01 · Register
Visitors with a ticket.
Registration with custom fields and program choice per show day; every registration creates a personal QR ticket. Visitor numbers per day are covered under trade show registration.
Solution · Trade showsTrade show management software: visitors, exhibitors, booth staff on one list
Whoever registers gets a ticket, whoever comes in gets a name badge, and whoever is scanned at a booth becomes a qualified lead. In-house shows, industry trade shows and conference expos on one record.
Industry show · Show day 2Hall B · registration and entry
- 142Exhibitorswith portal and quota
- 20Check-in pointsbadge printing at entry
- 3,640Leadsscanned at the booth
- 1,500Name badgesprinted with QR code
- 3Print stationsat the entrance
- 12Plant toursbooked as program items
- 860Booth staffwithin the quota
- 6Spots per boothstandard quota
- 1Recordshared with the visitors
- 3,640Leadsacross all boothsLeads
- 38Boothsusing the lead app
- 1Formtemperature, interests, follow-up
Trusted by leading event teams and companies
A trade show has three guest lists.AirLST turns them into one, from ticket to lead.
- 80,000attendees at Munich Airport
- 20check-in points
- 1,500name badges at Uhlmann
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Registration
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Ticket
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Badge
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Lead
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CRM
A visitor’s journey
From registration to lead. Five steps, one record.
02 · International
Visitors from around the world.
Registration in several languages, ticket and badge on the same record, reporting per country.
03 · Exhibitors
Booth teams within the quota.
Exhibitors register their booth staff in the portal; the quota per booth sets how many badges there are.
04 · Entry with badge
A name badge in seconds.
Scan at the entrance, and the name badge with barcode comes out of the print station in near real time.
05 · Lead at the booth
Scan at the booth, lead with context.
Booth staff scan the badge and qualify the conversation; every exhibitor receives their lead list when the show ends. More on lead retrieval with ScanMyLeads.
For your team
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 staff
Scan visitors at the booth and qualify the conversation.
- Lead by badge scan
- One form for every booth
- Lead list when the show ends
Trend + Technik 2026
Customer story · Sonepar
13 stops. Each with registration. Exhibitors in the app.
Sonepar takes its trade show series Trend + Technik 2026 to 13 locations 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.
13stops across Germany
8attendee groups in registration- 100+exhibitors in Stuttgart alone
Entry for 80,000 attendees through 20 check-in points is shown in the Munich Airport customer story; see also trade show registration.
All customer stories →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 about ScanMyLeads.
Leads, CRM and follow-up with AI
After the show, what matters is how fast sales gets the right contacts. Leads from lead retrieval are already structured, including how the booth conversation was qualified, and Exhibitor Edition syncs them to your CRM through the HubSpot integration AirLST runs for you. An AI assistant can build on that: rank leads by interest, suggest a next step for each contact and write a per-show summary for the head of sales. That AI summary is a custom integration, set up during system configuration. More use cases before, during and after a show are covered in our guide to AI in events.
“Which leads from day two asked for a proposal, and who on the booth team talked to them?”
FAQ
Questions about trade show management software
How do you manage a trade show with software?
Start with the people, not the floor plan: set up exhibitors with their booth staff and guest quotas, open visitor registration per show day, send tickets with the confirmation, scan tickets and print badges at the entrance, and let booth teams scan badges for leads. When all of this runs on one guest list, your team stops reconciling visitor lists, exhibitor lists and business cards after the show.
What is exhibitor management software?
Software that handles exhibitors as a guest group of their own: company, contact person, booth, a quota for booth staff and a quota for guests, and a registration form for each exhibitor. In AirLST, exhibitors register their own people through that form, every registration counts against their quota, and the project team sees status and capacity per exhibitor.
Can a multi-day trade show have separate capacity for each day?
Yes. Each show day is a quota. Visitors choose their day during registration, the ticket is valid for that day, and the check-in app checks it. Season passes for exhibitors and booth staff are valid on all days. How to steer visitor numbers per day is covered under trade show registration.
Do I need special hardware for trade show entry?
Not for scanning: the AirLST check-in app on iOS or Android is enough. For badge printing, turnstiles and large visitor numbers, event access control adds printers, scanners, access control with Smart Gate and on-site staff.
How do visitors receive their trade show ticket?
Automatically with the registration confirmation: a personal QR code as a PDF and wallet ticket, plus a calendar file. Each ticket can be redeemed once; a second scan is rejected. Template, sender and design come from invitation management.