Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Retailbound’s new guide puts trade show staffing, lead context and follow-up in focus. Makai examines the operational choices for CPG brands.
On October 17, 2026, Retailbound published “Trade Show Dos and Don’ts for Attendees and Brands” by its president and founder Yohan Jacob. The guide offers advice for attending or exhibiting at trade shows in 2027.
The publication puts attention on the work around the booth conversation: booking meetings, answering commercial questions and delivering the next step. For CPG and beverage marketers planning physical activations, that makes the handoff between field engagement and sales follow-up the issue to examine.
Retailbound recommends treating participation as a connected process rather than counting booth traffic or badge scans as the outcome. For brands, that starts with booking buyer meetings before the event and deciding which conversations qualify as useful leads.
For attendees, Jacob suggests emailing the ten exhibitors they most want to meet two weeks before the show and requesting a 15-minute slot. Exhibitors are advised to prepare staff for commercial questions and agree on a consistent lead-capture method.
The recommendations cover these linked decisions:
The corresponding don’ts follow directly from that advice: do not leave lead quality undefined, do not rely on contact details alone and do not replace promised information with a generic greeting. A meeting booked before the show still needs a commercially ready conversation and a useful next action afterward.
This is practitioner guidance, not a study or an organizer policy change. It does not quantify an effect on sales, conversion or Return on Investment (ROI). The useful response is to assess the operating choices on their merits rather than treat them as proven performance benchmarks.
At Makai, our view is straightforward: welcome people warmly and give the interaction a clear purpose. A generous product conversation and a disciplined commercial handoff belong in the same plan.
Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to drive in-store sales through real conversations and product trials. Our trade show activations are designed to turn brief consumer interactions into qualified leads for premium CPG brands. Those are related capabilities, but a shopper trying a product and a buyer discussing an account are different interactions.
That distinction matters when a food or beverage brand brings product trial into its exhibit. We believe the experience should make participation inviting without asking a sample count to stand in for buyer intent. A conversation needs its own business context before the sales team can judge the next action.
We create experiential programs that connect emotion with action through creativity, strategy and data. In this context, our position is that the product experience and the commercial record should support the same intended outcome. Neither the creative brief nor the reporting brief should stand alone.
For a marketing leader under pressure to connect live activity with pipeline, the brief should state what the activation is meant to produce. Our perspective on connecting event measurement to commercial goals follows that same principle. Busy is an observation; a qualified opportunity needs a definition.
Retailbound’s recommendations put attention on staffing coverage, space planning and the movement of information. In our view, these belong in the execution brief rather than being left for the team to interpret on the floor.
Retailbound’s recommendation to book buyer meetings before the show makes those conversations part of the planning brief. Its attendee advice is aimed at arranging time with exhibitors; its brand advice is aimed at securing buyer conversations. The two audiences have different jobs.
For Makai, the operational question is whether the staffing plan supports the conversations the brand is trying to schedule. A meeting request does not replace qualification. We would connect the meeting objective with the questions staff need to answer and the information they need to record.
Retailbound advises having at least one booth staffer who can answer questions about wholesale price, case pack and lead time without calling someone else. For CPG teams, the staffing question is therefore broader than who can welcome visitors or explain the product.
The operational implication is to identify that commercial coverage before the show and clarify how other staff route questions they cannot answer. That follows the guide’s recommendation to define qualification questions and the information the team must collect.
Makai’s stance is that a warm welcome should not leave a serious buyer waiting for an answer no one owns. This is a role-definition decision, not simply a request for more people.
Pre-booked meetings put a different demand on the exhibit than open product trial. Our view is that the floor plan should account for both purposes instead of treating all booth traffic as interchangeable.
At Natural Products Expo West 2025, we designed and managed a 40 by 20 foot trade show environment for Glanbia. It brought think!, Isopure, Optimum Nutrition, and Amazing Grass into one coordinated space. Our scope covered concept and operations as well as staffing and breakdown.
More than 14,000 recorded product samples were distributed across the activation stations. For this discussion, the useful distinction is between managing participation and defining the commercial outcome. Product distribution and prospect qualification deserve separate definitions in the brief.
That is why we see planning room for trials and buyer conversations as an operational issue rather than a purely visual choice. The meeting plan should have a place in the space plan.
Retailbound recommends agreeing on a shared capture method before the show and using it consistently. Its examples include an organizer app, a spreadsheet or a CRM note field.
The tool choice is not the whole operating decision. Retailbound places the emphasis on using the agreed method consistently. In our view, selecting a platform and defining a handoff are separate parts of the brief. The shared process needs to cover what gets recorded as well as where it goes.
The record should preserve who the person is and what they asked. It should also capture what the brand promised and the appropriate next action. That gives the handoff a defined content requirement instead of leaving “follow up” as an empty instruction.
For our purposes, “qualified” should mean the team can explain why the conversation belongs in the next commercial step. The qualification questions should reflect the conversations the brand actually wants, following Retailbound’s guidance. Product curiosity and a wholesale discussion deserve different labels.
For Makai, the priority is the link between a live conversation and a usable next step. Our integrated services extend from permitting to CRM reporting. We see a clearer path from booth activity to revenue as a planning responsibility, not something a scan total settles.
Retailbound separates a short same-day message for promising conversations from substantive follow-up within the first working week. It also recommends a later second touch. The message should refer to the actual discussion and deliver the information promised.
The practical implication is to prepare ownership and follow-up before the show. A note acknowledging the meeting is not the same task as sending the requested commercial information. Treating those as separate tasks preserves the guide’s distinction between an early reply and a substantive response.
For CMO and VP oversight, we would frame readiness around whether the next action has an owner and the promised information is available. That is more specific than approving a generic post-show email.
Jacob states the central point plainly: “The point is capturing the context, not the contact.”
That is a useful test of the whole operating plan. In Makai’s view, a record is ready for the next team when it carries the conversation’s purpose and the commitment made. A contact detail is part of that record, not a substitute for it.
For CPG and beverage leaders, the managerial task is to connect the welcome at the booth with the work after it. Meeting preparation defines the intended conversation. Staff coverage supports it. Context and ownership carry it into follow-up.
CMOs and marketing VPs: will you use today’s planning meeting to assign ownership of the next show’s lead handoff, from the booth conversation through delivery of the information promised?
Choosing who handles product trial and who owns the next sales conversation puts staffing and follow-up in the same brief; Makai delivers retail demonstrations through trained brand ambassadors. For CPG teams facing inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing, its experiential campaigns and trade show activations are designed to turn 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
