Imagine, as an example, a small office furniture manufacturer in the interior of São Paulo state that has to decide where to put this semester's sales budget: exhibit at the industry trade fair, in another state capital, or join an online business round. The owner remembers the clients he met at the last fair, and also the booth that stood empty for a good part of the afternoon. Before choosing, he runs a simple calculation with the cost-per-meeting calculator, which compares trade fairs, prospecting with a sales rep, ads and business rounds by the same yardstick: how much each worthwhile conversation costs. The choice between a business round and a trade fair has no single answer. This guide shows what each format delivers, how to work out the cost of each one and when it makes sense to use both.
What each format delivers
An in-person trade fair is a place to see the market up close. Visitors walk the aisles, pick up samples, compare finishes, talk to suppliers they did not know existed and leave with a sense of prices, trends and who is growing. Exhibitors show the product working, receive visitors from several regions and strengthen their brand in front of clients they already know. A new encounter almost always happens by chance: someone stops at the booth because they happened to walk past it.
An online business round works the other way around. Before the event, each company describes in its profile what it offers and what it is looking for. At the set time, the platform forms the pairs live, among the companies that are present, matching you with people who are looking for what you offer, with no repeated conversations. Each conversation is one to one, by video call inside the platform, with a fixed time and automatic room switching. Nobody has to exchange links or hunt for the right person in a crowd. The guide to how a business round works explains the steps in detail.
In short: the fair delivers breadth, physical contact with the product and brand presence. The business round delivers focus, conversations matched by each company's profile and no travel at all.
Business round or trade fair: a side by side comparison
The table below sums up the differences that matter most to a small or mid-sized company that sells to other companies.
| Criterion | In-person trade fair | Online business round |
|---|---|---|
| How contact happens | By chance, at the booth or in the aisle | Suggested by the platform, based on each company's profile |
| What you see | Product, samples, team and competitors, live | The person and the company, in a video conversation |
| Main costs | Registration or booth, travel, lodging, days away and staff | Time spent in conversations and a good connection |
| Geographic reach | Whoever made it to the venue | Companies from any city in Brazil |
| Preparation | Printed material, booth and logistics | A well-written profile, a short pitch, a camera and blocked time |
| Contact exchange | Business card or badge scan, on the spot | Only when both sides mark interest |
| Best use | Seeing the market, launching a product and meeting people you already know | Opening new conversations with people looking for what you offer |
Cost per conversation
The fairest way to compare the two formats is not the total amount spent, but the cost of each qualified conversation: one with a company that can actually buy from you or sell to you. An expensive fair that produces many good conversations can turn out cheap. A cheap business round you do not prepare for can turn out expensive, because your time counts too.
What goes into the trade fair calculation
- Registration or booth: for visitors, sometimes just the badge; for exhibitors, the space, the setup and the material.
- Travel and lodging: flights or fuel, hotel, meals and getting around the city.
- Days away from the company: what stops being sold, produced or followed up while you are at the venue, counting the days to get there and back.
- Staff: how many people go, the hours each of them spends and who covers their work back at the company.
What goes into the online business round calculation
- Participation: the registration for the round, when there is one.
- Time: the hours spent in conversations and the hours spent preparing the profile and the pitch.
- Equipment: a computer, a camera, a headset and a stable connection, which most companies already have.
Then add everything up and divide it by the number of conversations you expect to have with people who matter to you. If the fair produces few qualified conversations for your kind of business, the cost of each one goes up a lot. If it usually produces good encounters with clients who only show up there, the investment pays off in a different way. Run the numbers with your own figures in the cost-per-meeting calculator and put the result next to what a new client is worth to you. The article on how much it costs to win a B2B client helps you complete that reasoning.
Who takes part
Who you meet changes a lot from one format to the other, and that weighs as much as the cost.
At a trade fair, the audience is broad. There are buyers, suppliers, competitors, students, curious visitors and salespeople from other companies looking for clients at the booths. Industry fairs gather people from the same sector, which helps if you want to talk to a whole industry at once. The person who makes the buying decision is sometimes there, and sometimes sent someone just to look around. For exhibitors, this means quickly telling buyers apart from people who are just passing by.
In an online business round, the audience is made up of people who signed up to talk to other companies and filled in a profile saying what they offer and what they are looking for. Every conversation starts with a clear reason. Since there is no travel, companies from cities that would hardly ever end up at the same venue can take part. Some rounds are open to many sectors and others focus on just one; the article on the types of business rounds shows the differences and helps you choose.
When a trade fair is the better choice
- Your product needs to be touched: machines, materials, food, finishes. Seeing and holding it persuades more than a photo.
- You are launching something: a fair concentrates the attention of the whole industry in the same week.
- Your clients are already there: if buyers in your sector have the habit of going, being there strengthens the relationship.
- You want to study the market: prices, packaging, new competitors and trends all show up in the same aisle.
When an online business round is the better choice
- You need new conversations: with companies you do not know yet and that are looking for what you sell.
- Your budget or your team is tight: leaving the company for days is not possible right now.
- You sell to other regions: and want to talk to companies from several states without traveling.
- You want to test a market: before paying for a booth, talking to buyers in that sector shows whether there is real interest.
Because contact details are only shared when both sides mark interest, you also do not come back with a pile of business cards from people who never wanted to talk to you.
How to combine the two
For most small and mid-sized companies, the question is not business round or trade fair, but in which order to use each one. The two formats complement each other.
Before the fair
Use an online business round to open conversations with companies in your sector, and arrange to meet the ones that showed interest at the venue. You arrive with appointments already set instead of depending only on whoever walks past your booth.
During the fair
Set aside time for what only the fair offers: seeing products, getting to know competitors and talking to your current clients. Write down every new contact, with what was said and the next step, ideally on the same day.
After the fair
Many conversations from the fair cool down once you are back home. An online business round in the following weeks helps you find companies similar to the ones you met there, only from other cities. The preparation checklist covers before, during and after, and works for a business round as well as for a trade fair.
Whatever the combination, record where each conversation came from and what it turned into. That way, you compare channels with your own data, not with impressions. The guide on how to measure the return on networking shows how to set up that record without any fuss.
Where to start
Pick the next trade fair in your sector and the next online business round that fit your calendar. Work out the cost per conversation for both. Prepare a profile that says clearly what you offer and what you are looking for, and a short pitch that works both at a booth and on a video call. If you want to see the screens first, the business round simulator shows what it looks like from the inside in under a minute.
Your company's first online business round is on us: all you need is an active Brazilian CNPJ (the Brazilian company registration number), once per CNPJ, and contact details are only shared when both sides mark interest. See the upcoming business rounds and pick one to try before or after your next trade fair.