Worth telling exhibitors this at onboarding, not on the morning. The ones who know about it before they arrive use it from the first hour.
What to keep an eye on
After the doors close
Everything stays: who attended, who exhibited, what was sold, which leads were captured. That record is what you take into next year's sales conversations, and exhibitor retention is the honest measure of whether the show worked.
A footfall figure can be presented favourably. The share of exhibitors who rebook cannot.
Team & roles
Bring in co-organisers and staff, and give each of them only the access their job needs — per show, or as a template across every show you run.
Overview
Taking a booth at someone else's show — applying, verifying once, choosing your position, staffing the stand, and leaving with leads you can actually follow up.