If you think trade shows means finding a show and setting up a booth, think again. There’s a time and place for that activity, but it is probably not at the point where you are looking for ways to get clients.

If you are an instructional designer, technical writer, or marketing consultant, there’s a good chance that your customers look for you when they have a need, and a lot of that need is driven by product launches. Where do they go when they are launching products? Your customers go to trade shows where their customers are.

You should attend these shows and hang out afterwards.

This is where real networking is done in the corporate space. If a company is in medical devices, don’t you think their marketing staff attend the cardiac surgeons and brain stimulation implant conventions? If a company sells technology to law firms, don’t they have a presence at ILTA—International Legal Technology Association? Of course. And since all of their customers go there, so do the marketing and sales staff from your target company—that is, the people responsible for the success of the launch—the very people you want to connect with.

This strategy requires two things:

1)    Introduce yourself briefly around the show floor (remember, they are there to see and visit their customers, not you)

2)    Be where they might be—hang out in the bars to talk more later.

And remember, do NOT sell at these events. Meet, greet, and socialize, but do not sell. You are simply making connections.