Tokyo Game Show 2026 ran for five days in September. The first two were business days, the last three belonged to the public. A business day pass was free with an exhibitor’s pre-registration code and cost 16,500 yen without one, and every pass was only issued after a screening that checked whether the applicant worked in the games industry. The pass level also set who you could meet: every registered business visitor could book meetings with exhibitors through the show’s matching system, while Gold and Black pass holders could also book meetings with other attendees (Tokyo Game Show, 2026).
That is the whole idea of a trade day in one paragraph. On a consumer show, the trade audience is small, valuable and easy to drown in a crowd. Our view: the ticket has to do the separating. Check credentials before the ticket is issued, let ticket types control days and zones, and give vetted visitors something the public cannot get, which is pre-booked meetings. If you need the basics first, our guide to what a trade show is explains how consumer shows, trade-only shows and mixed formats differ.
This guide is written for the show director of a consumer show who runs, or wants to add, a trade day or a business area. Sooner or later, an exhibitor’s head of sales will ask her a simple question: who was actually in the business area on Wednesday? Everything below is designed to give her a precise answer.
Four ways to give the trade its own show
Before any credential check, you decide how trade visitors and the public share the venue. Large shows that admit both trade and public use four patterns, often in combination.
| Pattern | How it separates | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Trade days first | The opening days are reserved for trade visitors, the public follows | Frankfurt Book Fair 2026: trade only on Wednesday and Thursday, open to all from Friday at 11:00 |
| Business days in a fixed block | A set number of business days, then public days | Tokyo Game Show 2026: two business days, then three public days |
| Business area | A separate zone or hall reserved for trade visitors throughout the show | gamescom: a business area for trade visitors next to the public entertainment halls |
| Trade access all week | Trade visitors can come every day, the public only at the weekend | Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026: trade visitors Tuesday to Sunday, general public Saturday and Sunday |
Choose by what your exhibitors need. Trade days first suit buyers who want new products before the crowds. A business area suits exhibitors who run a public stand and a meeting room at the same time.
gamescom combines two of them. The business area stays reserved for trade visitors, and in 2027 the show opens on 25 August with a business and media day (wildcard holders from 13:00) before it opens to everyone on 26 August (Koelnmesse, 2026). The organiser states why on its trade visitor page: keeping the trade visitor character of the business area and the trade day is very important to exhibitors.
The pattern is a promise to exhibitors. The ticket keeps it.
Write the eligibility rule before you sell a ticket
Every pattern depends on one thing: a written rule for who counts as trade. Without it, staff at the ticket desk decide case by case, and no two desks decide alike.
Good rules are specific. Salone del Mobile.Milano lists its trade groups by name: architects and designers, distributors and retailers, exporters and importers, facility managers, general contractors, interior decorators and lighting designers. Anyone unsure which category they belong to is asked to email the ticket team and describe their professional field. gamescom publishes a full page of permitted sectors, exceptions, groups that are not admitted and the accepted proofs. Students on listed games-related study programmes are among the permitted groups.
For each group, set four things:
- Admission: whether the group may enter, and on which days and in which zones.
- Proof: the document you accept, for example a business card, a company email address, an employer’s letter or a commercial register extract.
- Ticket: the ticket type the group buys, with its own price and validity.
- Decision: who on your team decides edge cases, and how quickly.
The last line matters most in practice. The owner of a small online shop, a streamer with a large audience, a retired buyer: each of them will apply. A rule that names who decides, and by when, protects your desk staff from arguing with every one of them.
Check credentials before the ticket is issued
With the rule in place, the open question is timing. Large shows check at one of two points, and each has a cost.
Frankfurt Book Fair checks at the gate. Trade visitors buy their ticket online or at the box office and show proof of eligibility, such as a business card or a letter from their employer, when they enter the grounds (Frankfurt Book Fair, bookseller FAQ, 2026). gamescom checks before the ticket is valid. Trade visitors submit a commercial register extract, a trade licence or similar proof, and the organiser reviews it by hand. “Legitimization for trade visitors is not automated,” the gamescom trade visitor page says; the team checks documents for plausibility, which can take up to 48 hours.
A check at the gate is cheap to prepare and expensive on opening morning. Every discussion about a business card holds up the queue. A check at ticketing moves the work into the weeks before, which needs staff time and a clear deadline. gamescom warns that it cannot guarantee timely processing for requests made on the morning of the visit.
For a show that sells a professional audience to exhibitors, checking first is almost always worth it. The process has five steps.
A credential check that happens before the ticket
- Registration Register and upload proof Ask for company, sector, job role and visit goal as required fields, plus one document that fits the group.
- 1 to 2 days Review the proof Your team checks for plausibility and asks a follow-up question in edge cases before rejecting anyone.
- After approval Issue the ticket Only now is the personal ticket confirmed, with the days and zones that belong to the group.
- Show day Enter by QR code At the turnstile, only the code counts. Nobody argues about business cards any more.
- After the show Delete the documents Keep the verified status and delete the uploaded documents once your retention period ends.
Plan the review deadline back from opening day and send late applicants to a separate desk with experienced staff. How many check-in stations you still need is worked out in our guide to event check-in and badge printing.
Exhibitor invitations are not proof
Many trade visitors arrive on an exhibitor’s invitation. That is good news, because exhibitors know their customers. But a code only proves that someone was invited, not that they work in the trade. gamescom says so explicitly: a voucher for a trade visitor ticket does not count as proof of industry.
Give each exhibitor a quota of codes, and send invited guests through the same registration and check as everyone else. Otherwise the codes end up on fan forums and resale sites.
Collect only the proof you need
Employer letters and register extracts contain personal data. If your show falls under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you may only collect what the purpose requires and keep it no longer than necessary (Article 5(1)(c) and (e) GDPR). Keep the verified status, such as “trade visitor, retail”, and delete the scans after the show. Agree the retention period with your data protection officer.
Ticket types, prices and hours do the rest
A credential check separates trade visitors from the public. The ticket type decides what that status is worth: which days, which halls and from what time.
Frankfurt Book Fair shows the principle. In 2026, the fair ran from 7 to 11 October. Wednesday and Thursday were for trade visitors only, and on Friday the public was admitted from 11:00, two hours after trade visitors. A trade day ticket cost 91 euros, a reduced trade ticket 33 euros and a trade season ticket for all five days 165 euros (Hessischer Rundfunk and Frankfurt Book Fair, 2026). Salone del Mobile.Milano priced its 2026 trade season ticket at 60 to 85 euros, depending on when it was bought, and its weekend public ticket at 38 to 53 euros (Salone del Mobile.Milano, 2026). gamescom sells business tickets for one, three and, since 2026, five days, the last one including the gamescom dev conference (games market, March 2026). Each ticket type is a rule the turnstile enforces without a conversation.
The scale of the trade audience at a large consumer show is easy to underestimate:
gamescom 2026: a trade audience inside a consumer show
Roughly one visitor in ten was a trade visitor. For an exhibitor selling to retailers or publishers, that tenth is the market. It only reaches them reliably if days, zones and opening hours keep them apart from the crowd.
Picture a buyer for a furniture retailer at Salone on Tuesday morning. The halls are calm, she has four appointments and time to sit down at each stand. On Saturday, the same stands are three rows deep with design fans taking photos. The trade day sells calm.
Give vetted visitors meetings, not just quieter aisles
Quiet aisles are a start. The trade day becomes valuable when vetted visitors get something the public does not: pre-booked meetings with the right exhibitors.
You already hold the data. Company, sector, role and visit goal from the credential check are the same fields exhibitors use to choose whom to meet. Which of those questions to ask at registration, and when, is covered in our guide to registration questions that make matchmaking work. Tokyo Game Show takes the next step and ties meeting rights to the pass level, as the opening example showed. gamescom has long given trade visitors access to its business platform gamescom biz along with the business area (games market, March 2024).
The meeting rules follow from the credential check. Verified trade visitors may request exhibitors, public visitors may not. Guests with an exhibitor code get their first meeting with the exhibitor who invited them. Buyers whose travel you pay for get a stricter check, as described in our guide on how to qualify hosted buyers. How platforms connect exhibitors and visitors at a show is compared in our article on trade show matchmaking software.
Solution: With Converve’s ticket shop, which is already available as part of registration, you create ticket types for each participant group, each with its own price, quota and promo codes, for example for your exhibitors’ invitations. For groups you want to check first, there is an approval step before the ticket is confirmed. Every ticket includes the invitation to register on the event platform, where a rule-based meeting matrix sets which groups may request whom. On site, visitors check in with a QR code. What this looks like for exhibitions is described on our page for trade shows.
What to show exhibitors after the show
Back to the question from the head of sales: who was in the business area on Wednesday? With an advance check, the show director can answer it exactly, because every trade visitor has a verified record.
FKM, the German body that certifies trade fair figures, counts visitors as entries to the grounds, at most one per visitor per day, and measures the share of trade visitors through a representative survey. At consumer goods shows for trade visitors, FKM notes, that share is usually close to 100 per cent, because visitors normally have to prove their status. Your credential check is not just a gate. It is the basis of your visitor profile.
Report four figures to exhibitors:
- Applications, approvals and rejections in the trade visitor check, by group.
- Trade visitor entries per day and per zone.
- Trade visitors by sector, role and visit goal.
- Meetings requested, confirmed and held between trade visitors and exhibitors.
The fourth figure carries the most weight. An exhibitor who sees twelve held meetings with verified buyers decides about next year differently from one who only knows the total attendance. Our guide to exhibitor retention explains why meetings shape rebooking, and our post-event report template shows how to present the numbers.
Conclusion: the trade day starts in the ticket shop
A trade day or business area is only as professional as the check in front of it. Check at the turnstile, and you lose either the trade character or the patience of the queue. Check at ticketing instead, with a written eligibility rule and a firm deadline. Let ticket types control days, zones and hours. And use the verified data for pre-booked meetings, because meetings are why trade visitors come.
Then the show director has a clear answer for the head of sales: this many verified trade visitors, this many meetings held. If you want to plan trade tickets and meetings for your next show, get in touch with Converve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can members of the public attend a trade day?
Not without a trade ticket, and that ticket requires proof of profession. The public comes on the public days instead. At Frankfurt Book Fair 2026, Wednesday and Thursday were reserved for trade visitors, and everyone else was admitted from Friday at 11:00.
What proof do trade visitors usually need?
A business card, a company email address, a letter from the employer or, for the self-employed, a commercial register extract or trade licence. Frankfurt Book Fair names business cards and employer letters (2026), and gamescom accepts register extracts and trade licences among other documents. Only ask for proof your team actually checks.
When should you check trade visitor credentials?
Before the ticket is confirmed. Then only a code is scanned on show day and the entrance queue moves. Allow one to two days for the review; gamescom states up to 48 hours. Set a deadline a few days before opening and handle late applicants at a separate desk.
Does an exhibitor invitation count as proof of trade?
No. An invitation shows that an exhibitor invited someone, not that the person works in the trade. gamescom states that a voucher for a trade visitor ticket does not count as proof of industry. Send invited guests through the same registration and check as other trade visitors.
What is the difference between a trade day and a business area?
A trade day restricts the whole show to trade visitors for a day, usually at the start. A business area is a zone reserved for trade visitors while the rest of the show is open to the public. Frankfurt Book Fair uses trade days, gamescom uses a business area plus a business and media day.
