Time thieves at business events

I am sure you are familiar with the feeling: you head to a globally renowned business trade show, the event everyone claims you must not miss. Optimism and goodwill permeate the event hall. Buyers show up at scheduled meetings, talks go smoothly, and fresh opportunities, strategic partnerships and a common future seem to hang in the air. There are countless ideas, and even more promises.

At first glance, it seems kitschy perfect. This idyllic setting is only hampered by the incessant noise from the exhibition stand, the aggressive lighting, visual tripe, and an endless sea of people. After the second day, fatigue slowly begins to take a toll on focus. Even the evenings are not reserved for rest. Instead, the networking continues at receptions, dinners and parties. It all appears as one big industry show or circus.

As you are whisked back home by plane or find yourself admiring the landscape through the window of a fast train, the second part of the event commences.

Then the event concludes. As you are whisked back home by plane or find yourself admiring the landscape through the window of a fast train, the second part of the event commences. This is the quieter part – absent of music, LinkedIn poses and smiles, and the enthusiastic posts on Instagram. The stocktaking begins. How many people did I actually want to meet? How many conversations carried weight? How many meetings went beyond the universal trade show Esperanto: “How is business?”, “Let’s stay in touch”, or “We should definitely explore opportunities together.”

Days after the booths are dismantled and the carpets thrown away, the picture becomes clearer. Most of the conversations were polite, but superficial. Some, though, were valuable. Among them, a few strategic talks made the noise, fatigue and poor hotel coffee worth trudging through.

But in all earnestness?

The central claim is clear: such meetings are much rarer than we dare admit the first evening after the event, when we are still under the impression of the trade show jumble and tired from our own self-importance. Yet despite all this, I tell myself: “I must be there. This is the central event in our industry.” That is what everyone says. If I don’t attend, my company will lose contact with the market. If I fail to show up, I will miss out on key opportunities. If we don’t exhibit, we don’t exist. They will forget about us.

This mantra is almost holy in the events industry. Event organisers, exhibitors, destinations, hotels, event agencies and suppliers repeat it over and over again. We all know how much energy, time and funds an event like this takes. But few dare to ask the most unpleasant question after the event: Was I there for business or out of fear that I will miss it? That question goes to the heart of the matter: is this even true today, or a collective belief that no one questions anymore?

Note: All photos are used for illustrative purposes only

Don’t misunderstand me. I am a firm believer in the significance of trade shows, trade fairs and B2B events. I have been attending them for years. Paramount business relationships, partnerships and friendships were forged at such events. To boot, I have been organising one such event for the past nineteen years. Hence, I am well aware of the energy, know-how, logistics, and nerves needed to bring the right people in the industry together in the right place.

The problem is thus not in events. The issue lies in the balance between the time invested and the actual value we create there. That is the real test. When I open the list of meetings held after an event, I usually stumble upon an intriguing pattern. Some 30% of contacts are indeed strategically important. A further 40% can be dubbed long-term beneficial connections. Even though they might not bring direct business right away, they have tremendous potential for the future and help to retain a network of relationships.

Then there is the last group: with 30% of the people, you can tell within the first five minutes that nothing will come of the talk. No project, no partnership and no business opportunity. Yet these conversations take just as much time as your priority does.

Jokingly, I refer to these anomalies as time thieves, not because they are terrible people. On the contrary, these are simply attendees who spend a lot of time, energy, and effort at events without creating any real business value. We are reluctant to speak about this in the events industry. Perhaps because it is not politically correct or perhaps because event organisers prefer to emphasise the number of attendees rather than the quality of meetings. Not least, this may be because we are all part of the same game. Yet, the fact remains: such contacts exist, and they use the most luxurious commodity we have: TIME.

Why matchmaking matters more than the number of attendees

One of the most meaningful tasks of event organisers is quality and smart matchmaking. Still, the industry is obsessed with measuring success with big numbers. Five thousand attendees, ten thousand meetings, eighty countries, three hundred buyers, etc. It sounds Impressive and doubles as excellent PR content.

Yet, the real question is not how many meetings we had. It is how many of them were relevant. That is the measure that matters.

The purpose of matchmaking should not be to fill up a calendar no matter the cost. Instead, matchmaking should focus on creating the right connections among people with common interests. People with realistic opportunities to start a business, form partnerships, or at least build a long-term, meaningful connection should meet.

Good matchmaking must separate curiosity from interest, politeness from purpose and statistics from added value.

It should eliminate contacts that clearly do not fit a destination, product, service or business model. Needless to say, this is no easy feat with large-scale events. But this is one of the reasons we should be adamant about this.

The value of an event lies not in the number of handshakes, but in the quality of conversations that happen behind the meeting table. That is the point. A calendar full of scheduled meetings does not necessitate a successful event. Often, it is only a well-organised waste of time.

A calendar full of scheduled meetings does not necessitate a successful event.

I say this not as an outside observer, but as the co-organiser of Conventa. I am well acquainted with the difficulties of organising quality business meetings. That is why certain attendee types continue to irritate me again and again. Not because they would be unpleasant people, but because they damage the essence of business events.

These are the time-pinchers I have stumbled upon. Of course, not all of them are problematic on purpose. Many are kind, polite and even humorous interlocutors. The problem lies not in their personality, but in the fact that they enter an event’s ecosystem without a clear purpose, without real potential, and often without regard for other people’s time.

Herein lies the issue. Time is not an abstract category at a business event. Time is a currency, and every slot in the matchmaking calendar has a price. Every meeting represents a possible cost. If you sit with the wrong person, you fail to find the one who has real interest in your company.

1. Lone wolf alias industry nostalgic
They came primarily because of peers, the activity, or to feel they are still part of the industry. Perhaps they were industry stalwarts once, with many connections and a rich history of relationships. There is nothing wrong with that. The issue arises when they no longer have business purposes, concrete projects, budgets or decision-making power. A conversation with them can be pleasant, even nostalgic. But it will lead to no results.

2. Seller registered as a hosted buyer
Often registered as buyers on the list, these people usually come to sell. Instead of checking your offering, they will start to present theirs. A meeting with this persona quickly turns into a sales pitch you never asked for and likely don’t need. You came to seek new opportunities; they came to find a client.

3. Free travel hunter
At first sight, they seem like the ideal guest. They love to visit, travel and attend everything. Events, fam trips, conferences, and site visits are mainly a way for them to explore the world, not necessarily to generate new business. They listen with interest, praise the destination and promise future collaboration. You invest in the experience, and they add your destination to their list.

4. Business card collector
Their goal is quantity. After an event, they brag about hundreds of new contacts, an expanded LinkedIn account and a substantial heap of business cards. The problem is that they cannot tell which of them is actually relevant. For them, networking is a sport discipline: lots of movement, lots of contact, little tangible result.

5. The eternal promise-maker
Every idea is excellent, every cooperation sounds intriguing, and every project has potential, according to them. At meetings, this type of buyer seems ideal. They show genuine interest in your story, see synergies and suggest future steps. But after the event ends, they disappear. They reply to emails with a delay and do not answer calls. The next steps remain an idea jotted down in a notebook. Always.

the phantom buyer is one of the most frustrating personas at business events. Not only do they steal your time, but they also give you false hope.

6. Mr./Ms. “send me an offer”
These buyers demand an offer from you before they ever understand your product. They are not interested in the context, specifics, value or reasons that make your solution stand out. They want numbers. You prepare the offer, send it and follow up on it. Then silence ensues. They never reply again.

7. Information hunter
They do not buy or sell. They collect data. They are interested in the competition, pricing, trends, strategies, and everything left out of classic brochures. They ask many questions at a meeting, not because they want to collaborate, but to explore the market and benefit from you.

8. VIP-status attendee
These buyers care primarily about attending. They want to be seen at the right event, amidst the right people at the right moment. They regularly post photos, tag interlocutors and share their presence. There is nothing wrong with this approach, except when attending is the only goal. These attendees make many posts, but leave few concrete business results.

9. Professional networker
They know everyone, talk to everyone and connect everyone. Events seem to be their natural environment. They always know who is in the room, who they have to meet, and who should talk to you urgently. The issue arises when a concrete project is in question. That is when you realise they are not included in any decision-making process: many connections, lots of ebullience, but little power.

10. Phantom buyer
At the meeting, they appear like the ideal client. They pose the right questions, listen attentively and show interest in the product, price, execution and future steps. As they leave, you feel this was one of the best meetings at the event. Then, the event concludes. You send an email, but there is no response. You send a reminder – still silence. As if the meeting never happened. This is why the phantom buyer is one of the most frustrating personas at business events. Not only do they steal your time, but they also give you false hope.

The common denominator among all these attendee types is a bogus buyer. Such a buyer is an attendee at a B2B event who gives the impression of genuine business interest but, in reality, has no clear purpose, authority, budget, or ability to close a deal. They are not necessarily uninterested, unprofessional or malevolent. That is where the problem lies.

The most dangerous time thieves are those when you know right away that nothing will arise from the meeting. Those who know how to fake having potential are the most harmful.

They book a slot and exude a feeling of interest. They drain your energy and leave nothing behind. This is why we should start measuring purpose rather than the number of meetings at events. We should praise relevant conversations more than full schedules. At the end of the day, a bad meeting is not the most expensive. The most expensive is the one which made you miss the right one.

Perhaps it is time for different metrics

Perhaps the time is ripe to stop measuring the success of business events with the number of attendees, meetings and countries. These are admirable numbers, but they do not necessarily show value. The more important question is how many quality contacts the event helped to foster or how many talks had actual business potential. Also, we should look at how many meetings resulted in taking further steps.

It’s time to stop talking about full schedules and focus more on meeting effectiveness. At the end of the day, not every contact is an opportunity, not every buyer is a seller and not every meeting is worth our time. As long as we ignore this, we will continue to play the big numbers game. We will continue to return home tired, with pockets full of business cards and the same question: How many people did I really need to meet? How many were there just because they had to be there?

One potential solution is to pivot to boutique, more intimate, and, above all, higher-quality events. At such gatherings, the time-wasters cannot hide in large crowds. There, attendance is not enough. Purpose is what matters. In addition, boutique events quickly show who came for business, who came to gain new knowledge or connections and who came just to add another event to their list of personal achievements.

In a way, this is also the story of Conventa. Since its inception, we believed that quality outweighs quantity. We sincerely believed it is better to have fewer meetings that matter than a slew of unimportant meetings. For an event to be successful, it is more important who sits behind the table than how many people occupy the event hall.

We once again received confirmation that our philosophy works at our Try Before You Buy Balaton event. I could delve into the programme, location, and attendees, but that would miss the point. The programme was designed to connect buyers and suppliers through shared experiences, activities and conversations. Not only through formal meetings, but through experiences that instil trust and open places to have sincere business talks.

I firmly believe that the future of business events does not lie in larger halls but in better connections. We want relevant meetings, not just more of them.

That is why we are glad to continue this story. I firmly believe that the future of business events does not lie in larger halls but in better connections. We want more relevant meetings, not just more of them. It is no longer about endless lists of attendees, but a handpicked selection of the right ones. After all my years in the industry, I am certain this is not a marketing stance, but a way of thinking.

To hark back to the original question I posed at the beginning of this essay. If we want fewer time thieves, we do not necessarily need more events. We need better events.

We should prioritise events where the quality of conversation counts more than the length of the attendee list. At such events, what happens afterwards matters more than how many people attend.

At the end of the day, we do not measure a successful event by the number of business cards in our pockets, but by the number of business relationships that live and remain relevant tomorrow. That is why we should start asking different questions to our sales teams. For too long, we bought into stories about the number of meetings conducted, the number of contacts acquired, and the number of business cards collected. While these are valuable indicators of activity, they do not measure success.

The real question is straightforward: What percentage of meetings will transform into tangible business? If we look at the official statistics from IMEX Frankfurt, an average exhibitor conducts approximately 24 meetings with buyers. From those, usually one to two are realised in actual business, three to six hold business opportunities, and a further ten relevant talks are in progress with potential for future collaboration.

That means the value of an event depends much more on the quality of contacts than on their quantity. With destinations, hotels and DMCs, the story is even more complicated. Business effects often start to show only six, twelve, or eighteen months after an event. Hence, interim, short-term results portray a false picture. The actual event value is only seen after several months have passed.

I hope that in the future, every organiser, destination, hotel or event agency will know their ROI per contact. Not how many contacts they found, but how much business value each contact generated.

To this end, we have been developing methodologies for our Conventa trade show, helping us differentiate between the imaginary and actual business potential. This year, we are implementing the VERA 3.0 system, our in-house model, which could be dubbed the VAR system for the event industry. With the help of AI, vetted data, over sixty evaluation criteria and human judgement, the tool helps us recognise individuals with actual business value. The tool’s goal is not to increase the number of meetings, but to increase the probability that every meeting counts.

The future of business events will not belong to those who organise the most meetings. It will belong to those who are adept at organising the right meetings.

A final reminder

A particularly dangerous category of fake buyers are brokers who trade contacts and databases. Their narrative is, by and large, the same: they supposedly have thousands of buyers, decision-makers and influencers in their databases. They often promise to bring them to your doorstep overnight. Often, they wear several hats: as brokers, consultancy agents, buyers or sales representatives. Their chameleon-like adaptability helps them navigate the jungle where no one really checks whether they have potential for business growth.

Artificial intelligence can play a key role in identifying them. With high-quality data, attendance history, business results, and behavioural patterns, AI can discern who is generating actual business value and who is just showing face, pretending to be included in a slew of activities. Artificial intelligence can recognise individuals who attend numerous events but produce no results, and those who constantly change roles as buyers, sellers or brokers. With the help of technology, differentiating between actual and imaginary potential is easier than ever.

We have adopted this system not to exclude anyone, but to protect the most valuable asset of any business event – attendees’ time. At least as far as Conventa is concerned, trading contacts and generating a false impression of value were not part of our story. We believe that quality business relationships cannot be bought through an Excel spreadsheet. It must be built through trust, relevance and business interests. We have been doing so since 2009.

Editorial by Gorazd Čad