Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Raconteur’s B2B events report raises a practical challenge: connecting product logistics and booth conversations with credible follow-up.
On October 29, 2026, Raconteur reported on investment in B2B live events and organizers’ responses to sponsor scrutiny. Its account covered Informa’s planned acquisition of Clarion Events alongside efforts to improve meetings and lead tracking. The investment story and the execution story belong together.
Research cited in Raconteur’s report found that 68.9% of qualified respondents who had attended a conference in the previous 12 months said they had given leadership an event Return on Investment (ROI) figure they did not fully trust.
That self-reported finding comes from a global B2B survey. It describes uncertainty about reporting rather than independently audited event performance. It does not establish outcomes for U.S. CPG sampling or consumer activations. The operational implications below are Makai’s analysis, not tactics the survey proved would increase revenue.
The commercial stakes are substantial. According to Raconteur, Informa’s B2B Live Events division generated £1.59 billion in first-half 2026 revenue. Exhibitors and sponsors contributed £1.18 billion of that total.
Raconteur also reported Informa’s planned £2.24 billion acquisition of Clarion Events, announced on October 6, 2026. The planned transaction puts a concrete investment decision behind the discussion of live events as valuable media assets.
The operational response described by Raconteur is more specific than a general promise of better networking: pre-arranged meetings, better lead tracking and more focused networking. Those changes address what sponsors can actually do at an event and what they can document afterward.
Raconteur reported that Hyve arranged more than 160,000 meetings across its events in 2025. Scheduled interaction is already a substantial part of the execution model described in the article.
For exhibitors, our reading is straightforward. The event organizer’s investment case and the sponsor’s business case are different documents. A brand still needs to define what a useful conversation looks like and how that conversation will move beyond the show floor.
Makai’s stance is warm welcome, clear purpose. A personal interaction deserves care. The commercial record deserves the same care.
For CPG and beverage brands, physical marketing gives people a chance to experience a product rather than simply hear a claim about it. At a B2B trade show, that interaction can also support a conversation about distribution or a commercial partnership. Our view is that hospitality should make the conversation easier while disciplined execution makes its business purpose visible.
We have connected brands with people through live experiences and retail programs since 1995. That experience supports a practical conviction: the creative idea and the delivery plan should serve the same objective. A compelling activation still needs the product and people required to carry the conversation forward.
Our measurement approach tracks awareness, engagement and conversion. We provide reporting on reach and trials alongside leads and sales. Those measures describe different stages of activity rather than interchangeable evidence of success.
For a beverage launch, a product trial and a qualified trade inquiry answer different business questions. Neither should disappear inside a single engagement total. The discipline is to preserve that distinction through the connection between event activity and later sales.
We believe this is where aloha and accountability meet. A welcoming experience respects the person in front of the booth. A clear commercial record respects the team responsible for the investment.
The changes Raconteur describes have practical implications for staffing and booth flow. They also put product availability and follow-up readiness into the same planning conversation. Our recommendation is to treat those decisions as connected parts of the activation rather than separate purchases.
Pre-arranged meetings give the field team a defined reason for an interaction. That should influence the brief, not just the calendar invitation.
In our view, the staffing plan should distinguish the people welcoming visitors from those responsible for substantive commercial conversations. This is a question of role clarity rather than a recommendation for a particular crew size. The right allocation follows the activation’s objective and the conversations it is designed to support.
We run programs coast to coast using local crews with logistics and permit expertise. That national capability is relevant here because the commercial purpose needs to remain clear across locations. Regional execution should support the same brand objective without pretending every venue has identical operating conditions.
An actionable field brief is the appropriate place to connect the audience with the conversation objective and the next action. The person greeting a visitor should understand the purpose of the interaction, even when someone else owns the commercial discussion.
A meeting-led program puts a different demand on the booth than a plan built only around attracting attention. Our view is that the footprint should accommodate scheduled conversations without treating other visitors as an interruption.
Makai plans and manages trade show spaces to attract attention and start conversations that can lead to customers. For that work, flow is a commercial consideration. The space should support the interaction the brand wants to have.
Where product trial is part of a trade show activation, sampling and commercial discussion need to work together. A visitor should not have to choose between understanding the product and finding the person who can discuss a business opportunity. This is a design judgment, not an argument for a larger footprint by default.
Product and event equipment belong in this discussion from the start. The meeting objective should inform which physical materials need to be available on site.
Our storage and logistics service covers sampling products and event gear. We ship, track and coordinate deliveries nationwide. That capability supports the physical side of an activation while the event team prepares the experience itself.
From our perspective, delivery planning is a commercial input. A discussion centered on a product trial needs the relevant product available. A display-dependent presentation needs the corresponding equipment in place.
The practical implication is to connect the activation brief with the delivery plan. This is the work behind coordinated brand-event logistics, where the physical requirements follow the intended experience. More purposeful meetings do not remove the work of coordinating products or understanding applicable venue requirements.
Better lead tracking should mean more than collecting a larger file of contacts. Our view is that the record should help the next person understand why the conversation matters.
For B2B trade show reporting, we recommend distinguishing participation from qualified commercial interest. The event identity and the agreed next action belong with the contact record. That is a practical recommendation for making follow-up usable, not a claim that every recorded interaction will become an opportunity.
The handoff deserves a place in the same operating discussion as staffing and freight. Someone needs the context to continue the conversation after the booth comes down. Otherwise, the physical experience and the follow-up process remain separate activities.
For leadership reporting, the useful distinction is between what happened on site and what became verifiable afterward. A credible account can describe both without presenting conversations as booked revenue.
Raconteur quoted Outcomes Rocket CEO Saul Marquez: “If pipeline and revenue are not the metric, the conference is just a very expensive trip.”
For Makai, the useful part of that challenge is the demand for a commercial connection. It does not mean every conversation needs an immediate sale. It means the business purpose should survive the transition from a live interaction to a record that another team can use.
That puts attention on the handoffs. Product delivery supports the experience. The experience supports the conversation. The record gives follow-up a starting point.
The next event decision is not simply whether to renew a booth or book a different show. It is whether the operating plan supports the business case that leadership will eventually review.
Makai’s view is to assess the physical delivery and the commercial handoff together. The organizer may provide better meeting opportunities. The brand still needs an activation capable of supporting those conversations and a reporting approach that keeps their outcomes distinct.
When your next B2B event appears in a leadership report, will you as a CMO or VP have a number supported by the product delivery, the booth conversations and the follow-up records behind it?
Qualified leads are the objective of Makai’s trade show activations, supported on the physical side by sampling-product and event-gear storage with coordinated nationwide shipping and tracking. For CPG marketers facing inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing, Makai’s experiential campaigns and trade show activations are designed to convert consumer interactions into qualified leads.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
