Hosted buyer program

The trade at the center of it

The show covers travel, accommodation and entry for a buyer. In exchange the buyer commits to a set number of prearranged meetings with exhibitors. Exhibitors pay a premium for access to that guaranteed meeting schedule, which is what funds the hosting.

Qualification is the whole product

A hosted buyer program is only worth what the buyers are worth. That means an application process with real criteria: budget authority, purchasing volume, active projects. Letting the numbers slip to fill the program destroys it, because exhibitors compare notes and will not pay the premium twice for meetings that went nowhere.

Matchmaking and scheduling

Meetings are matched on stated interests and then scheduled into fixed slots across the show, usually with a mix of buyer-selected, exhibitor-requested and organizer-assigned appointments. The scheduling is a constraint problem with real teeth, since every unfilled slot is a buyer standing around and an exhibitor who paid for nothing.

Measuring it

Meetings held against meetings scheduled is the operational number. No-show rate by buyer is the one that tells you whether your qualification is working. Both need capturing on the day rather than reconstructing afterward. See hosted buyer software.