The Human Side of Tradeshows: Why Emotional Connection Beats Booth Size Every Time | Epic Events by vFairs | Rich Rodrigues

Younas, CEO, vFairs (00:01.976) Hello everyone, my name is Mohammed Younas, founder and CEO of VFairs. Today I have Rich with me on the Epic Events Podcast. Rich, thank you for joining the Epic Events Podcast.

Rich Rodrigues (00:12.821) Yeah, happy to be here. Thanks for trusting me to be on. Younas, CEO, vFairs (00:16.

174) In fact, Rich, if you can just let the audience know a bit more about yourself, your background, as well as the company that you're currently working with, and a bit more about your event's background. Rich Rodrigues (00:25.887) Yeah, so currently I am the Director of Strategy and Growth for Pinnacle Experiential. We are an experiential marketing house that focuses on events.

So that's anything from trade shows to user conferences or consumer activations or mobile tours. My background in events, I've only been doing it for three years, but it feels like 30. And I think a lot of event people can relate to that. But kind of stumbled into it like a lot of event professionals, but very glad that I found it.

It's a fantastic industry to be in. Younas, CEO, vFairs (00:38.417) you you Younas, CEO, vFairs (01:00.482) which I was going through your LinkedIn profile.

Looks like you're big on lead with emotion, close with data. Walk us through what that actually looks like on a busy show floor when you have really few seconds to grab someone's attention. We fairs participate in over 10 to 12 plus events. And I have to say, that's the toughest part, which is stand out on that floor.

Somehow figure it out. How can you stand out from rest of the competition? Rich Rodrigues (01:31.135) Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

don't know if it's down to, I think it's maybe three seconds is the amount of time now you have, because we've conditioned ourselves to have no attention span. But I think you have about three seconds to capture someone's attention. And so when I say lead with emotion, that's kind of like your hook, right? So that could be something like adjusting your messaging.

So it's like eye level and not putting something so high or so low. People have to squint and see it. It could be in terms of the actual messaging itself. Younas, CEO, vFairs (01:44.

778) Okay. Okay. Rich Rodrigues (02:01.519) challenging people's assumptions about a certain brand or about an industry that they're in.

And that emotion, that kind of earns you the pause. Like, maybe I thought something differently. Let me go see. And then what earns you the trust is the actual data involved.

So it's like emotional storytelling. So you're getting buy-in with the emotion, but then you're kind of laying the hammer with the numbers to kind of back it up. Because if there's no data to back it up, anybody could be saying anything, right? And I think we need to really pay attention to that in the AI age, right?

So that's really what I mean. And it's just firming your position with actual numbers, right? And when we see this all the time in events, and it could be from the exhibitor side when you need to prove ROI. or it can be from the consumer side when your audience is showing up and they need to justify it internally.

If they're going to change their vendors or if they're looking for a new product or a new service, emotions only get you so far. The numbers is what really drives it home. Younas, CEO, vFairs (03:02.794) And Rich, I want to go through the entire journey.

So of course, the process of setting up the booth and what happens during the event itself, like how to best staff it, and then what should happen after it. Any best practices on all three of them? at what point? Because everyone thinks if they have a design team that they can pretty much set up their booth, they can design their booth and so forth.

Why should companies consider hiring professional, just agencies to help in that part of the thing? So if you can just guide a bit on the best practice on each one of them and when exactly people should consider agency versus doing it themselves. Rich Rodrigues (03:46.867) Yeah, I'm very hesitant to have anyone set up their own events, right?

There's outliers, right? It's events you get what you pay for, right? If you have a simple 10 by 10 or a 10 by 20 with little like octanorm latches, you can set that up yourself. You can trust your sales team to set it up and not break it like time in time over.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (03:49.546) Okay. Rich Rodrigues (04:12.577) But once it's anything substantial, even like a 20 by 20 or a, if you go to some of these healthcare or cybersecurity shows, the 10 by 20s are even very intricate.

And when you're getting like tech involved and LEDs, it's best to just hire a professional to do it, right? You don't necessarily need a giant agency to do it, but maybe a freelancer that can outsource a couple of people and different small staff to do it. But I've seen... many people try to set up their booth to save on costs.

And it's very obvious that they were the ones that set it up. Like graphics aren't fitting, things are loose, things are falling. I've seen panels fall down mid-conference inside of a meeting room. And again, it's the money you're gonna spend afterwards to actually go to a professional and do it.

You could have just spent it all upfront and saved yourself time and money. Younas, CEO, vFairs (05:07.374) Makes sense. I absolutely agree.

Yeah. Even setting up a 10 by 10 booth or 10 by 20 is a hard job. I cannot imagine anything beyond that trying to do it internally because that's not what your company is known for doing anyways. Right.

So why any suggestions on like you think that spending more money is a key to just get that attention? Because I have to say that sometimes you can see it from far. This is a pretty expensive booth. Now do agree that you kind of attract some attention of it, but is it good?

Is it bad? What's the correlation of money spent to actually getting the eyeballs also on that particular booth? Rich Rodrigues (05:51.649) Well, it's once you get them in there, right?

Like getting attention is almost the easy part. It's keeping it is the hard part. and attention is when you tie it to money, right? Attention is the most expensive thing you can buy on a show floor.

So, you can go high with branding. You could do the the hanging sign with like channel lit logos and stuff like that. And then you're going to pay the exorbitant rising service costs to rig this stuff with the trust and everything. And that's great.

Like you'll stand out for sure. People can find you on the show floor. That's a huge bonus. But once people get there, there has to be more than just flashy LEDs or giant signage.

There has to be a storytelling method in that booth. And it can't be discombobulated. one solid idea, if we're coming down to spending money and what's going to be effective, one solid thought out idea and well executed idea is much better than three fractured activations and flash. things just to keep people in the booth.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (06:52.686) Then, and I think you have said it in a very, very nice way, which is you can get that attention initially, but keeping it as a hard part. Just some of the best practices around that, like many, times I've seen as an attendee when I'm walking by, there's an attendee, you don't want to get bothered by the reps. You want to see it from a bit of a far place.

And then sometimes, the reps are all on the phone anyways, right? So tell me a bit more on just some of the best practices on how to grab that intention and keep it. And what exactly is the role the reps play in any of this, if at all? Rich Rodrigues (07:37.

951) Yeah, I mean, they play a huge role in it, right? The kind of standard trade show booth that you see nowadays is, we can use a 20 by 20, for example. It's some sort of tall tower with a hanging sign around it or just floor supported but high up so people can see the brand, right? They know where they're going.

And then usually just for demo kiosks or product kiosks on the corners. and then you have the staff around that and they kind of guide people through the booth depending on what they're trying to see, whether it's a product or a service. The staff is integral to the whole thing because if they're disengaged, people feel that immediately, right? Like the energy on the show floor is very exciting.

That's why so many people love going to these events. But you can see when people are just not involved or don't want to be involved with the actual booth, right? It's a production. And if you're not a part of the production, It's very obvious.

It's a fine balance, right? Because I used to work in retail, right? Like think a lot of people when they get started in the job industry, it's like they either work in hospitality, like in restaurants, or they work retail. I went the retail route.

And you have to use your best judgment because some people come into the store. and they're just there to browse, right? So you don't want to invade their space, but you do have to let them know, welcome to the store. Here's where this, this, and this is.

And if you need help, I'm here to help you, right? Some people come in, they specifically, I worked for an outdoor goods store, right? They wanted a specific jacket that was waterproof and wind resistant up to these temperatures. So they were asking me exactly where that is.

But that's not every attendee that you're gonna have, you know? They might need a specific part of a specific. product or service that you have. And so you don't want to just, you can't ignore them, but you can't be overbearing either.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (09:24.942) Interesting. Like what role swags and any of the other marketing material, the brochures and all of that stuff plays in this whole thing? Yeah.

Rich Rodrigues (09:40.277) Yeah, so swag is a hot topic in events, right? Bro, honestly, brochures, I think are kind of outdated, right? But it's a great soft breakup with someone that's not looking for a lot of information or specific information at that moment.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (09:57.901) Yeah. You Rich Rodrigues (09:58.281) You can direct them to the reception counter and be like, hey, listen, there's all these QR codes to scan for specific things that we offer.

You can go that route instead of carrying hundreds of pounds of heavy brochures to show that you might not get rid of and have to pay to bring it back to your HQ. mean, swag, when used properly, is great. If you could think of something that's outside the box. Something that's good for the road travelers, people that have kids that they're not gonna see because they're going to the event.

That's fine. And maybe just focus on more of a luxury swag item that can be personalized to your audience as opposed to just the standard key chains and plastic bottles that people just throw out either on the show floor or as soon as they get off of it. Younas, CEO, vFairs (10:44.942) And you attend a of events.

If you have to pick two, three swag that you personally were like, these were great. And you really have them even up until now. What would be those examples of some of those luxury swags? Rich Rodrigues (11:00.

553) Yeah, so I mean, swag is tough for me because my wife doesn't want me to bring home any more trade show junk. I like like laptop cleaners that were tied to I went to a printing show, right? So laptop cleaners were great. You run out of them all the time.

You need them on the road. I like the I like the road travel accessory things like wire like, yeah, like not necessarily chargers because I have so many chargers. I don't know what do with them. But like Younas, CEO, vFairs (11:07.

118) Charging. Yep. Yep. Rich Rodrigues (11:28.

833) Like to keep the chords like, you know, compact. like stuff like that that makes us like, it makes a small difference in how you travel. It makes us a little bit easier. I like things like that.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (11:39.798) OK, perfect. See, I don't know if you, in your role, get into that piece. But one of the things that I feel that people struggle with is that who owns the whole booth experience?

Is it the sales team? Is it the marketing team? Of course, everyone is concerned about the ROI. Attending events is expensive.

Having a booth over there is expensive. Just your take on. the responsibility between the marketing and sales before, during, and after the show to really convert that booth engagement into meaningful conversations as well as actual sales as a result of it. Any suggestions around that piece?

Rich Rodrigues (12:24.469) Yeah, so there's, and I'm a big fan of this kind of like analogy, but there's so many comparisons between like theater and events, right? So. you're dressing up in the same outfit sometimes, whether that's like a bubble vest or branded sneakers, you're putting on like a play essentially.

Like it's a performance, right? Don't think of your booth as a structure, it's a performance. So who owns the performance? It's all the actors and that's the salespeople and the marketing people and leadership, everybody.

And even if you hire professional staffers, they're a part of it too. So there's no one team that kind of owns it, right? Like at the end of the day, one team, it'll probably fall on them. Like if you don't provide ROI, it's gonna be the event team.

It's very rare that they actually blame the sales team as well. But you need alignment, like you said, before, during, and after the show. And that's not only just alignment between marketing and sales, that's within those departments as well. So marketing and sales, very first thing you gotta do, why are we going?

It can't be because we went last year and we've gone the year before. It cannot be because people expect us to be there. There has to be a reason why you're showing up this year and spending this much money this year. And you have to identify what a quality lead looks like with the salespeople.

You have to, the salespeople have to capture. Younas, CEO, vFairs (13:39.834) you you Rich Rodrigues (13:44.981) that information at the show, ask important questions to qualify those people.

And then after the show, marketing, which hopefully they've done this, has worked within their content team to provide content that the sales team can use throughout the year to expand the lifetime of that event. And the sales people have to then follow up with the qualified leads if they did their job correctly during the show. follow up with them with personalized emails, not just, and this happens to me all the time because I get my badge scanned because I go into so many booths.

You can't just call people and say, hey, so you stopped by the booth, where are you in the buyer journey? That it's an awful strategy. It's a terrible strategy. It should be, hey, I know you spoke with so and so at the show and you were interested in X, Y or Z.

I'd like to tell you a little bit more about that. Or here's something that we recorded from the show specifically that you may not have been able to see. Happy to follow up on this as well. It has to be personal, you have to gather these moments during the show, and then capitalize them on them afterwards.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (14:47.886) Rich, I want to have this one example, right? So assume that because we typically either have a 10 by 10 or a 10 by 20 booth. And again, like within our industry, that's pretty much the norm.

But we do have, for example, like one competition who would have a minimum 20 by 20 booth if not bigger. How do you help companies create impactful booth experiences when budgets are tight? And what matters most when you can't have the biggest booth or the fanciest setup? How do you typically help companies like this stand out.

Rich Rodrigues (15:21.281) It's all about brand storytelling. I'm not going to sit here and say, don't want like, I wish all of my clients had seven figure budgets. You're lying if you say you don't, but there's a lot of creativity that could be found when you face budget restrictions, right?

It forces you to be intentional. So maybe that means getting rid of the giant walls, which in turn makes your booth more open and welcoming, right? Younas, CEO, vFairs (15:29.102) Okay.

Okay. Rich Rodrigues (15:48.639) honing in on your messaging so you're not appealing to everyone at the show, but you're appealing to your target audience and then training your staff to be more engaging when they actually show up. And let's build an activation, something that people can either touch or see that they can be a part of, right?

Like let's make them a part of your brand. It's hard to do, you know, I tell everybody that I work with, This is the least I'm ever going to know about your brand. This conversation right here, the more we talk about it, the more I'm to be embedded in it. And then we can humanize it and create a story around it that people can share with you, right?

Because that story sharing, you do storytelling, that's great, right? What matters is what comes out of the event. And when people can share a story with your brand, they remember it for a very long time. Younas, CEO, vFairs (16:35.

406) The thing that I asked you like some example of swag that you personally really like, what are some of the good boot activation examples you have seen actually work for a software company? Rich Rodrigues (16:49.835) For software company, there was, there's a company, I won't name them, but they basically had this augmented reality activation and you can create like your own character with their software. And then it would animate it and then actually it would actually run through their part of like their supply chain operations.

And it would come out on the other end. and you would see like a little package go through and it would come out and that would be your swag. So that was cool. was kind of, it was augmented reality and like gamification, but not like a strict hard sell gamification, not like a quiz just to see who's a qualified lead.

I liked that a lot. you know, thinking about the swag, there is another company I saw and they're not software, hardware mostly. But they give away stuffed dogs, like plushies of dogs at their shows. But so people know them because of this.

It's very consistent. They give away these dogs, but the dogs change depending on the location. Right. So this previous show that I saw them at was in Denver.

So they had like a St. Bernard with like the whiskey barrel under his chin. And when they were in Boston, they had Boston Terriers. And so it's become like that's what they're known for.

And it's expensive. It's not that's a little bit more premium swag. But yeah, that's a good example. Younas, CEO, vFairs (17:47.

406) Thanks. Younas, CEO, vFairs (18:11.426) Yeah. I've seen that.

There's this term that side events are becoming bigger than the main event, which is that all of these big events, you mentioned CES that you might be going over there and so forth. And again, you see pretty much every other exhibit are trying to do some side event, whether it's a dinner, whether it's a Topgolf event, or some of that stuff. Just use your take on side events during that main event as a way to stand out or as a way to get more of your target audience to interact with you.

Rich Rodrigues (18:46.451) Yeah, I love it. think it's one of my favorite trends over the past couple of years is like these micro events or satellite events, whatever you want to call them. But I think it's a great way.

Everybody's trying to beat service costs, right? And you don't want to pull yourself out of the show, because I've seen this happen too. People pull themselves out of the show because they think they can get away with it. And then there's a huge backlash from their consumer base and they have to show up again.

So micro events are a good way to allocate your budget a little bit more with intention elsewhere, right? So maybe reduce your 40 by 50 to a 20 by 20, but have an offsite meeting, right? Or, and which can still be branded, do like an activation to get like some user generated content, like off the floor. I think what people are doing and which I love is, they're treating their event strategy, right?

Like their trade show is one touch point in an overall narrative. And there's other events that are circling around that trade show that reinforce the brand and the business goals within that, right? So CES is a crazy example of it because there are brands doing complete takeovers. So they'll have a spot on the floor, but they'll take over a Mexican restaurant for a day doing like fireside chats and mixers.

And it's an opportunity for you to meet people that maybe didn't have time on the show floor because they were booked for meetings all day. Or people that just had no interest in going, maybe they don't wanna, they're not that type of event person, right? They're not an extrovert and there's too many people, so they just go to a more intimate gathering. Younas, CEO, vFairs (20:23.

394) Yeah. Rach, again, another question. Should companies even consider? Because when a prospect is coming to your booth, I'm just of the opinion that your own employees are the best people to represent your company.

They know the product inside out and so forth. Rich Rodrigues (20:47.221) We should be. Younas, CEO, vFairs (20:47.

948) When should companies consider hiring professional staffing agencies instead of relying on their own internal teams? Should that even be considered to begin with or does no one want to start with? Rich Rodrigues (20:57.981) Yeah, I think it's a fair consideration.

If you don't have one of these massive CES booths where you have professional staffers that in Vegas, this is their job. They just show up to the Las Vegas Convention Center and work for all these different brands. If you don't have something that massive where you just need the manpower to direct people and all they need to know is get where the specialists are. So they're not specialists.

They just know where to guide you. If that's not the case, and you're hiring professional staffers, it's because your staff is just very lacking, right? And there's many reasons for this. Like there are salespeople that just, they do demos via Zoom or they call people or they email people, but events are different, know?

Face-to-face events is very, it's a very different way to like to sell. And I'm not saying like everybody should be hard selling, but it's a very different animal. And if you don't do rehearsals with your staff, they're going to fall flat. Younas, CEO, vFairs (21:54.

158) Yep. How do you measure success of your just trade show participation? Like what's the real metric that companies should be should be just like tracking in this case? Rich Rodrigues (22:10.

273) Yeah, so it's not scanned badges anymore. I could tell you that. But it is marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads. That's what they should be measuring.

How much advancement there was in like sales goals. So your attribution model should not just be we had the event and then next year we're gonna have the event. Like that one event, let's say CES 2026, that's one touch point. And if 16 months down the line, someone closes a deal, but that first touch point was CES 2026, that event gets the credit.

Like that event marketing team gets the credit for that and they should be tracking that. Yeah, it's very tough to measure success now when people have been used to so many vanity metrics over the years. But that's really what it is. Like I don't want to hear scan badges.

I want to hear MQLs and SQLs. Younas, CEO, vFairs (23:04.686) Sure. No, that makes sense.

And. What's supposed to take on this part? So for example, if there's a company that goes and attend 10 plus different events, let's say 10 plus different locations, do you feel like there are people who actually become experts in being at events? And for example, that one or two people should actually go to all 10 of them?

Or the local rep from that particular area should go and attend that particular event? And the reason I say that is that, you know, You know, we all become better at doing anything if we do it consistently. For a huge company, I meet with some of these big companies and sometimes I see that there are few people who are at every single event and they really know how to best go about it. But then other times I see that, you okay, you literally see different people in different events just because they feel that that's a better strategy.

Which strategy is better? know, I don't know, unique people go into each other, we went that are local to that particular country, city, et cetera, or having specialists go ahead and represent you in a consistent way across all of these events. Rich Rodrigues (24:14.217) Yeah, I think it's a mixture of both.

think it'd be foolish not to have the specialist there, right? And maybe they're just a specialist in the product and the service in general, right? But they have the actual know-how of face-to-face events. So I would have them and maybe just have a local rep or a regional rep make sure that they can guide people to that specialist, right?

Until they're ready to kind of take over that role. But it's a good idea to kind of have a hierarchy. at the event, right? Because your event manager, in my experience, they're very lean teams and they can't do it all.

So it would be nice to have a seasoned sales specialist who can kind of help out and guide the younger people, maybe not even younger, but less experienced people around the booth and how to handle it. Younas, CEO, vFairs (25:01.13) Like this. Like one thing that's great about our industry is that the trade show events are up.

Like the attendance is going up. The number of events are going up. Attendance is going up for some of the best events. Others are struggling.

But nevertheless, overall, number of events are up and number of attendance across events are up. What trends are you seeing that event marketers need to pay attention in 2026 and beyond? Like what they should be thinking about? their company representing in any of these trade show events.

Rich Rodrigues (25:34.665) Yeah, the two that stand out to me are experiential marketing and content, right? So we need to do a better job of capturing content at the event that we can then use even to promote the event the next year. But I think people, event teams need to start aligning better with their content teams.

And if they don't have one, the event marketer needs to start thinking like a content creator, right? Because these events are too expensive and they're too valuable to just wasted on a three day thing that gets built and tore down. That's it. The other trend is experiential marketing.

So attendance is up almost to pre-COVID levels to a lot of trade shows, basically all the ones that I've been to in the past year. And while the attendance is up, service costs are up. so overall marketing budget is down. but the overall experiential spend is up.

So I think people, you're seeing people kind of reallocate their budget to the most impactful channels and that's experiential marketing because it's an A to B like to your audience directly. You're getting them involved in the brand. They're not just showing up and looking at your booth, like they're in your branded environment, whether it's interactive or immersive. That's what people are spending money on.

And you see it being adopted small scale, large scale, doesn't matter how big the brand is. Younas, CEO, vFairs (27:01.058) Which are your favorite three events that you typically like to attend as an attendee? Rich Rodrigues (27:06.

125) my three favorite events as an attendee. SEMA, the car show, which is, that's a lot of fun. I went to, well, I used to work Comic-Con when I worked for Marvel. And now all these years later, it would be fun to go back.

Now that I've been experiencing events on both sides of the curtain, it would be fun to go back. So Comic-Con. Younas, CEO, vFairs (27:09.261) as intended.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (27:14.624) Okay. Yeah. Rich Rodrigues (27:35.

772) SEMA, and CES. mean, CES is a spectacle, but it's almost becoming more about the networking than the actual brands showing up, which is crazy. But if you're in events, they have it at the beginning of January for a reason, right? It sets the tone for the entire year.

So CES is a fun one to attend. Younas, CEO, vFairs (28:00.655) One more question, just because you mentioned networking. Younas, CEO, vFairs (28:06.

606) Like previously, a lot of these trade shows and conferences were meant to be for content, like for lately content consumption. But more and more, that has been actually shifted to networking getting far higher priority than the content piece of it. Again, you participate in a lot of events. Rich Rodrigues (28:51.

401) Yeah, it's a tough one for me, right? Because like my job is like networking. Like it's almost it's blurred the lines where I just don't even know anymore, right? But for me, yeah, networking has become a bigger, it's not really about like what's new anymore because I can find that out easily, right?

And some brands are fantastic at capturing that content and I can see a YouTube short about it. I can see a webinar about it. the week that it's been launched, right? But the networking is hard and you can't always be in the same room as these people.

And even if you could be on a Zoom with them or a team, it's not the same, you know? There's nothing like being in person and being in person with the energy of an overall event around you, you know? Like the creativity is like flying and that's why people just, they get so... like absorbed by it, you know, it's like a breeding ground for, you know, collaboration and inspiration.

So networking is becoming more important for me too, like as an attendee, right? If I were gonna go there, would be, what they're doing is cool. Although let's say there was a PlayStation was unveiling, you know, PlayStation 6, right? That's cool, like I'm interested in that.

But you know what would be a lot better? Like if I can talk to like the head brander for PlayStation or something like that, you know, like maybe like the head technician to talk about what went into it and development cycle. Like, let me network with those people. Like that would be crazy.

Instead of just reading about the new launch. Younas, CEO, vFairs (30:25.55) Given that you mentioned networking, kind of also agree with that as well. every attendee, and let's do this role play, like there's an attendee that is going to meet 20 exhibitors.

All of these 20 exhibitors are going to follow up with this attendee. What's the best way to follow up? And in most cases, how much this person actually even remember the depth and the quality of conversations that this attendee just had with 20 of these exhibitors? So think I just want to ask from both perspectives, as a company participating in a trade show, what's the best way to follow up?

And when? Do you follow up just literally on the day, or we just met today and we agreed that we're going to have a follow up conversation? Is it that, OK, it's a three day event, and I follow up with you on the coming Monday, at which point 20 other people are following up with you? Tell me what you see is the best trend for this equation to actually work out.

Rich Rodrigues (31:24.641) Yeah. Rich Rodrigues (31:32.657) Well, for me, right, like the way I do it is we'll have a conversation.

Like you told me you're from Toronto, right? I would have immediately brought up either Hockey, the Toronto Film Festival or Little Portugal, right? I would have, and one of those three things I'm sure you have been in contact with or know about, right? And so my email to you, the subject line would probably have one of those three things that we spoke about plus my product or service.

That's how I do it to stand out. Younas, CEO, vFairs (31:59.65) Makes sense. Yeah.

Rich Rodrigues (32:02.099) As far as when to follow up, I just ask people. Some people are desperate and they'll tell you right away, like, I'm flying home tomorrow, email me, I'll be on the plane and we can talk, right? Or I'll at least respond to you.

I hate following up with people the week of the show because you're so inundated with other conversations and you're gonna get home, you have to unbury yourself from all the emails you missed. Plus you wanna spend time with your family. You don't wanna think about the show, the event for a little bit. So I usually do it like the week after, but I always ask people, I put the ball in their court, so to speak, I always say verbatim, when's the least obnoxious time for me to reach out to you?

Younas, CEO, vFairs (32:35.118) Yeah. Younas, CEO, vFairs (32:41.838) And what if they say, oh, I'm going to be busy for the next one month or two months.

How about you follow up with me after that? Because most of these people at Teach Narciss, they're running events. They're doing events. And of course, leading up to an event is always a busy time.

And then you're like, OK, if I'm going to follow up with that person in two months, how much of that he'll remember anyways, right? how would you take that comment? Rich Rodrigues (33:07.713) Yeah, it happens all the time.

So I would say, okay, that totally makes sense. Listen, is it fair if I just send you an email next week just saying, hey, it's rich from the show, I'm not going to ask for any of your time. And then they say yes, no one ever says no to that. And then in the response that I get from that, I just send them either something from the event or like a marketing deck that we've put together or something relevant to what we spoke about with no call to action whatsoever.

I don't say when can we reconnect is just staying top of mind for those 60 to 90 days, which is very difficult to do. Younas, CEO, vFairs (33:42.542) Brilliant. Rich, how can people learn a bit more about you?

They want to connect with you. What's the best way to connect with you? I'm assuming LinkedIn, but if there's any other ways you want to let the audience know, please go ahead. Rich Rodrigues (33:53.

471) Yeah, LinkedIn is the easiest way. I'm very present on there. Or at any of these trade shows, because it feels like I go to all of them. You'll see me swimming around bothering exhibitors.

Younas, CEO, vFairs (34:07.118) Perfect. Rish, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, our audience, for listening in.

If you want to listen to any of the other podcasts, please make sure that you subscribe to VFIR's Epic Events Podcast. Thank you, Rish, for being on the show. Rich Rodrigues (34:18.529) Yeah, thanks for having me.

It was a lot of fun. Younas, CEO, vFairs (34:20.558) Thank you.