Trade Show Exhibitors - On-Floor Demos & Hands-On Access

Dear trade show exhibitors: I want to meet in your booth. You're here at the show. You brought stuff. You have demos. LET ME SEE THEM. If it's what you're showing to the public, what you think attendees are interested in, I'm interested too. I want photos, I want visuals, I want to touch the sample part or press the button or whatever it is I can interact with. The physicality is a reason to attend trade shows and report from them. I don't want to speak for all B2B or tech journalists here because we all have our preferences. And there are advantages to meeting with an executive in a private room where it's quiet, where we can sit down, where they feel free to make some comments off the record or at the edge of what they can say. I appreciate those conversations. My pet peeve is the bait-and-switch: When a representative reaches out offering a meeting, which turns out to be scheduled in a secret conference room far away from the trade show floor. Sometimes, REALLY far away from the floor. Once, it was even in another building across the street. Often, the contact doesn't reveal this meeting location until the meeting invite drops. Sometimes, they don't tell you until the week of the show. Now, instead of popping over into the next aisle for that meeting, I have to extract myself from exhibits, navigate to wherever that room is, probably without quite enough time to get there, and I'll likely show up a bit sweaty. Should that meeting go long, it's the same hustle to get back to the show floor before the next appointment. Listen, I'm in shape. I run three times a week and strength train on the off days. Garmin tells me my VO2 is "superior" if that means anything to you. I'm not complaining about deploying my airport walk and adding to my step count. But I hate the domino effect that this can have on a day's schedule. I assure you, I am going into each and every trade show with a plan mapped down to the half hour, if not the quarter hour in some cases. Each event is a massive opportunity to gather information that can be turned into coverage for our audience, and I don't want to waste a minute. But more than that: I want to respect everyone's time, and show up prepared, punctual and ready to dive in. The surprise meeting locations throw a wrench into that. So here's my ask: Can we please meet in your booth? And if we can't, please tell me at the outset where the meeting is taking place. My Type A planning personality thanks you.