The Future of B2B Expos: The Hybrid Exhibition Model

The UK’s B2B exhibition landscape has witnessed notable shifts. Less visitors attending events, exhibitors struggling to engage audiences, and increasing pressure on event organisers to justify it all together. Yes, B2B exhibitions have shown some recovery post-pandemic, but attendance numbers have significantly decreased by 33% – with an average attendance per exhibition dropping from 8,273 in 2018, to 6,295 in more recently.

Financially, the numbers are parallel. The UK exhibition industry funnelled £9.4 billion in trade generated by 6.1 million visitors – down by £1.6 billion pre-pandemic.

So, what’s driving this change? The shift in B2B exhibitions has passed recovering from the pandemic. Market forces, technological advancements, and changing attendee expectations are now the new challenge. Here’s what this looks like in detail:

With the rising costs and increasing pressure to prove ROI, B2B marketers are rethinking their expo strategies. Enter the hybrid exhibition model – a blend of in-person engagement and digital innovation designed to extend audience reach, capture richer data and improve lead conversion.

As the traditional trade show model faces increasing scrutiny, the hybrid B2B exhibition model offers a practical response to changing the landscape. At its core, a hybrid exhibition blends the physical experience of in-person trade shows with the flexibility and extended reach of digital platforms. That’s not to say that virtual events are set to replace live events. It’s about enhancing them.

In practice, this might look like live-streaming keynote talks from the stand, hosting virtual product demos for those who can’t attend in person, or building an on-demand content hub to extend conversations beyond the show floor. A hybrid exhibition model allows a connected experience that serves two audiences: the ones walking the aisles at events like MACH or Southern Manufacturing Electronics, and the ones tuning in from desks and devices across the country.

At such events, where products are valued in the tens of thousands and multiple decision-makers are involved in the purchase, a hybrid exhibition models allows a smoother journey in the buying cycle through greater accessibility.

For marketing managers and event organisers, particularly in industrial markets, this model tackles two persistent challenges:

1. Justifying the cost of exhibiting – where senior stakeholders want to see clear ROI; and
2. Increasing meaningful engagement – where fewer visitors are physically attending and those struggling to ‘gain the edge’ in a competitive environment.

How? The hybrid model offers data, scalability and broader reach. It allows you to repurpose booth content, track interactions, and keep nurturing leads long after the hall lights have dimmed. Let’s delve into ROI in more detail.

Measuring success at exhibitions is notoriously difficult. Sure, you can count badge scans, anecdotal conversations and estimate “stand footfall”, but none of that gives a true sense of engagement or intent. You’re often left guessing: who was genuinely interested, who just wanted the merch, and what impact did it actually have?

That’s where a hybrid model can earn its place in your exhibition strategy. It gives you the story you’ve always been missing.

Marketing attribution has always been a weak spot for live events, but hybrid creates a digital trail. Meaning you can track how your expo activity contributed to pipeline. From first click to MQL, it becomes part of your CRM story, not just a brand awareness black hole.

With virtual components like gated product videos, online Q&As, or follow-up webinars you can see who engaged, how long they stayed, and what content they interacted with. Many marketing managers consider these vanity metrics. They’re not. They’re intent signals. Did they watch the full demo? Did they revisit the page? Did they click through to a technical data sheet? You’re building a picture of buying readiness before sales even pick up the phone.

With such data, allows greater segmentation. Rather than treating every visitor the same, you can tailor follow-up based on digital behaviours. Someone who attended a full virtual session on predictive maintenance is worth a different conversation than someone who poked around your exhibits.

If you’re live streaming your product demo, virtual channels allow for feedback requests. Think live polls, post-event surveys, and tracking drop-off points during content playback. These insights feed straight back into your next campaign, sharpening your messaging and format based on actual behaviour, not guesswork.

Unlike the traditional stand where the interaction ends when the visitor walks away, hybrid gives you multiple re-engagement routes. You can automate nurture sequences based on behaviour, surface related content, and retarget audiences who didn’t convert the time. All with full visibility.

I appreciate that the thought of virtualising what has always been a live-in person event can be overwhelming. Especially for marketing teams in industrial markets where the necessary mar-tech is slow to adopt. But adopting a hybrid exhibition model doesn’t have to mean high-spec studio sets or costly tech. Be smart with what you’re already doing and add layers that extend engagement and prove ROI.

Here’s a practical roadmap for making it work:

You’re already producing valuable content for your exhibition. Brochures, stand visuals, product demos, key messages. Repurpose that content digitally, and even better – make it live. Film a live demo. You can use a decent smartphone. Most iPhones now record in 4K, and this should stream to an online webinar. Turn your sale’s teams talking points into short Q&A videos. Reuse the PowerPoint from your speaking slow as a downloadable asset.

Set up a landing page that mirrors your stand presence. Think of it as your virtual stand. It could include:

• Appointment booking for in-person visitors
• Product videos or walkthroughs
• Brochure downloads
• White papers and trend reports
• Promotion of special activities and give-aways

It doesn’t need bells and whistles. Just a clear layout and good UX. This becomes your central hybrid asset.

Add lead capture forms to your digital content and use tracking links for specific content pieces. If someone watches a full video or downloads a product sheet, you’ve got a solid signal of interest. You might need a marketing automation integration like Sonar to deliver this and segment accordingly for follow-up.

Exhibiting at trade shows needn’t be a two-day splash. Build a campaign that leads into it and extends after. Pre-event and post-event marketing like show teasers, email announcements, or social campaigns should link to your digital hub to build momentum and stretch value.

Sales teams should know how the digital elements support their conversations. Make sure their involved in the exhibition strategy development and assign members with key hybrid initiatives. Give them links to send to prospects who couldn’t make the show. Set up alerts when leads engage with digital content. Make it easy for them to pick up the conversation – whether it started on the stand or online.

Set clear goals. How many leads from digital vs in-person. What was the average engagement time on your hub? Which content got the most traction? Use this data to report back internally and use it to optimise your next outing.

The beauty of hybrid is that its scalable. You don’t need a massive outlay to make it work. These recommendations will add layers and build a foundation for a more integrated B2B exhibition experience. For marketer under pressure to justify every penny, this approach can unlock a whole new level of visibility and value.

Although Sports Information Services (SIS) is not an industrial brand, our partnership with delivering their exhibition at ICE in London makes a great example for adopting the hybrid exhibition model. They are however, B2B and much of our work with them is transferable. SIS has long been a frontrunner, delivering top-tier Horse Racing, Esports, and Numbers content to operators worldwide. Their participation in ICE, a premier gaming industry event, presented an opportunity to not only showcase their offerings but to redefine engagement through a hybrid exhibition.

SIS aimed to transcend the traditional confines of live events, seeking to innovate ways to amplify their presence at ICE and engage a broader audience. The goal was to integrate digital strategies that would complement their physical stand, thereby extending reach and enhancing interaction both during and after the event.

Collaborating with us, a specialist B2B exhibition design and marketing agency, SIS embarked on a multifaceted strategy to blend in-person engagement with digital outreach.

Before the event, we created a digital pre-show experience to reengage their key accounts and warm new leads. A short, personalised teaser video campaign linked to a page featuring product highlights, live stream times, and a “Book a demo” call to action. We wanted this to be more than a glossy production. Here we leveraged smart targeting, useful content, and removed friction for decision-makers who couldn’t commit to attending in person.

During the event, we live-streamed key demos and Q&As direct from their stand, meaning the sales team could present once and reach twice the audience. The stream was embedded on a campaign microsite that doubled as a lead capture point for those engaging remotely.

And post-event? That’s where it got interesting. All video content was clipped, captioned, and repurposed across LinkedIn to continue conversations, drive further traffic to the campaign hub, and support on-going sales activity. Their virtual content generated more qualified leads the previous year’s physical stand alone – and more importantly, gave the sales team visibility of what each contact had engaged with.

For an event traditionally measured in badge scans and handshakes, SIS demonstrated how a hybrid model can provide depth, reach, and more importantly, data.

The conversation around hybrid exhibitions often positions them as some kind of emerging trend. The truth is hybrid has increasingly become the norm for some years. It’s the winners that adopt who see the ROI. For a lot of exhibitors, it’s now the turning point to stay ahead of the curve before falling behind.

In B2B industrial markets where the buying journey starts long before the badge scan, and continues long after the stand’s packed down. Look at hybrid as more than nice to have. It’s a way to meet buyers where they are, with the information they want, at the time they need it.

And let’s be honest, we’ve spent years making exhibitions more measurable, more profitable, and more aligned with modern marketing strategies. Hybrid won’t solve everything, but it brings you closer.

Closer to data.
Closer to decision-makers.
Closer to proving that your next event is a channel, not a cost.

Don’t wait for your competitors to lead the way. Be the trailblazer. Be the talk of the show. It’s how we make exhibitions work harder, smarter, and longer.