Explori Blog

Why Meeting Existing Customers is the Hidden ROI Driver for Exhibitors — and Organisers

Sep 3, 2025

If you ask most exhibitors what success looks like at a trade show, you’ll often hear familiar answers: generating new leads, showcasing products, or raising brand awareness. But Explori’s latest Channel Insights research highlights a less obvious — but far more powerful — driver of success: meeting with existing customers. Explore the full findings and see what’s next for B2B events — download the 2025 Channel Insights Report. Across more than 3,000 B2B events, only half of exhibitors set this as an objective. Yet those that do consistently outperform their peers across all satisfaction metrics. They report higher overall satisfaction, stronger Net Promoter Scores, and greater expected return on investment. Why this matters for exhibitors In today’s virtual-first working world, sales teams are starved of the face time they once had. Dropping by a client’s office is no longer a reliable option. Trade shows, however, provide a rare and efficient touchpoint to connect with multiple existing customers in one place. For companies with complex portfolios, that face time is critical for nurturing relationships, upselling, and cross-selling. The data also shows that exhibitors who actively invite their customers to meet on-site achieve even greater outcomes. Rather than seeing trade shows as risky environments where competitors might “poach” clients, the evidence suggests that leaning into these interactions strengthens loyalty and improves ROI. "No longer can sellers go to New York City and meet with their top five customers in their offices, because they’re not consistently in the office anymore. But their customers are at key industry events, so they can go to an event and meet with their top 20 customers there. That’s incredibly valuable." Dean Armintrout, Senior Director, Experiential Marketing, Zendesk Why this matters for organisers For organisers, the idea of encouraging exhibitors to invite their existing customers isn’t new. Many have been advocating for it for years — but too often, the message hasn’t fully landed. What’s different now is the evidence. This latest data shows beyond doubt that exhibitors who prioritise customer meetings don’t just succeed more — they’re also more satisfied, more likely to return, and more likely to invest. That’s good news for exhibitor retention and for the long-term health of the event itself. Organisers can use these findings as powerful proof points to help their exhibitors lean further into the strategy. Whether through matchmaking, hosted buyer programs, or simply providing clear data and playbooks, organisers can position their events as a space where account growth and relationship-building happen — not just lead generation. "If I were an exhibitor, what would my strategy be in this economy – to secure the foundation. I want to have quality time with my existing customers, make sure I maintain them, and potentially I can grow that…. So, we as organisers need to understand that." Adam Ford, COO, Clarion Events The takeaway For exhibitors: stop thinking of events as just a hunting ground for new prospects. Start using them as a strategic touchpoint for your existing customer base. For organisers: lean in. You’ve long encouraged exhibitors to bring their existing customers onsite — now you have the data to prove just how powerful it is. By reframing the event as a place where customer relationships deepen, not just where deals begin, you can give exhibitors the confidence to lean into this strategy. Their success will drive greater satisfaction, stronger retention, and the long-term health of your event. Explore the full findings and see what’s next for B2B events — download the 2025 Channel Insights Report.

The New Exhibitor Mindset: Doing More with Less

Aug 28, 2025

The post-pandemic exhibitor rebound

Aug 21, 2025

Events are back. But not how you remember them The B2B events industry has done more than bounce back from the pandemic — it’s entering a stronger, more strategic era. New research we've conducted in partnership with UFI and SISO, shows exhibitors aren’t just returning to trade shows and conferences; they’re getting more value from them than ever before. The data behind the rebound We analysed feedback from more than 3,000 B2B events worldwide between 2017 and 2025. Four key KPIs — Overall Satisfaction, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Likelihood of Return, and Event Importance — surged in 2022 and have stayed well above pre-pandemic levels. The standout stat: Average exhibitor NPS is up 27 points since 2019 — one of the largest positive shifts we’ve seen in any marketing channel. This isn’t a short-lived “honeymoon phase” — improved scores have held steady for three consecutive years. Why the rebound happened The return to in-person events met a deep human need for connection after years of remote work. But exhibitors also returned with a sharper, more deliberate approach. Many are: Prioritising quality over quantity – focusing on meaningful interactions rather than chasing footfall. Strengthening existing relationships – using events to meet customers they can’t easily reach in other ways. Rethinking ROI – moving beyond lead counts to track business outcomes and customer impact. For organisers: Keep audience quality at the centre of event design. Offer tools and data that help exhibitors prove ROI beyond leads. Maintain the momentum by innovating — don’t revert to pre-pandemic formats by default. “I think we in a good place at the moment, but as an industry we can't become complacent... you need to be vigilant; you have to look at data. You have to be asking why; you have to be pulling back the layers to really understand the dynamics that are at play.” Adam Ford, COO, Clarion Events For exhibitors: Set clear objectives for each event. Engage strategically with both new prospects and existing customers. Use post-event data to refine your approach for next year. "People are so happy to gather again. But if everyone returns to the old formats, I think over time we will find that not everything, even before the pandemic, had a reason to exist. So, some shows may not continue, only the most valuable." Stephen Rose, Head of Communication Services, Siemens Explore the full findings and see what’s next for B2B events — download the 2025 Channel Insights Report.

The Global Recovery Insights 2021 report published: the road to recovery

Oct 28, 2021

Second part of the Global Recovery Insights 2021 report is now available. - Latest data reflects optimism in the industry as demand has recovered for live events from both exhibitors and visitors - Impact on spend has been less severe than feared - Visitor quality favoured over quantity Paris / London – 21 October 2021: UFI and Explori are today releasing the second part of the Global Recovery Insights 2021 report, conducted by live events research specialists, Explori in partnership with UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry and supported by SISO, the Society for Independent Show Organizers. This latest recurring quantitative global survey of trade show visitors and exhibitors, carried out in the summer of 2021, collectively gained 15,000 responses in 10 languages, representing trade show participation in over 30 countries. The report focused on five key themes which build on, and can be compared with, the findings of previous Global Insights studies. The study found that demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels for both exhibitors and visitors, with no signs of a fundamental shift away from in-person trade shows as a channel. 72% of existing visitors say they plan to attend trade shows with the same or increased frequency in future, with 62% of exhibitors reporting the same intention. The impact of the pandemic on spend has been far less severe than feared and 75% of exhibitors expect budgets to return to normal within 12 months. In previous studies, exhibitors favoured shows with high visitor numbers, but this appears to have shifted with 86% of exhibitors stating visitor quality is a larger influence on their decision to invest in a show against 67% citing visitor numbers. Where exhibitors are looking to make savings, high quality shows appear protected, and exhibitors who now consider the cost of exhibiting to be a large influence on their decision to support a specific show has grown to 29% since 2020. Live and face-to-face remains the preferred channel for networking and overall experience. Exhibitors are not diverting significant percentages of the budget to digital, although it is seen as a way to test new events and has the potential to deliver content and widen audiences. Many exhibitors are wary of future participation in digital and hybrid models, with low Net Promoter Scores (NPSSM) compounded by even lower scores for digital events, suggesting digital is a significant challenge for those who wish to pursue a revenue stream from this model. However, despite these findings, a new group was surveyed for the first time in this research who were strikingly more likely to convert from digital participation to in-person participation than either current visitors or exhibitors. Made up senior marketing decision makers based in the US or UK who had not used trade shows as a marketing channel prior to the pandemic, ‘the panel’ expect digital to remain part of their marketing mix, indicating that there is potential to convert them to exhibitors at live events and that the digital events that arose during the pandemic have attracted new audiences. “The report gives plenty of reasons for optimism, including quelling doubts about a possible shift away from live events and indicating which shows are likely to bounce back quickly. At a time where physical trade shows are restarting around the world, we hope that these findings will help the industry to a fast recovery and beyond.” said Kai Hattendorf, UFI CEO. Sophie Holt, Managing Director, Explori added: “Whilst the need for some exhibitors to make savings remains, the Global Recovery Insights reflects the optimism felt by the exhibition industry, that live events will soon return to pre-pandemic levels. Budget cuts have not been as harsh as predicted in 2020 and spend is expected to return to 2019 levels within an average show cycle. Quality shows are likely to be protected and digital has opened up new opportunities to widen audiences convert naysayers to the power of live!” The full report is now available to download free here.

Consumerization of B2B events: The shifting priorities of attendees

Jun 6, 2019

One of the highlights of last month’s Experiential Marketing Summit in Las Vegas was a benchmark study revealed by Sparks and Event Marketer about the consumerization of B2B events. When I compared some of their findings to Explori’s Global Visitor Insights report a clear difference emerged. When people attend trade shows they have different event expectations compared to when they attend brand-led events. In the US trade shows are still one of the most profitable B2B media strategies, generating over $13.2bn revenue in 2018. But all events aren’t made equal, and the data suggests nor are the people who attend them. In the Sparks report, they surveyed attendees at brand-led events (i.e. Dreamforce, AdobeMax, Google I/O and more) to understand what today’s attendees want from B2B events. Consumerization came out top as being highly important. However, Explori’s Global Visitor Insights (GVI) 2018/19 report demonstrated something quite different. If you exhibit regularly at events, or organise your own shows, you'll probably be surprised by what the data suggests. What is consumerization in the context of events? Consumerization (or festivalization) is a megatrend that exploded on the B2B event scene in 2016/17. A stream of articles and reports cited the changing face of B2B events influenced by what was happening in the consumer events space. The growth of the experiential economy has created a convergence point for businesses and the creative industries. B2B professionals have been exposed to the high-end production of festival style events such as South by Southwest and now expect a certain level of fun and enjoyment from conferences. B2B events have been challenged to adopt creative elements from consumer events in order to engage an audience who are becoming more distracted and fractured. It does however beg the question, are there some cases in which incorporating consumer elements is not required? Could it even be detrimental? What does the data say about consumerization in B2B events? The Sparks report found that, “while a significant 68% of B2B brands see consumerization as an important trend, an even higher percentage of attendees (77%) feel consumerization is important.” The data here reveals that attendees of brand-led events want to have festival-style elements woven into their experience. It appears they go to these events, not only to be informed but to be entertained. A different picture emerges in the GVI report. We asked 13,000 trade show attendees if they would spend more time at shows that are more entertaining. Only 24% of people in developed countries agreed*. We also asked if they thought events should be more like festivals. The results showed a much lower interest in introducing consumer elements to the trade show experience compared to brand-led events. Even amongst the youngest cohort of our study. Only 36% of under 24s and 33% of 25-34s agreed trade shows should be more like festivals. This disparity surprised me at first. Why do the expectations of someone attending a trade show appear to be so different from when they attend a brand-led event? A deeper dive into the data revealed what drives this. The shifting priorities of event attendees In brand-led events, Sparks found that the top 3 priorities for attendees are: Education/Professional Development (73%) Networking (68%) See new products (55%) However, at trade shows we found the top 3 priorities are: To see new products and services (62%) To keep up to date with market trends (61%) Networking (50%) 59% of our respondents agreed that it didn’t matter whether or not trade shows were entertaining as long as they could achieve their business objectives. It appears that trade show attendees have quite clear cut goals when it comes to attending events. Fun is a “nice to have” but when it comes down to it, the real measure of success is whether or not they find the suppliers and solutions their business needs. On the other side, brand-led event attendees want to be educated and increase their network. They also want that to be wrapped in an experience that echoes consumer events with more unique event spaces, innovative environments, autonomy over how they learn and interact and more creative F&B. For event marketers/organisers utilising a mix of trade shows and brand-led events, this is something to bear in mind. If you’re hosting or sponsoring a brand-led event it may be more beneficial to focus on the experience of your event or stand in order to satisfy attendees who expect to be entertained. Alternatively if you’re exhibiting at a trade show you may want to strip back the experiential elements and focus on showcasing the product/service you offer in an innovative way to converge with attendee expectations. It’s not a one size fits all approach. It’s important to consider whether throwing in consumer elements across all your events, regardless of format is going to deliver the best return. In order to cultivate an event strategy that leaves a lasting impact; tap into the unique expectations of attendees and tailor your strategy to suit. Download the full Global Visitor Insights report here.

What can 13,000 Trade Show Visitors Tell Us?

Jan 16, 2019

We published the findings of our 2018/2019 Global Visitor Insights at the UFI Global Congress in St Petersburg. Produced in partnership with UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry and supported by the Society of Independent Show Organisers (SISO), the report represents the biggest ever global study of trade show visitor experience. In this article, first published in Exhibition World, report author, Sophie Holt discusses some of the findings... Overall the view of trade shows amongst our visitors is positive and stable. When we look at the Explori Global Benchmarks, which contain visitor feedback on over 1,600 trade shows, key indicators of visitor experience such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) have been stable over the last three years, at +5 in 2016 and now +7 in 2018 for trade show visitors. This is reflected in the responses to the survey; most visitors report trade shows are performing about the same, if not getting a little better. But is fatigue is setting in for some regions? We can see that visitors in markets where the trade show industry is more developed, such as Europe and North America, are more likely than visitors in developing markets to say trade shows are getting worse. 27% of visitors in North America think trade shows are getting worse, compared to only 14% in the Middle East and Africa. The most cited frustrations for visitors will be a familiar list to most organisers: seating, catering, parking and queuing. However, visitors with these frustrations generally like trade shows, find them beneficial and plan to attend them again in future. When we look at respondents who dislike trade shows and do not find them beneficial, they tell us about very different frustrations. Core drivers of visitor satisfaction Visitors with negative views are much more concerned about their ability to meet the right exhibitors. This supports the insight from the Explori global benchmarks, where we can map how closely different visitor objectives correlate with overall satisfaction. Again, we see that exhibitors are key to visitors meeting their most important objectives of “sourcing new products” and “staying up to date with market trends”. 29 show directors and senior marketers were interviewed to support the research. Many of them emphasised the importance of a seamless visitor experience and creating a “Wow-Factor” for audiences through tactics such as “festivalisation”. Organisers may be in danger of under-valuing the core role of the exhibitor in driving visitor satisfaction. This study allowed us to understand visitors’ overall views of trade shows as a channel to meet their business objectives. Again, the results were positive; across a range of business objectives, trade shows were the preferred channel ahead of social media, online market places and trade publications. Whilst visitors are most likely to see trade shows as the best channel to achieve their goals, they do recognise and at times prefer alternative formats. Shows that traditionally operate as buying forums are potentially at risk, and in fact 15% of visitors see online marketplaces as better ways to buy/source products, with this rising to 29% amongst under 24’s. Similarly, learning about the industry is facilitated by other channels such as trade media, conferences and social media, with only 34% who say trade shows are the best way to achieve this goal. Those aged under 34 and women of all age groups are more likely to prefer social media as a channel to find new ideas and innovation. It is important to note that whilst survey respondents said they expect their trade show attendance to remain stable, they expect to increase their use of all other media channels, potentially putting more pressure on the trade show model. Many organisers however, see this as an opportunity rather than a threat as trade shows partner with other channels to attract visitors, or become content creators themselves. Organisers refer to a desire to create communities around their events and provide content 365 days a year. However, some express concern that to be successful at this the structures and skill sets within their organisations will need to evolve beyond one designed to deliver a trade show over a period of a few days. Download the full report here.

Updates, announcements and articles you need from the Explori—all in one place.

Why Meeting Existing Customers is the Hidden ROI Driver for Exhibitors — and Organisers

The New Exhibitor Mindset: Doing More with Less

The post-pandemic exhibitor rebound

The Global Recovery Insights 2021 report published: the road to recovery

Consumerization of B2B events: The shifting priorities of attendees

What can 13,000 Trade Show Visitors Tell Us?

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