The next drupa, the printing and packaging trade fair in Düsseldorf, opens on 9 May 2028 and runs for nine days. The previous edition took place in 2024. For the four years in between, drupa.com offers a content hub, a newsletter and the exhibitor and product search of drupa 2024, which is still online. These services keep the fair visible between editions. A community also needs ways for participants to connect and work together.
Most trade fairs have a shorter gap, but the same problem. For eleven months of the year, exhibitors and visitors meet elsewhere: in sales calls, at smaller events, in hotel suites booked by the exhibitor. A year-round trade fair community is the organiser’s attempt to keep some of those conversations on its own platform.
This guide explains how to keep exhibitors and visitors connected between editions, which activities to offer and how to assess the cost. For exhibitors, a useful measure is whether the community helps them hold relevant conversations and develop contacts.
What is a year-round trade fair community?
A year-round trade fair community is a platform that keeps a show’s exhibitors and visitors in contact between two editions. Profiles stay online, participants can find and contact each other, and the organiser sets dates, such as online meeting days or expert sessions, that give everyone a reason to come back before the next show.
Three things are often called a community, but do a different job:
- An exhibitor directory helps people look companies up. Nobody talks to anybody.
- A newsletter or content hub keeps the show visible. The communication runs in one direction.
- A marketplace lets buyers order between shows. It works where buyers reorder known products.
The marketplace model has a well-known example in home and design. Maison&Objet says its marketplace MOM, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2026, brings together more than 400,000 professionals and lets them source 6,000 brands from 150 countries all year round (figures published by Maison&Objet, July 2026). That suits a sector where a retailer can reorder a vase online. A logistics or machinery fair is different: its exhibitors sell through conversations, often with an engineer at the table. Their community may therefore need appointment booking and access to technical experts alongside product information.
The general idea of an event that becomes a year-round audience is older than any trade fair platform, and our earlier article on the 365-day event community describes it for events of all kinds. Trade fairs add one constraint. The exhibitor pays, and expects a return.
Why the months between editions decide the rebooking
That constraint is the reason the gap matters so much.
Picture the show director who has to defend a community budget in front of the management board. The question in that meeting is not whether the platform looks busy. It is whether exhibitors rebook. As we explain in our guide to exhibitor retention, that decision is made in the exhibitor’s own budget review, often months after the show and far away from your rebooking desk.
What exhibitors feel during those months is measurable. EVOLIO Marketing surveyed 241 exhibitors and event marketers in 2024 for its Voice of the Exhibitor report. Of those, 69 per cent agreed that show organisers value their participation. Only 44 per cent agreed that organisers care about the relationship beyond the event dates, and 31 per cent disagreed. For your show, this means exhibitors feel appreciated during the show and forgotten after it. The rebooking decision falls into the forgotten months.
How exhibitors see organisers after the show
The same survey shows why silence is costly: more than half of the respondents, 57 per cent, named measuring results as one of their top challenges. An exhibitor who cannot prove what the show produced, and hears nothing from you for eleven months, has two reasons to cut the booking.
Silence after the show is a retention risk.
What exhibitors and visitors want from you between two shows
If silence is the risk, the obvious answer seems to be more email. The data points the other way.
Freeman’s 2025 Trends Report on commerce at trade shows, based on 1,022 attendees and 969 exhibitors, asked both groups what would improve their interactions at events. Among exhibitors, 49 per cent chose being scanned and emailed afterwards. Among attendees, only 23 per cent did. At the same time, 58 per cent of attendees wanted to speak with subject matter experts from exhibiting companies, while only 26 per cent of exhibitors saw it that way.
For a community between two editions, the lesson is direct. A platform that forwards exhibitor mailings to visitors repeats the mismatch at scale. Picture a buyer from a retail chain who has received six product newsletters since the show and unsubscribes from all of them. The same buyer will accept a 20 minute video call with the engineer who designed the conveyor system she looked at in the hall. One is noise. The other is access.
Access beats volume.
Four building blocks of a community that keeps working
So the platform’s job between shows is to create access. Four building blocks do most of the work.
- Profiles that carry over: Profiles, interests and contacts from the last show stay online. Visitors update what they are sourcing, exhibitors update what they offer, and the next edition starts with filled profiles instead of an empty registration form.
- Dated meeting days: A contact button that is always available gets used rarely. A fixed online meeting day, for example a three hour window once a quarter with 20 minute video slots, gives exhibitors and visitors a date to prepare for.
- Content with a conversation attached: An expert session by an exhibitor’s product specialist, followed by bookable slots with that speaker, turns content into a reason to talk. It also delivers the expert access visitors asked for.
- Lead care for exhibitors: Each exhibitor sees which visitors requested a meeting, which meetings took place and who was missed. That list is what goes into the budget review.
The meeting days need rules. If every visitor may contact every exhibitor, the largest stands drown in requests and the smallest hear nothing. Decide which exhibitor and visitor groups may request meetings with each other, in the same way you would for the show itself. How such a meeting matrix turns profile data into a schedule is explained in our guide to trade show matchmaking software. Which online formats actually produce meetings rather than viewers, we compare in ten types of virtual events ranked by networking results.
A year between two editions: a sample calendar
Building blocks need a rhythm, or they turn into a feed nobody opens. The calendar below assumes an annual show and is a starting point, not a benchmark.
Twelve months of community between two annual shows
- Week 1 Send result sheets Each exhibitor receives its meetings requested, held and missed. Profiles stay open after the show.
- Month 2 First online meeting day Follow up on conversations that did not fit into the hall, by video and in fixed slots.
- Month 4 Expert sessions Exhibitor specialists present a topic, then open bookable slots for the participants.
- Month 6 Themed meeting day Focus on one product group or region, so exhibitors meet buyers they did not reach at the show.
- Month 9 Profile refresh Visitors state what they are sourcing for the next edition. This feeds the next matching.
- 8 weeks prior Open meeting requests Exhibitors and visitors request meetings for the show, based on profiles that are already filled.
- Show days Meet in the hall The planned meetings take place at the stands, and the cycle starts again.
For a show that runs every two or four years, stretch the calendar but keep the dates. One meeting day per quarter and one physical regional meeting per year are enough to stop the gap from becoming silence. The first week matters most in every rhythm: our post-event report template shows how to build the exhibitor result sheet that opens it.
Three patterns make communities go quiet, and all three are avoidable:
- The platform launches as a social feed and waits for posts that never come.
- There are no dates, so nobody has a reason to log in this month rather than next.
- Access costs exhibitors extra, so only the largest join and visitors find half the hall missing.
How to tell whether the community works
The show director in front of the board needs more than a sense that the platform is busy. Four numbers tell you whether the community does its job.
| Metric | What it shows | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Profiles updated since the show | Whether participants still see value | Updates stop after the first meeting day |
| Meetings held between editions | Real contact, not page views | Many requests, few acceptances |
| Share of exhibitors with at least one meeting | Whether value reaches beyond the large stands | Only key accounts are booked |
| Rebooking rate with and without meetings between editions | The effect on retention | No difference after two editions |
The last row is the one your board will ask about. If exhibitors who met visitors between editions rebook more often than those who did not, the community has paid for itself. If there is no difference after two editions, change the format before you change the budget.
Converve’s platform for trade shows and congresses can stay online after the show as an optional 365-day community. Profiles, matching and messages remain active, new participants can join, and the next edition starts with filled profiles instead of an empty attendee list. You configure the meeting matrix, so you decide which exhibitor and visitor groups may request meetings with each other, and requests, confirmed meetings and acceptance rates appear in the reporting for your exhibitor result sheets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a year-round trade fair community?
It is a platform that keeps a trade fair’s exhibitors and visitors in contact between two editions. Profiles stay online, participants can find and contact each other, and the organiser schedules dates such as online meeting days or expert sessions. Unlike an exhibitor directory or a newsletter, it is built around conversations between participants.
How do you keep exhibitors engaged between two trade shows?
Give them conversations, not just content. Send each exhibitor a result sheet within a week of the show, then offer dated online meeting days and expert sessions with bookable slots. In EVOLIO Marketing’s 2024 exhibitor survey, only 44 per cent agreed that organisers care about the relationship beyond the event dates, so regular contact already sets you apart.
Can event organisers give exhibitors a dashboard that helps them rebook?
Yes. The most useful version is a result page per exhibitor that lists meetings requested, held and missed, with the companies behind them, both from the show and from meeting days in between. It gives the exhibitor’s marketing lead evidence for the internal budget review, which is where the rebooking decision is made.
Do visitors want emails from exhibitors after the show?
Mostly not. In Freeman’s 2025 Trends Report on commerce at trade shows, 49 per cent of exhibitors said being scanned and emailed afterwards improves interactions, but only 23 per cent of attendees agreed. Instead, 58 per cent of attendees chose speaking with subject matter experts from exhibiting companies, which favours bookable expert conversations over mail sequences.
How often should a trade fair community hold online meeting days?
Once a quarter is a workable starting point for an annual show, with the first meeting day about two months after the show. For biennial or quadrennial fairs, keep the quarterly rhythm and add one regional meeting per year. Adjust after two cycles based on meetings held, not on log-ins.
Does a year-round community replace the trade fair?
No. It feeds the next edition. Profiles carry over, visitors state what they are sourcing and meeting requests can open weeks before the show, so the days in the hall start with planned conversations instead of an empty calendar.
Conclusion: measure the community in conversations
A directory, newsletter and content hub help people stay informed. Add meeting days and expert sessions with bookable slots to give them opportunities to talk. Report those conversations to exhibitors alongside other results, so they can assess the value of taking part.
Start small with one meeting day after your next show and compare rebooking rates after two editions. If you want to keep your exhibitors and visitors connected between shows, get in touch with Converve.
