Success Tips for NAMM Show Exhibitors

As a music industry brand, planning your booth for The 2025 NAMM Show this January 21–25 is an important months-long effort for this exciting opportunity to get noticed by buyers, influencers, media and industry leaders. Whether you’re a regular exhibitor or getting ready to exhibit for the first time, we’ve compiled this list of trade show success tips to help you maximize results for your NAMM Show participation. 

Pre-Trade Show
LOGISTICS

Register for your badge

A crucial step toward securing your attendance at The 2025 NAMM Show is to register for your show badge, and registration is open! Securing your show badge early helps ensure a smooth badge pickup at the Anaheim Convention Center and gives you immediate access to your allocation of complimentary guest invitations. Your guests will appreciate it when you send their show badges early so that they can begin making their plans.

Book travel and hotel rooms

It’s stressful when you don’t get the flight times you need or the hotel rooms you had hoped for. After registering for your badge, you want to book travel to Anaheim, CA and hotel rooms asap for all team members who’ll attend the show. You’ll have peace of mind knowing you’ve gotten these details out of the way. Be sure to check out travel discounts!

Bookmark the Exhibitor Resources page

On the Exhibitor Resources page, find the tools you need to plan for your booth, including Freeman Online to order booth services, a list of NAMM designated service vendors, exhibitor insurance forms, the exhibitor deadline checklist to keep your planning on track, exhibitor hours, marshaling yard information, sponsorship opportunities and more. This is your hub for all things booth planning at The NAMM Show!

Sign up for NAMM Show communications 

Keep your NAMM Show team members informed of booth planning deadlines, policies, procedures and more by signing them up for the Run of Show newsletter. In regular meetings with your team, you can review action items highlighted in the newsletter and assign task owners to get them completed. Also consider signing up your exhibitor appointed contractor (EAC) for Run of Show so they’re in the loop as well.

Order booth services

Does your booth need lighting, furniture, carpeting, signage, high speed Wi-Fi or floral decorations? Think about what you’ll need to enhance your booth experience and order booth services with NAMM’s general service contractor, Freeman Online. Also consider catering so you have inviting refreshments to offer your guests.

Complete any shipping needs

There are more logistical details to handle than can be listed here, but one important one is to get your shipping in order by determining what items you will send to the advance warehouse or directly to the convention center. Be sure to follow instructions carefully so that your items don’t get sent to the wrong place at the wrong time. For your convenience, here’s a Shipping and Material Handling Checklist.

STRATEGY

Now is the time to create your strategy for your NAMM Show booth. Here are a few actions that successful exhibitors take during their pre-show planning.

Set goals

Every exhibitor will have different goals in mind for The NAMM Show. Some may want to expand their brand awareness. Others will want to drive lead generation, have a successful product launch or make sponsorship deals with artists. After you secure your booth, define what success will look like. Your goals will drive the rest of your decision making for your exhibit.

Design a booth that provides an experience and makes a visual impact

A trade show is all about the visuals and the experience. When people enter the show floor, what will they see that will draw them to your booth? Designing your booth is a creative process that involves appealing to current and prospective customers as well as delivering a message that attracts attendees to explore your brand. 

Also, determine what sort of experiences you aim to offer: Are you doing product demos, and if so, how can you accommodate several people to get hands-on with your products? Do you have artists performing in your booth? Would you like to have a space where a rep can sit and converse with a prospect? Remember to keep your goals in mind so that your booth’s design and layout can support what you want to achieve.

Maximize buzz with a lively marketing strategy

You want your participation in The NAMM Show to be as visible as possible to your customers and prospects. Use multiple channels to increase buzz around your presence at the show and what you’ll offer attendees. Pump up your social media with exciting and regular posts, execute emails to your contacts, create and share promotional videos, announce a raffle or prizes, or publish blog articles and press releases that will bring awareness to your attendance. 

Have a lead collection strategy

If one of your goals is to drive lead generation, it’s a good idea to have an efficient digital tool for lead retrieval. Things move fast on the trade show floor, so you’ll want a quick and easy way to capture leads, whether you have a long conversation with a booth visitor or a quick handshake with someone dropping in and out. Another benefit of a lead retrieval app is managing and exporting your leads via NAMM Show+.

Leverage The NAMM Show+ app

Speaking of the app, download it! Show attendees will begin networking, messaging brands and viewing your brand page long before the show kicks off. The app is your tool for lead retrieval, and you’ll also want it to set up and manage your meeting requests, find attendees and bookmark educational sessions and live events you want to attend. Be sure to update your brand page with your current company information! You can also gain more visibility on the app by upgrading to an Enhanced or Premium Brand Page.

Prepare talking points

Your goal is to convert prospects into real customers, and that happens more smoothly when you have prepared yourself with talking points. 

First, get familiar with the features and benefits you can discuss about the products in your booth.  It’s also good to know related products that may not be on display but that you can tie-in to help a customer become aware of your full portfolio. Second, draft a list of questions you think attendees are likely to ask you, and prepare your answers. You can also think of ways to jumpstart a chat with someone. 

Here are a few conversation starters:

• Hi! What are you excited about finding at the show this year?
• I’m curious to know what you do. Do you currently use our products in your line of work?
• What challenges do you currently face with your business?

A trade show environment is busy and distracting, so preparing your talking points before you arrive at the show will give you confidence when interacting with attendees.

During the Trade Show

Project energy and engage with attendees

It may seem obvious, but it’s paramount to project positive energy and readiness to engage with attendees walking past your booth. It can be tiring to always be “on,” but if you’re looking at your phone, for example, that can result in a missed opportunity to make eye contact and connect with potential customers. Draw people toward you and your booth with a smile and greeting or use one of the conversation starters offered above to start chatting with someone.

Scan badges with your lead retrieval app

You have lead retrieval through The NAMM Show+ app, now capture your visitors’ contact info by scanning their badges!

Meet with clients

Remember all the appointments you scheduled through The NAMM Show+ app? Follow through on those appointments. Be punctual, make your clients feel welcome and let them do most of the talking so you can discover what their needs are.

Share real-time updates on social media

You’re at The NAMM Show, and your followers want to see the experience! Take photos and video of your booth, of team members, product demos, artists and more and share it all. Generate excitement in real time!

Take care of your people

The NAMM Show is a high-energy event with tons happening at once, and show floor hours are long. Be sure that you have plenty of water available for your team and that they schedule lunch breaks they take outside the booth. Consider a rotation schedule so that your booth is always covered while team members get their breaks in.

Post Trade Show

LOGISTICS

Pack up your booth

Whether your booth staff or hired labor packs up the booth, be sure to consolidate materials inside the booth space and check that all containers have shipping labels. Don’t leave your booth unattended and consider hiring security to monitor your booth during move out. You can also pack items in locked cases to secure them.

STRATEGY

Keep the buzz going

The show may be over, but the buzz continues for months! Be part of the post show conversations and coverage by continuing to share your show content, including videos, photos and reshares. Your participation creates a full year of high-value content for your audience, so be sure use it!

Follow up with your leads

You and your team worked hard to make connections on the trade show floor; now it’s time to do the important work of following up. And the sooner, the better! Route your leads to the appropriate salespeople directly after the show. Contacting leads promptly shows that you value them and want to help find solutions that will work for their business needs. Nurture these relationships into loyal customers.

Measure your results and share success stories

Remember the goals you determined at the beginning of your trade show planning? It’s time to measure results against those goals. Results can be expressed in numbers and in stories of success. Reporting your results and experiences to stakeholders will not only make them appreciate that you’ve closed the loop on the entire effort, it will also encourage them to reinvest in The NAMM Show in the upcoming year.

You Still Have Time to Exhibit at The 2025 NAMM Show!

Don’t miss out on showcasing your latest products to a global audience of music industry leaders and decision-makers this January 21–25. Discover a wide variety of booth options, register for your badge and visit the Exhibitor Resources page for all the tools you need to plan your booth experience. See you there!

About the Author

Jessica A. Baris is a writer on the marketing team at NAMM and editor of Playback Blog. She shares member stories, covers The NAMM Show and collaborates with industry experts to create content that educates and informs NAMM members. Baris leads a musical life as a Latin dancer, growing singer and player of instruments, including castanets, clave and tongue drum.