just got back from an industry conference and genuinely feel like i lit $4k on fire

★★ signal-medium r/smallbusiness · ↑ 544 · 💬 155 · 2026-03-07 · kw: hours every day · open on reddit ↗

Tool

conference app, LinkedIn event page, Pullalist

Issue

B2B software seller spent $4,000 on conference (registration $1,800 + travel/hotel) but failed to connect with 20 target prospects; in-app messaging yielded 2/15 responses, LinkedIn acceptance rate 10%, resulted in 6 business cards and zero meetings booked.

Cost

$4,000

Recommendation

Pre-conference outreach and meeting scheduling (3 months prior setup recommended); Pullalist for attendee list pre-conference outreach (disputed on ROI)

Date context

2026-03-07; evergreen conference challenge

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

ok so rant incoming lol. we sell B2B software to mid-market retailers and i convinced myself that one of the big retail tech conferences in Vegas was worth attending this year. registration alone was $1,800, add flights and 3 nights at the conference hotel and we're looking at just over $4k total. i went in with a list of like 20 specific people i wanted to meet. procurement managers, a few VPs of operations at regional chains, that kind of thing. people who would actually buy from us. tried the conference app beforehand to find them and reach out. the in-app messaging is a joke, maybe 2 people responded out of 15 messages and one of them was just "thanks!" i also went through the linkedin event page and tried connecting with attendees that way. got maybe a 10% acceptance rate and zero actual conversations. so i get there and instead of meeting any of those people i spent most of the first day wandering the expo floor getting pitched by vendors, sat through 2 panels where nothing actionable was said, and did the awkward small talk thing at the networking cocktail hour. came home with 6 business cards and zero meetings booked. the cards are on my desk. they will stay there. i feel like everyone else has some system figured out that i don't know about. what do you actually do BEFORE a conference to make it worth going? i've heard people use services like pullalist to get the attendee list before hand and run outreach, but i'm not sure on the roi. genuinely asking because i can't justify doing this again next year without changing something

Top comments (5)

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[score=655] iamgettingbuckets

these are old dog mechanisms man. these are for the legacy guys who have been in business 20 years to go and shoot the shit, or for big firms to flex their muscles. it’s rare to go into a big show as an attendee and come out with customers. if that’s your approach you need to shell out the big bucks and be an exhibitor. i say this as someone who produces booths for brand clients at these shows.

[score=118] PDXPTW

I do 3 trade shows a year in the software space. The first few years I walked away with the exact same feeling. Then someone told me something that really turned the tides. All of the networking and setup should be done before the show. I’ll now spend 3 months setting up meetings, dinners, golf outings etc with the people I need to connect with. The show just ends up being the reasons we are all in the same place at once, but the gameplan is already laid before I step foot off the plane. Any connections made at the show are icing.

[score=163] Hello-their

Trade shows are go to excuses for sales reps when the boss asks what they're doing to generate more sales. I tell them to book meetings before they go to the show. Don't just show up and hope someone walks up to you with a fat contract.

[score=56] yupkime

You weren’t able to grab $4k in virtually useless swag?