Event landing pages for exhibitors

Do not point the banner at one person's card.

A roll-up banner is printed once and stands for the whole show, sometimes for several. A single rep's page is the wrong destination for it, for four reasons.

Caution: The rep may be off the stand. A visitor who scans at 14:00 and finds a page about someone on a lunch break has no one to meet.
Caution: The banner outlives the rep. Reps leave, change role or move to the next show, and the QR code on a printed banner cannot be changed.
Caution: A visitor wants the company first and the right person second. They scanned your banner, not a name.
Caution: You lose the team view. When every scan lands on one card, you cannot tell which days or which people the interest is going to.

Point the banner at a page that belongs to the company and the show, and let that page lead to people. It also gives you one place to change the stand number or the hours when the organiser moves you.

Put five facts and one action above the fold.

Most scans happen standing up, one-handed, in a corridor. The visitor gives you the first screen of a phone and a few seconds. Use it for the facts that answer 'who are you and where are you', and one action.

Wireframe of an event landing page, in the order a visitor reads it on a phone
Order	Block	What it holds	Example
1	Header	Logo and one line on what you do	Harbourline Freight. Customs software for freight forwarders.
2	Where to find us	Show name, hall, stand, days and hours	Example Expo, Hall 4, stand 4B12. Tuesday to Thursday, 10:00 to 18:00
3	One action	A single button, with a second as a quiet link	Book a time at the stand. Or leave your details
4	Who is on the stand	People by day, with a photo and a role	Tuesday: Mia and Jonas. Wednesday: Mia and Priya
5	Short form	Name, work e-mail, company, one question, consent line	See the form section below
6	Footer	Privacy notice, the business-only notice, contact	A link, not a paragraph

Choose one primary action and put it where a thumb reaches. Four equal buttons make the visitor choose before they have decided to stay. If you have to choose between 'leave details' and 'book a meeting', pick by your goal: the second for a stand with spare meeting hours, the first for a stand that is usually full.

Leave out everything that slows or blocks the page.

Hall wifi and mobile data are often slow when thousands of phones share them, so every extra element costs a visitor. Keep the page small enough that it loads before the person lowers their phone.

Not included: A long product tour. The stand is the tour. The page's job is to get the visitor to it.
Not included: A video that autoplays. It costs data, makes noise in a quiet hall and hides the button.
Not included: A cookie banner that covers the screen before the visitor can read who you are. If the page sets no non-essential cookies, there is nothing to ask. Check this with your privacy adviser.
Not included: A pop-up of any kind, including a chat widget or a newsletter box.
Not included: Third-party scripts, tag managers and heavy fonts. One font file or the system font is enough.

As a target rather than a measured threshold, aim for a first screen that arrives in a few hundred kilobytes, with the logo as an SVG and photos compressed to about 50 kilobytes each. Test it on a throttled connection, not on your office fibre.

Use one URL per show and print its QR code large.

Pick an address that a person could type and that you can reuse: yourcompany.com/ice for one show, or yourcompany.com/ice27 if you want a separate page each year. Print the QR code on the banner for that address, at a size that scans from where people stand. The guide to QR code size for print has the sizes.

Add a source to the address behind each code, such as ?s=banner on the banner and ?s=badge on lanyards, so you can compare placements later. QR codes on collateral for source attribution covers the naming. Using a short link for the printed address means you can change its destination after the banner is printed.

Keep the form short and the consent line plain.

Ask for the least you can follow up with: name, work e-mail, company and one question ('What do you want to solve?'). Every extra field gives a visitor a reason to stop. The trade show lead form questions guide explains how to choose.

Put a consent line directly under the button, in the words you will stand behind: who you are, what you will send, how to stop. Keep marketing e-mail in a separate unticked box. GDPR consent wording for lead forms has examples. After the visitor submits, show a thank-you state that says what happens next ('Mia will write to you within one working day') and offers the booking button. A blank page or a bare 'Thanks' wastes the best moment you have.

After the show, change the page, do not let it die.

Banners get reused, leaflets stay in bags and QR codes get scanned weeks later. A page that still says 'Visit us at stand 4B12' on the Monday after is a small embarrassment, and a 404 is worse. On the morning after the last day, switch the page to a 'missed us' version: the show's name in the past tense, a thank-you, and one action, which is booking a call.

Test it before the banner goes to print.

Step 1.
Scan the printed proof on two phones, one iPhone and one Android, from 1.5 metres.
Step 2.
Open the page on mobile data with wifi off. Time it to the first screen.
Step 3.
Open it with the phone on a slow connection setting, if the device offers one.
Step 4.
Read the first screen without scrolling. Check the stand, hall, hours and button are all there.
Step 5.
Submit the form with a test address and check where the lead arrives, and who is told.
Step 6.
Book a test meeting and check that the time shown matches the venue's time zone.
Step 7.
Open the address with a source added (?s=banner) and check it is recorded.
Step 8.
Check that the page works with text enlarged and in both portrait and landscape.

Count four things: scans, form starts, leads, meetings.

Four numbers tell you whether the page works, and each points to a different fix. These figures are an invented example, not a benchmark.

An example of event page results and what each rate points to
Step	Example	Rate	If it is low
Scans or visits	400	Baseline	Move or enlarge the banner, or change its call to action
Form starts	120	30% of visits	The first screen is not clear, or the button is hard to find
Leads	60	50% of starts	The form asks too much, or the consent line puts people off
Meetings booked	12	20% of leads	No slots free, or the booking step is too long

Keep the same four numbers for every show, so you can compare shows. For the full lead process around the page, see the trade show checklist for exhibitors.

A clean pale-wood exhibition stand in a large hall, with staff talking to visitors at the counter and one blue stool in front of it.

Quick answers.

What should a trade show landing page include?

Who you are in one line, the show, hall and stand, the days and hours you are on the stand, who is there each day and one action: leave details or book a meeting. Keep a short form with a consent line and a thank-you state that says what happens next.

Should a banner QR code link to a person's card or a company page?

Link it to a company page for the show. A banner is printed once, a rep may be off the stand or leave the company, and a visitor wants the company first. The page can then lead to the right person.

How fast should an event landing page load?

As fast as you can make it on hall wifi or 4G. As a target rather than a fixed rule, keep the first screen to a few hundred kilobytes, avoid third-party scripts and autoplay video, and test it on a throttled connection before printing.

What happens to the page after the show?

Switch it to a missed-us version on the morning after the last day, with a thank-you and a way to book a call. Keep the address live, because banners and leaflets are scanned for weeks. A short link with a fallback address makes this a change of destination, not a reprint.

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