Getting Ready for Upcoming Trade Fairs: What to Bring (and Why It Matters)

Trade fairs are a great opportunity to strengthen relationships, meet new buyers, and turn conversations into real business. With the upcoming fairs approaching fast, preparation is key, and what you bring (and how you present it) I believe, can make a big difference.
Here’s a quick checklist of what I believe, together with the team from @ ProFound - Advisers in Development, to have ready:
✅ Business cards
✅ Samples
✅ Photos, brochures & online videos
✅ Display decoration
✅ Agenda + list of exhibitors
✅ Certifications
✅ Product specification sheets (TDS & SDS)
✅ Certificate of Analysis (CoA)
✅ Product list + updated price list (including EU pricing and volume proposals)

All of the above can also be compiled into a single dossier, with the same layout and a beautiful design, printed in a book-style format. 👈

And don’t forget to have a simple way to register contacts and business cards from potential buyers. It can be a notebook, your phone, or even a printed sheet where you staple the business card and leave space to write key notes from the conversation (interests, quantities, next steps). This makes follow-up faster, more personal, and much more effective.

🌱 At fairs, people are looking for storytelling, but also technicalities. For example, product labels should include practical information such as INCI names or CAS numbers, which cosmetic formulators, for example, can quickly search and recognize. This is often much more useful than having only the common name and botanical species on the label.

👉 A personal note on professional product display:
The image attached to this post is a picture i took from a company I worked for in the past, at Bologna. As the Quality Control responsible, I suggested categorizing the products by scent profile, based on their chemical profiles and chromatography analysis.
This kind of organization helps potential buyers quickly find what they are looking for, improves the flow of discussions at the stand, and I believe, shows a higher level of professionalism, especially in a busy fair environment.
Small details like this often make the biggest impact.