Trade shows are expensive. Between booth space, travel, swag, staffing, and all the little costs that sneak up on you, it’s not unusual for a single event to run well into five or six figures. And yet, when leadership asks “was it worth it?” most teams fumble the answer. Not because the show wasn’t valuable, but because no one set up a real way to measure it in the first place.
This is something we talk about a lot at Littlefield Agency, especially with clients who are heavy in the trade show circuit.
So when Sam and Roop sat down to record this week’s episode of Little Talks, it felt like a conversation that was a long time coming. The gang digs into the full picture. Lead quality versus quantity, the attribution mess that comes with in-person events, how to actually measure booth traffic, what a solid follow-up strategy looks like, and how to make the case to leadership when the ROI isn’t immediately obvious.
Here’s the big question: if your trade show ended tomorrow, could you walk into a room and confidently show leadership what it produced. Not just badge scans and business cards, but real pipeline impact? If the answer is anything less than an enthusiastic yes, this episode is going to hit close to home. The measurement problem is fixable, but only if you’re willing to build the system before the show, not after.
See you next week for more Little Talks!
— Sam, Claudia, Roop, and Chelsea
