Every project you’re proud of started with discovery: who’ll use the space, how they’ll move through it, and what they’ll remember.
Bring that same curiosity to your next trade show, and you’ll walk away with fresh perspectives, useful insights and stronger connections.
Every person at the show brings projects, ideas, experience, and a different view of what’s taking shape in hospitality, senior living, and commercial design.
Use these three questions to tap into the experience around you. Each one opens a different window into the projects, client needs and ideas shaping the industry.
Take them with you and see where they lead.
1. What project has your attention right now?
People light up when they talk about work that has their attention. It might be a boutique hotel, a restaurant, a senior living community, a workplace renovation, or a design challenge they’re approaching in a new way. You’ll quickly learn what they care about most and why.
Listen for the detail that catches your attention, then ask about it. It works like discovery on a new project: one answer gives you the clue for your next question.
“What’s the most rewarding part of the project for you?”
“How did you get involved?”
“Are you trying anything that’s different?”
Those questions can take the conversation somewhere you didn’t expect, uncover new ideas and create connections that last beyond the show.
2. What are clients asking for more of lately?
Trade shows give you a rare chance to gather market intelligence from several vantage points in one room. Designers hear what clients are requesting. Manufacturers see patterns in their orders. Reps hear what’s emerging across dozens of projects.
Ask the same question of several people, and you may begin to see a pattern.
You’ll also learn what’s shaping projects right now: durability, sustainability, customization, shorter lead times, warmer materials and flexible spaces.
Listen for the why behind the answer. That’s where the useful insight often begins.
“Are you seeing that across several projects?”
“What’s behind the shift?”
“Who’s doing it well?”
You’ll leave with insights you can bring to your next client meeting, and you’ll have given someone else the opportunity to think about what they’re seeing, too.
3. What’s caught your eye at the show so far?
This question works almost anywhere: in the coffee line, at a booth or while you’re both admiring the same fabric sample. A person’s answer gives you an immediate point of connection and a chance to see the show through someone else’s eyes.
A trade show surrounds you with trusted resources and familiar faces alongside new products, materials, colors, ideas, and people. Yet no two people experience the same show. Each person follows a different path, notices different details and walks away with different favorites.
Their answer might lead you across the room to a product you’ll love, point you toward someone worth meeting or draw your attention to an idea you might have walked right past.
Keep the conversation going with:
“What caught your eye about it?”
By the end of the day, you’ll have seen one trade show through a dozen different sets of eyes, expanding what you noticed, discovered, and take home.