Backed by Y CombinatorFour documents and three sheets that set this year's meeting target and budget split from last year's own numbers.
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What you get
Pack of 7 files: 4 documents, 3 spreadsheets
Trade Show Planning Checklist TemplateTarget Meeting List
Every account on the attendee roster that matches the target account list, checked against the CRM for an existing AE meeting before it goes into outreach.
| Company | AE Meeting Already Booked | Outreach Sent | Meeting Booked |
|---|---|---|---|
An account with an AE meeting already on the calendar is routed to the account executive instead of double-invited. Everything else goes into outreach.
Halvergate Systems has exhibited at the Colworth Distribution Expo for three years, and last year the show cost $72,940 all-in, 26.1% of its entire annual marketing budget. CEIR's own spending research puts exhibit space at 40.5% of the average exhibitor's direct spend, the largest single category industry-wide. That is exactly the kind of number that gets renewed every year on habit, never checked against what it actually returned. Most exhibitors buy the same booth footprint and the same staffing split every year because that is what they bought last time.
Two channels produced Halvergate's pipeline last year, and they did not produce it at the same rate. Meetings booked before the show opened, matched from the attendee roster against the target account list, returned $15.26 of pipeline per direct dollar. Booth walk-up traffic returned $2.63, a 5.8x gap, while the booth had taken half the budget and pre-show outreach only 13.3%. This pack runs that same comparison on your own numbers before a dollar of next year's budget is committed, and lets the ratio decide the split instead of last year's invoice.
Moving the mix without growing the total held Halvergate's cost flat, up 0.6%, while total pipeline rose 23.0% and the meetings-per-dollar gap narrowed to 5.3x as more budget chased the stronger channel. The Target Meeting List also checks every matched account against the CRM for an account executive meeting already on the calendar, so a scarce pre-show slot never gets spent twice on the same account. The webinar programme pack runs the same per-channel discipline for a virtual session; this one runs it for a show floor.
Target Meeting List31 accounts matched against Halvergate's target list from this year's attendee roster.
| Company | AE Meeting Booked | Outreach | Booked | Held | Opp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bramwell Freight Co. | Yes | Routed to AE | — | — | — |
| Aldergate Logistics | Yes | Routed to AE | — | — | — |
| Marlow Supply Partners | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kettleworth Distribution | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Redcliffe Logistics | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wrenfield Carriers | No | Yes | Yes | No | — |
| Holloway Freight Systems | No | Yes | No | — | — |
31 matched, 3 routed to an account executive instead of invited. Of the 28 queued, 15 booked, 13 held, 6 opened an opportunity.
Pipeline AttributionBoth channels, both years, on the same basis: pipeline divided by each channel's own direct cost.
| Year | Channel | Volume | Opps | Pipeline | Direct Cost | Per $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior | Meetings | 22 matched | 4 | $148,000 | $9,700 | $15.26 |
| Prior | Booth | 640 scans | 4 | $96,000 | $36,500 | $2.63 |
| Current | Meetings | 31 matched | 6 | $231,000 | $17,900 | $12.91 |
| Current | Booth | 480 scans | 3 | $69,000 | $28,450 | $2.43 |
Meetings outran the booth 5.8x per direct dollar last year and 5.3x this year, the shape of a channel with matched accounts still left to spend the next dollar on.
Cost RegisterThis year's lines, tagged to the channel each one funds.
| Line Item | Channel | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Booth space rental (20x15) | Booth | $15,400 |
| Booth build and graphics | Booth | $8,100 |
| Meeting outreach labor | Meetings | $12,800 |
| Client dinners | Meetings | $5,100 |
| Travel and lodging | Shared | $16,450 |
| Sponsorship add-on | Shared | $8,000 |
| All-in total | $73,400 |
Meetings-direct share rose from 13.3% to 24.4% of the total. Booth-direct fell from 50.0% to 38.8%. All-in cost rose 0.6%, essentially flat.
Sets this year's meeting target from last year's own booking rate and prices the budget split against the marketing budget.
Every matched account checked against the CRM for an existing AE meeting before a single invitation goes out.
Two openings, a cold account against an existing relationship, plus the reminder and day-before confirmation that actually fill a slot.
Every cost line tagged to the channel it funds, booth or meetings, with shared costs left honestly unallocated.
One page a staffer can reread standing up, sorting a visitor into a qualified conversation or a nurture scan.
Reconciles the booking target against what happened and recommends next year's exact split, not a note to keep optimising.
Pipeline per direct dollar by channel, both years side by side, which is the number that actually moves the budget.
Send the attendee or exhibitor roster, your target account list, and last year's costs and results for this event if you tracked them, even roughly.
Matched accounts get checked against the CRM for an existing meeting first, then the rest go into outreach with a numeric booking target attached.
Pre-booked meetings run on the Meeting Outreach sequence, and the booth runs on its own talk track, since a visitor who never agreed to fifteen minutes needs a different opening.
The Post-event Report reconciles the target against what happened and prices next year's split, the same reconciliation the sponsorship evaluation runs for a one-time renewal decision instead of every year.
Yes, with no signup and no card, and the download is the whole pack rather than a preview of it. Edit with AI installs it as a private workspace and matches your own roster and target account list instead of Halvergate's worked example. More packs sit in the template library, including the field and dinner event pack for small dinners.
Four Word documents and three CSV sheets in one zip. The documents open in Word, Pages, or Google Docs, and the sheets open as real spreadsheets in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets, so the meeting queue and cost lines stay usable data rather than a table flattened onto a page.
A checklist orders tasks by weeks before the date and stops at the send. This prices the plan: it splits last year's costs by channel, divides each channel's pipeline by its own direct cost, and lets that ratio, not last year's habit, set this year's split.
Say so, and the plan sets a numeric meeting target from a stated, conservative assumption instead of a guess, with the assumption named so next year's version can check it. Halvergate's own first year at a new show would have started the same way.
Every account on the attendee roster that matches your target account list, minus anyone whose deal already has an account executive meeting on the calendar for the show. That account gets routed to its AE instead, so a scarce slot never gets spent twice on the same company.
Some, and the pack does not zero it out. B2B exhibitions still take 40.8% of the median marketing budget, the largest single channel by CEIR's own count, which is exactly why the split inside it deserves the same scrutiny as any other line.
Written by
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.
Send your roster, your target account list, and last year's numbers if you have them. River builds the queue, routes open deals to their AE, and prices this year's split.
Edit with AI