What To Do Before The Show To Increase Your Odds Of Getting More Leads At The Show

Let us talk about the part of trade shows that most people ignore until it is too late. Everything that happens before you get to Chicago or Las Vegas or Atlanta or Orlando has more to do with your lead count than any fancy display or last minute script you try to memorize on the show floor.

If you have ever arrived at a show, looked around and thought I really hope this works, you already know how uncomfortable it feels to wing it. Booth Boss Bootcamp at https://tradeshow.boothbossbootcamp.com/ exists so you do not have to rely on hope.

With some smart work before the show, you can dramatically increase your odds of walking away with more leads and better trade show ROI, even if you are new to exhibiting and still figuring out which side of the booth your badge is supposed to face.

Booth Boss Bootcamp is an online platform built for people who exhibit at trade shows in the United States and want a clear path from beginner to intermediate, starting with level one. The beginner course launches in August and is designed to help you learn faster, because time is usually not your friend when a show date is already locked in. The course lives online at BoothBossBootcamp.com, so you train when you want, where you want, without anyone judging your schedule or your pajamas.



Each session builds on the previous one by about 4%, which sounds oddly specific but feels surprisingly comfortable. You are not being shoved up a mountain of information; you are climbing at a steady, manageable pace. The training is written at about a 7th grade reading level so you never feel overwhelmed by language. You can focus on trade show planning, trade show marketing and lead generation instead of decoding sentences

Heather Bundgaard, the brain behind Booth Boss Bootcamp, brings more than 30 years of trade show experience that she has earned the long way. She spent around 15 years in marketing roles exhibiting at trade shows, from marketing coordinator to marketing manager to marketing director. She then spent about 17 years as a senior exhibit consultant for an exhibit house, helping thousands of clients design, manufacture, install, dismantle and manage exhibits. In total she has managed over $50m worth of trade show experiences and has appeared on CNBC. She also co wrote an AI book, which you can see at https://aiinthefield.com/authors/heather-bundgaard. When Heather says the work you do before Chicago or Las Vegas matters more than most people think, she is speaking from a lot of real world data and quite a few memorable mistakes she has turned into lessons.



Booth Boss Bootcamp is built for two key kinds of humans. First is the very busy marketing C suite leader, often a woman between 35-60, who does not have time to personally walk a new hire through trade show training. She may be planning campaigns in multiple cities, juggling budgets and managing teams. She wants to buy a trade show course like Booth Boss Bootcamp for her employee so that person can learn the basics and come back with solid business ideas and leads from shows in Atlanta or Orlando.

Second is the actual person new to trade shows who needs the training themselves. That might be a marketing coordinator in Chicago who wants to make her boss proud, save the company money by avoiding rookie mistakes and learn how to get more leads. It might be a start up team member in Las Vegas working super long hours on a shoe string budget, wearing multiple hats and needing to learn super fast because the company cannot afford to treat trade shows like expensive experiments.

The first big thing to do before the show is to stop assuming that any trade show is a good trade show. Booth Boss Bootcamp helps you learn how to pick events that match your business goals. Heather guides you through evaluating attendee profiles, industry focus and show history so you can decide whether Chicago is the right place to meet your ideal buyers or whether Las Vegas fits better. She uses casual examples and rhetorical questions to keep you thinking.



Would you rather be the star of a smaller show full of your perfect audience or the random booth in a massive expo where most people have no idea why your product matters. By connecting trade show selection to trade show marketing objectives, you set yourself up for more meaningful conversations and better lead generation before you even think about booth design.

Next comes understanding what you want leads to do for your business. Before the show, Booth Boss Bootcamp teaches you to define what a good lead looks like. Heather encourages you to think about your sales process and ask questions like who needs to be involved in buying decisions and how long your typical sales cycle is.

If you are in Orlando selling a complex solution that needs executive approval, your idea of a hot lead will be different from a start up in Atlanta selling something that can be purchased on the spot. By clarifying your lead criteria before the show, you avoid treating every scanned badge as equal. You know which conversations you want to prioritize and which leads will matter most when you measure trade show ROI afterward.

A lot of pre show power lives in messaging. Booth Boss Bootcamp walks you through crafting trade show marketing messages that actually speak to the problems your buyers care about. Heather draws on her years of exhibit consulting to show how generic taglines lead to generic conversations. Instead of saying we do marketing, she encourages you to highlight specific benefits, such as we help companies stop wasting money at trade shows or we teach your team how to exhibit at trade shows with confidence.

Before your show in Chicago or Las Vegas, you refine these messages so they show up in your booth graphics, your emails and your social posts. You can use marketing AI tools behind the scenes to brainstorm variations, but the Bootcamp helps you anchor them in real buyer needs. Having clear messages ready means you are not improvising in the booth when someone asks so what do you do.

Booth design and trade show booth setup are also part of pre show work that changes lead outcomes. Booth Boss Bootcamp teaches you how to design your booth with traffic flow in mind. Heather uses everyday examples to explain why certain layouts in Atlanta created bottlenecks while others in Orlando encouraged people to stay and talk.



Before you arrive at the show, you decide where counters will go, where demos will happen and where staff will stand. You think through how visitors will enter and exit and where lead capture will occur.

"When you know how you will capture and use lead data before the event, you are less likely to scramble for pens and sticky notes after each conversation."

This is not about building the fanciest booth; it is about creating a space where working the show floor feels natural. By doing this design thinking in advance, you avoid setting up a booth that looks nice but makes conversations awkward.

Another pre show step is planning booth staff training. Booth Boss Bootcamp emphasizes that even the smartest design will not generate leads if the people in the booth do not know how to engage visitors. Heather encourages you to plan quick training sessions before the show in Chicago or Las Vegas so staff understand basic expectations.

She talks about how to greet people, which questions to ask first, how to listen and how to hand off conversations between team members. You might decide that one person focuses on initial engagement, another handles deeper product discussions and another manages lead capture. By assigning roles before the show, you prevent the common problem of everyone doing everything and no one doing anything well.



Lead capture systems also need attention before you arrive in Atlanta or Orlando. Booth Boss Bootcamp goes over options for collecting and organizing lead information. Heather talks about using digital tools, scanners and simple forms to record key details. She explains how to design a lead form that does more than collect names and emails. It should capture notes about what the attendee is interested in, what problems they mentioned and what follow up they agreed to.

Understanding trade show logistics around badge scanning and data export is part of this pre show planning. When you know how you will capture and use led data before the event, you are less likely to scramble for pens and sticky notes after each conversation.

Pre show communication is another important lever. Booth Boss Bootcamp helps you plan outreach to existing contacts and potential attendees before the show. Heather suggests sending emails that mention your booth location, your key topic and any special booth engagement strategies you will use. Maybe in Chicago you invite existing clients to stop by for a quick chat about new features. In Las Vegas you might tease a small interactive element that encourages people to visit.

The course helps you think through what will resonate with your audience and how to use expo marketing tips without slipping into generic hype. Pre show communication warms up the crowd so they are more likely to seek you out, which directly increases your odds of getting more leads.

Heather also talks about understanding show services and regulations before the event. If you figure out how material handling, electricity and internet orders work ahead of time, you can avoid surprises that distract you from lead generation. Booth Boss Bootcamp uses her stories about past mistakes to highlight why reading show manuals matters.

By learning from those experiences in a casual, humorous way, you prepare yourself to navigate show services without panic. That frees up mental space for focusing on exhibit conversations instead of last minute logistics.

Before the show, Heather wants you to look at your internal tools too. Booth Boss Bootcamp includes worksheets, guides and tools that help you plan your strategy. You might use a worksheet to set target numbers for leads and meetings for your show in Atlanta.

You might use a guide to check off trade show planning tasks for Orlando, from confirming shipments to printing schedules. You might use a tool to calculate your break even point so you know how many qualified leads you need from Chicago or Las Vegas to justify your investment. By working through these resources in advance, you enter the show with a clear sense of what you are aiming for and what success looks like.

Mindset plays a quiet but big role in pre show preparation. Heather wants you to stand tall, full of confidence and shine on the show floor, not just survive it. Booth Boss Bootcamp is designed to fix lack of confidence by giving you context and clarity before you show up. You learn that it is normal to feel nervous, that even experienced exhibitors have made mistakes and that confidence comes from knowing what you are doing and why. 

The course reminds you that you are part of a business team, not a lone ranger. Whether you are in a large company in Chicago or a scrappy start up in Las Vegas, preparing as a team matters. Sharing your goals, roles and expectations before the show helps everyone feel more aligned.

Money is always part of pre show decisions. Booth Boss Bootcamp offers tiered pricing so you can choose the level of training that fits your budget and urgency. There is an initial course called 60 ways to save money price: $49, which can quickly pay for itself if it helps you avoid one big mistake in Atlanta or Orlando. The self directed full beginner course lets you learn at your own pace. The cohort version adds community and accountability. Done for you services provide extra support for companies that need more hands on help. All these options are laid out at https://tradeshow.boothbossbootcamp.com/. 

The Bootcamp is backed by a money back guarantee. The promise is that you either save your investment cost or increase sales by at least that amount at your next show, or you get your money back. That guarantee is Heather putting her thirty plus years of experience on the line, trusting that pre show preparation and structured trade show training produce real results.

"You can pick better shows, define better leads, design better booths, train better staff, create better messages and plan better follow up."

If you are a marketing C suite leader, pre show planning probably competes with dozens of other responsibilities. Booth Boss Bootcamp makes it easier by giving you a program you can hand to your new hire. Instead of trying to explain every trade show tip yourself between meetings, you send them to BoothBossBootcamp.com and then talk with them about strategy once they have completed the training.

If you are the coordinator or start up marketer who will actually stand in the booth in Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta or Orlando, the Bootcamp gives you a handbook for what to do before the show so you can walk onto the floor feeling ready instead of hoping for luck.

Trade shows will always have an element of unpredictability. You cannot control who decides to stop at your booth or what surprises happen on the show floor. But you can control what you do before the event. You can pick better shows, define better leads, design better booths, train better staff, create better messages and plan better follow up. That is the work Booth Boss Bootcamp is built to guide you through.

If your next show is coming up and you want to stack the deck in your favor before you ever hang a banner, you can explore the beginner course and all four pricing levels at https://tradeshow.boothbossbootcamp.com/. When you are ready to connect with the broader mission and see how Booth Boss Bootcamp can support you across multiple shows in Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Orlando, visit BoothBossBootcamp.com and start doing the pre show work that makes more leads at the show feel less like a miracle and more like the plan.

Bye for now!