How do you make the most of an exhibition floor that no one can realistically cover in full? In the second article in a series written by SBC CEO and Founder Rasmus Sojmark, he looks at why attending a major event is less about seeing everything and more about knowing what matters to your business. He explores how delegates can prioritise the right conversations, compare opportunities more effectively and still leave enough room for the unexpected discoveries that often deliver the greatest value.
I’ve been attending exhibitions for most of my working life, and I still make the same mistake.
I arrive thinking I’m going to see everything.
I’ll have meetings in the diary, but somewhere in my head there’s still this idea that I’ll walk every aisle, visit everyone I know, discover all the new companies and somehow leave with a complete picture of the industry.
By lunchtime on day one, that plan has normally disappeared.
And that’s fine.
SBC Summit’s exhibition floor now covers more than 135,000 square metres. That’s roughly 19 FIFA-standard football pitches, with more than 800 exhibitors and sponsors.
Nobody is going to see everything. I don’t care how comfortable your shoes are.
The question for a delegate, therefore, isn’t how much of the exhibition you can cover. It’s how much value you can extract from the time you have there. That’s a very different mindset.
If you’re coming to Lisbon, ask yourself before you arrive what would make the trip commercially worthwhile. Perhaps you’re looking for technology that can improve margins or solve an operational problem. Maybe you want to compare suppliers, investigate a market you’re considering entering or understand what your competitors are doing.
Once you know that, 800 exhibitors stop being 800 stands you need to visit and become a much smaller group of potentially relevant opportunities. This matters because one of the biggest advantages of a major exhibition is efficiency.
Imagine trying to replicate those conversations from your office. Finding ten potential suppliers, arranging demonstrations, meeting each of them, comparing products and speaking to existing customers could take weeks or months. In Lisbon, you can potentially do it in three days.
You can also ask better questions because the competition is standing nearby. If three companies tell you their product is the best solution to the same problem, you have the opportunity to see all three and make your own judgement.
That’s valuable.
We’ve been thinking about how to make that discovery easier through themed areas, Show Floor Tours and the Product Innovation Showcase. They exist because we know you physically can’t see everything, and we want to help you identify what deserves your attention.
I suspect technology will take this much further over the next few years.
A sportsbook CEO from Brazil, a payments executive from Germany and an affiliate from the United States might all attend the same exhibition, but they’re looking for completely different things. It makes little sense for them to receive essentially the same experience. During major events, we want to help delegates create their own experience, with recommendations based on their business objectives, markets and interests.
But there’s a danger in becoming too efficient as well. Some of the biggest opportunities at exhibitions aren’t the ones you came looking for.
You see a product you hadn’t considered. Someone introduces you to a company you’ve never heard of. You discover technology from another part of the industry and realise it could solve your problem in a completely different way. That’s why I wouldn’t fill every minute of the diary.
I’ve certainly been guilty of confusing a busy schedule with a successful event. You finish a day having completed 15 meetings and feel incredibly productive, but when you think about it afterwards, perhaps only three really mattered.
Sometimes four good meetings, a proper look at several products and enough time to explore can deliver far more value than racing between stands every 20 minutes.
Ultimately, companies send people to exhibitions because they expect something back. A supplier might be found. A partnership might begin. A technology decision might be accelerated by six months. You might discover a product that increases revenue or reduces costs.
Or you might see something that stops you from making a very expensive mistake. All of those outcomes have real value.
So when you walk into SBC Summit and see 19 football pitches of exhibition space in front of you, don’t worry about covering it all. Work out what would make the trip worthwhile for your business and start there.
Use the tools available, but leave enough space to be surprised. And don’t judge your success by how many kilometres your phone says you’ve walked. Judge it by what you discovered.
Somewhere on that enormous show floor, there might be one company, one product or one idea that makes a measurable difference to your business.
You only need to find it.
