Tool — $129
Price the show before you sign for the booth.
Ten sections, a live expense ledger, and the three numbers that settle the argument: cost per lead, expected revenue, and breakeven leads. Export a branded event decision report for the person who approves the budget. One-time unlock, unlimited shows and exports.
The decision
Your show
Enter the expense lines to see what this show has to return.
Open before you sign
- Name the show and attach the exhibitor contract terms.
- Exhibitor kit deadline is empty. Advance rates are the cheapest money on this list.
- No shipment deadline. Late freight is the most common overrun.
- No lead process. Without it the spend has no way to prove itself.
- No follow-up completion date. Set it before the show.
- No booth roster. Decide who works which shift.
- No lead target, so cost per lead cannot be calculated.
- The SWOT has no weaknesses listed. Name them while you can still fix them.
- No attendance history. Past spend and past leads are the only honest forecast you have.
Total cost
$0
Cost per lead
Set a lead target
Cost per meeting
Set a meeting target
Expected revenue
Set deal size and close rate
Return on the spend
Not calculable yet
Breakeven
Not calculable yet
Your branding
How to work it
- 1Fill the show, the dates, and the logistics while the exhibitor kit is open in another tab.
- 2Pull last year's invoices into the ledger. Planned first, actual as they arrive.
- 3Put a real close rate against a real deal size. The verdict is only as honest as those two numbers.
- 4Write the SWOT with the person who will work the booth, not only the person paying for it.
- 5Export the report and take it to the budget conversation.
The show
The official name, the venue, the booth, and who actually walks the floor. A distributor show and an end-user show need different booths and different goals.
Use the official name on the exhibitor contract.
10x10 inline, 20x20 island, kiosk, shared.
End users, distributors, resellers, OEMs, specifiers, press.
Important dates
Advance rates and shipment windows are the cheapest savings available. Fill these in the day the contract is signed, including the date follow-up must be finished.
Electrical, internet, carpet, furniture, labor at advance rates.
Set this before the show, not after.
Logistics
Freight, show services, travel, inventory, on-site contacts, and the lead process. This section is the one people wish they had written at 6am on set-up day.
Carrier, crate count, weight, advance warehouse or direct, who signs for it.
Electrical drop, internet, carpet and padding, furniture, cleaning, labor call times.
Room block name, cut-off date, flights, ground transport, arrival and departure by person.
Serial numbers out, condition in, what returns, what ships to a customer, what stays in storage.
Show manager, general contractor, drayage desk, hotel, your own escalation contact.
Scanner or app, required qualifying fields, nightly upload, CRM owner, response time, cadence, and who reports on it.
History of attendance
Years attended, past spend, who went, who worked the booth from outside the company, leads captured, and revenue traced back.
Goals and KPIs
Five numbers make the show measurable: qualified leads, booked meetings, new opportunities, average deal size, and close rate.
First order value, or first year of a contract.
Use last year's real number. If you have none, use 5 and mark it an assumption.
Meetings with named accounts, distributor training sessions, press mentions, demo completions, quotes issued.
Opportunities
Speaking slots, sponsorships, in-booth demos, and named prospects on the attendee list. Most of these close earlier than the booth deadline.
Session, deadline to submit, who presents, topic.
What it costs, what it delivers, and how you would know it worked.
What runs, how long, who runs it, and the ask at the end.
Pull the attendee and exhibitor list. Book meetings before you arrive.
Booth roster
Who works the booth, in what role, from which company, on which shift. Print this and put it in the crate.
Running list of expenses
Planned and actual, line by line. Leave a line blank when it does not apply, and write a guess when you have no quote yet.
Space and booth
$0
Show services
$0
Shipping and logistics
$0
Staff and travel
$0
Marketing and presence
$0
Hospitality
$0
Product and inventory
$0
Total planned $0
SWOT on attending
Written before the contract is signed. A weakness named in June is a fix. On the show floor it is an excuse.
What you bring: existing relationships, a launch, a demo nobody else has, booth position.
Thin staffing, no follow-up owner, aging booth, no pre-show outreach.
Channel partners in one place, competitor absence, a speaking slot, press on the floor.
Competitor sponsorship, cost creep, production delays you would be defending, low attendance year.
Export the decision
The report opens with the cost, the cost per lead, the return, and the breakeven, then carries every section you filled in, the ledger, and the SWOT.
The preview is free. Downloading the branded report needs the one-time unlock at $129, which covers every show you plan afterwards.