Trade show management software
for your in-house trade show.
Trade show management software handles visitors, exhibitors and booth staff in one place. With AirLST, whoever registers gets a ticket, whoever comes in gets a name badge, and whoever is scanned at a booth becomes a qualified lead.
- Invitations to your customers
- Registration with ticket
- Lead retrieval at the booth
What a trade show demands from the organizing team
Three guest lists, one entrance, one day. There is no second chance.
Visitors expect a ticket that works at the door and a name badge that spells their name right. Exhibitors expect their booth staff to be on the list before the hall opens. Sales expects leads that are not written on business cards. AirLST serves all three from the same record.
Visitors, exhibitors and leads on the same record
A trade show visitor registers, gets a ticket, is admitted, gets a name badge, is scanned at three booths and is contacted after the show. In AirLST, that is not six systems but six events on one attendee.
Northlight Events Inc. · Head of Procurement · Trade visitor
Three guest lists, four roles, one booth.
Show team
Sees registrations and entries per show day.
- Live registrations
- Quotas per exhibitor
- Reporting per day
Exhibitors
Register their booth team in the portal, within their own quota.
- Exhibitor portal
- Booth team within the quota
- Badges in advance
Entrance
Scans the ticket and prints the name badge at the counter.
- Badge printing in near real time
- Name badge with barcode
- All entrances, one list
Booth
Scans visitors at the booth and qualifies the conversation.
- Lead by badge scan
- One form for every booth
- Lead list when the show ends
Online visitor registration with ticket and show day
Visitors follow their personal invitation or the public link on the show website, choose their show day and program items, and add plus-ones and interests. The ticket arrives with the confirmation. How to control how many visitors come on which day is covered under trade show registration.
- Personal or publicInvited customers register through their own link, prospects through the registration page; both land on the same list.
- Show day as a quotaVisitors choose the day, quotas per day update as they register, and waitlists catch the overflow.
- Program and interestsPlant tour, talk or workshop as program items with limited spots; interests as fields for the leads.
- Ticket with the confirmationQR code as PDF and wallet ticket plus a calendar file, in your design from invitation management.
- Guest groupsTrade visitors, customers, press, partners: their own forms, quotas and name badges.
- Show websiteProgram, exhibitors, directions and the form on an event website, in several languages, on your own domain.
- Reminders as a workflowA reminder to everyone registered before the show day, and a follow-up to no-shows afterwards.
- More on registrationFields, conditions and payment in event registration software.
Exhibitor portal, quotas and lead capture at the booth
Exhibitors are the guest group you know least about: who staffs the booth, who are their guests, and how many are allowed? In AirLST, every exhibitor is set up with a contact person and a quota, registers booth staff and guests through their own form, and their booth team captures leads by scanning visitor badges.
| Exhibitor | Booth staff | Guests | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northlight Packaging Inc.K. R., Sales | 6 / 6 | 18 / 25 | Confirmed |
| Tempo LogisticsE. M., Marketing | 4 / 4 | 25 / 25 | Waitlist |
| Belventi SystemsL. H., Management | 3 / 4 | 9 / 20 | Confirmed |
| Riverside SoftwareM. F., Partner management | 2 / 4 | 0 / 15 | Invited |
Invitations to all exhibiting companies with response status; company, contact person, booth staff and comments structured in the guest list; registration status and capacity per exhibitor in the reports.
Each exhibitor registers booth staff and guests through their own form; every registration counts against their quota. Season passes for the booth team, day tickets for guests, all on the same list.
The booth team scans the QR code on the visitor badge, which pulls up the record from registration, and qualifies the conversation in a shared form. How it works for organizers and exhibitors is on the lead retrieval page.
Trade show entry with scan and badge printing
Scan, print, in. In seconds.
The visitor shows the ticket, the scan validates it, and the printer produces the name badge with a barcode. Several stations in parallel, the same list, live attendance for the project lead.
- Valid today? The ticket is valid for the chosen show day, season passes for all days, every code only once.
- Which group? Trade visitors, exhibitors, press, booth staff: their own name badge, their own area.
- Badge in near real time The scan starts printing; no presorting, no searching through the alphabet.
- How many are here? Live attendance per day and group, as a number for the hall and as a list for sales.
For large shows, event access control provides printers, scanners, access control with Smart Gate and on-site staff; the app is explained under event check-in app.
Registration, entry, leads and CRM work on the same visitor
That is why there is no visitor list next to the exhibitor list and no stack of business cards next to the CRM. What visitors enter at registration is what the booth team sees at the scan and what sales sees in the CRM.
After the show, event reporting shows visitors per day, no-shows and leads per booth; a post-event survey collects feedback. Contacts stay in the event CRM for the next show.
In-house show, industry trade show, conference expo
A manufacturer's in-house trade show, an association's industry show, the exhibition next to a conference: different sizes, the same requirement. Register visitors, give exhibitors quotas, admit everyone with a badge, and capture leads without re-typing anything.
Sonepar takes its trade show series Trend + Technik 2026 to 13 locations across Germany between April and November. Each stop has its own event website on AirLST with the program, a countdown and registration by attendee group, with talks and a stadium tour against quotas; the exhibitor directory runs in the event app, backed by the exhibitor portal and booth configuration. Munich Airport admits 80,000 attendees through 20 check-in points. More projects under customers.
What trade show management with AirLST gives your team
One list for visitors, exhibitors and leads.
- 01No reconciling guest listsVisitors, exhibitors and booth staff on one list with group and quota.
- 02Entry without a lineScan and badge printing in seconds, several stations in parallel, live attendance.
- 03Leads without business cardsScan at the booth, record from registration, lead lists when the show ends.
- 04Less work for exhibitors, full control for youTheir own form, their own quota, their own booth; the project lead sees everything.
- 05Reporting per day and boothVisitors, no-shows, leads and feedback from the same source.
At the booth, the conversation is what counts. The lead keeps the context.
What is trade show management software?
Trade show management software organizes the people at a trade show: visitor registration, exhibitor registration with booth staff and guests, entry with ticket and name badge, and lead capture at the booth. It is different from exhibition planning tools that manage floor plans and booth assignments, and from ticket shops that only sell: trade show management software keeps visitors, exhibitors and leads on one record for the whole show day.
In AirLST, this is not a separate application but the event platform configured for the trade show: guest groups for visitors, exhibitors and booth staff, quotas per exhibitor and per show day, forms per group, badge printing at the entrance and lead retrieval at the booth. The same applies to an in-house trade show, sometimes called a private trade show, where a manufacturer invites its own customers and partners.
Visitors, exhibitors and leads on one record for the whole show day.
How does a trade show run in AirLST?
- Set up exhibitors. Each exhibitor with contact person, booth and quota, separate for booth staff and guests; an invitation with access to their own form (exhibitors).
- Invite visitors. Personal invitations to customers and partners, a public registration page for prospects; show day and program as quotas (visitor registration).
- Send tickets. With the confirmation: QR code as PDF and wallet ticket, calendar file, a reminder before the show day.
- Admit. The scan validates the ticket, the name badge with barcode prints, live attendance per day and group (entry).
- Capture leads. Booth teams scan the badge and qualify the conversation (lead retrieval).
- Report. Visitors per day, no-shows, leads per booth, survey feedback; contacts in the event CRM for the next show.
Which data and building blocks does a trade show need?
Per visitor: name, company, job title, contact details, guest group, show day, program items, interests, plus-ones, ticket, entry time, leads per booth. Per exhibitor: company, contact person, booth, quotas for booth staff and guests, registration status, leads. Per show day: capacity, attendance, no-shows.
The building blocks are standard in AirLST: invitation management, online registration with quotas, a guest list with groups, QR tickets, the check-in app with badge printing, name badges with barcode, REST API and connectors, event reporting and event websites. For access control, printers and on-site staff, there is event access control.
Which formats does it fit?
Any format with visitors and exhibitors: a manufacturer's in-house trade show with customers, partners and plant tours, an association's industry show with an exhibitor portal and lead capture, the exhibition next to a conference with one badge for program and hall, the exhibitor night with guest lists per exhibitor, and the career fair or open house with public registration and time slots.
- Manufacturing: in-house trade shows at the plant with lead capture, as at Uhlmann
- Automotive: dealer shows and product launches
- Conference management: an exhibition next to the program
How do you capture trade show leads without re-typing?
By making the lead the same record as the visitor: the QR code on the name badge finds the attendee on the guest list, the booth team qualifies the conversation in a shared form, and every exhibitor receives their lead list when the show ends. No typing up business cards, no list to merge after the show. How it works in detail, for organizers and for exhibitors at other shows, is on the lead retrieval page.