Decoding Trade Show Ecosystems Strategic Briefing

‍STRATEGIC BRIEFING TRANSCRIPT The Trade Show Ecosystem Decoded Mike Dias Speaks September 2024

I am the cobbler's kids with no shoes.

I just tried to sell a trade show consulting service to Chord Electronics ahead of AES New York. Real relationship. First-time exhibitor. Perfect fit. Tom Vaughan was warm, engaged, had read everything I sent him. And he still didn't buy.

And I know exactly why.

I have spent 20 years helping companies maximize their trade show presence. I have spoken at NAMM on networking before, during, and after any event. I have run workshops for AES members. I have worked booths around the world. I won Best in Show for Ultimate Ears. I know what exhibitors are up against before they even land in the convention city.

But I have not refined this into a product. I have not done for myself what I do for every client I have ever worked with. I pitched a capability, not a system. I pitched a person, not a methodology. And Tom could feel the difference even if he couldn't name it.

This needs to be fixed before the next conversation.

THE DIAGNOSIS

The problem is not the expertise. The expertise is real and it is deep. The problem is that expertise without packaging is just potential. And potential does not close.

When I look at what I sent Tom — the pitch, the articles, the bio — it reads like a capable person with relevant experience. What it does not read like is a methodology specific enough that a prospect knows exactly what they are purchasing before the first call.

That is the gap.

And the gap is particularly embarrassing because closing the gap is precisely what I teach. I tell exhibitors that the show is just execution — that the work happens before anyone lands in the convention city. I tell them that showing up without a plan is not a strategy. And here I am, showing up without a plan.

Cobbler's kids. No shoes.

THE LARGER PLAY

This is not just about fixing a pitch. This is about building the infrastructure for a dual revenue model I identified back in June.

The model is simple and the referral loops are natural: speaking at trade shows positions me as the authority on trade show networking. That authority creates a direct pipeline to exhibiting companies who need to maximize their ROI. When I get booked to help a company prepare for a show, I bypass every traditional sales channel entirely. The speaking creates the consulting. The consulting creates the case studies. The case studies create the speaking.

But only if the published methodology is specific enough and credible enough to make both buyers say yes without needing to be convinced.

Right now the Chord conversation confirmed it is not.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE BUILT

Before anything else, the offer needs to be solidified. Five pillars. Each one deliverable as a keynote, a breakout session, or a team workshop. Each one with specific measurable learning outcomes that an event planner can drop directly into a program without editing.

Pillar One: The Trade Show ROI Playbook Pre-show planning, in-booth execution, post-show follow-up. A complete repeatable system for measuring and multiplying ROI. Most companies treat shows as expense events. This pillar reframes them as coordination events where the real work happens before the doors open.

Pillar Two: Booth Training Bootcamp People don't buy from booths. They buy from people. Body positioning, conversation openers, lead qualification in thirty seconds or less. Most booth teams have never been trained to work one. This is the session that fixes that.

Pillar Three: Launching Products on the Show Floor A trade show is the ultimate launchpad if you know how to use it. Press coordination, influencer alignment, demo design, social-ready moments. The backstage planning matters as much as the product itself.

Pillar Four: The Follow-Up Formula Eighty percent of trade show ROI is captured after the booth comes down. Most companies lose it entirely. Thirty-day rhythm. Personalized outreach at scale. Conversations into accounts.

Pillar Five: The Future of Trade Shows Hybrid, digital, experiential. Shows are not dying — they are evolving. This pillar positions the offer as forward-looking strategy, not just floor tactics, and gives event planners the content they need to justify continued investment to their own leadership.

These five pillars are the product. They need to exist before the next Chord conversation happens.

THEN THE TWO ARTICLES

Once the pillars are solid, two articles need to be written and published through NAMM — credible ground I already own in pro audio — to seed both buyers simultaneously before any pitch is made.

Article One: 3 Root Issues That Are Ruining Your Trade Show Results

Stop writing about tactics. Diagnose the root causes.

Low morale. The dejection of pitching and failing in a slow booth next to a booth that is hopping. Nobody talks about this honestly. I need to.

No cohesive purpose. Showing up because that is what we always do is not a strategy. The show is just execution. If the booth is dead, someone dropped the ball before anyone landed in the convention city.

Lack of hospitality. A dead booth is not a display problem. It is a culture problem. The trade show just makes visible what was already broken everywhere else.

Write this for exhibitors. Signal it to event planners. Make the methodology visible enough that the next Tom Vaughan doesn't need to be convinced — he needs to be scheduled.

Article Two: The 5 Steps for Trade Show Success for Any Event Attendee

This one is more complex than it sounds and I need to resist the urge to flatten it.

The five steps only land after the full population of a trade show floor has been mapped. Eight types of attendees. Three experience categories cutting across all of them. The matrix of eight types crossed with three categories is the real deliverable — a diagnostic tool for reading any trade show floor in any industry. The five steps follow from the matrix. Not the other way around.

Write the matrix first. Let the steps emerge from it. This is the article that signals to every event planner who reads it that I already think at the systems level — not just the tactics level.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Tom Vaughan did not fail to buy. I failed to give him something specific enough to buy.

The expertise exists. The model exists. The market exists. What does not yet exist is the packaged, published, specific-enough methodology that makes the sale a confirmation event rather than a persuasion event.

I teach this. Now I need to do it.

Cobbler's kids are getting shoes.

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