The iFX EXPO playbook nobody hands you

Attending for activity or for qualified outcomes — pre-booked targets, a filled calendar, high-signal side events, brutal qualification, and 72-hour follow-up

The questionAre you going for activity, or going to close three to five deals?

1. Branch A · Before

   Book the calendar before you fly

   The deals that close were scheduled two weeks earlier. Fifteen targets, a short message each, a specific time and a specific reason — coffee at 10 on day two about your LATAM traffic, not let's connect at the show. The record's target: 70% full before you land. Its guidance, not a guarantee.

2. Branch B · On site

   Choose side events over booth crawling

   Booths are staffed by people paid to scan a badge. Decision makers are at the side events, dinners and speaker rooms — one CMO the record quotes never stood at his own booth more than 40 minutes a day. That's where revenue-share terms actually move.

3. Branch C · Filter

   Qualify on geography and fit, fast

   You'll meet affiliates with no traffic and brokers who can't pay on time. Two questions early: which geos do you actually convert, and who else are you working with. Real answers arrive in ten seconds with names and numbers. Vague answers end the meeting — politely. Floor time is roughly €300 an hour once you divide the trip.

4. Decision · After

   Follow up inside 72 hours

   Recap from the airport lounge, not from your desk the following Monday, with the exact terms attached — memory fades, written numbers don't. The record's frame: these events are trust compression, and compression only happens if you arrived with targets instead of hopes.

Stated in the record — booth cost 15,000 to 80,000 euros all-in; roughly 3 to 5 serious deals to break even; 15 targets; calendar 70% full before landing; about 300 euros per hour of floor time; 72-hour follow-up window; June 16 to 18, roughly 7,000 attendees.

The record frames one decision about conference attendance: are you there for activity, or for qualified partner outcomes? The maths it sets out first: a booth costs operators anywhere from 15,000 to 80,000 euros once staff, travel and the evening programme are added, and making that back takes roughly three to five serious affiliate or IB deals — five conversations that convert, not two hundred business cards. It also puts floor time at roughly 300 euros an hour once the trip cost is divided. Branch one, book before you fly: the deals that close were scheduled two weeks earlier. Pull the attendee list, pick fifteen targets, and send a short message with a specific time and a specific reason — a named slot and a named topic rather than let's connect at the show. The record's target is a calendar 70 percent full before landing, as its own operating guidance rather than a guarantee. Branch two, skip the booth crawl: booths are staffed by people paid to scan a badge, while decision makers are at side events, dinners and speaker rooms. The record cites one CMO who never stood at his own booth more than 40 minutes a day, and its read is that commercial terms move at the dinners. Branch three, qualify brutally: expect to meet affiliates with no traffic and brokers who cannot pay on time. Ask two questions early — which geographies do you actually convert, and who else are you working with. A real partner answers in ten seconds with names and numbers; vague answers end the meeting politely. Branch four, follow up within 72 hours or never: a conference lead loses value fast, so the recap goes out from the airport lounge with the exact terms discussed attached, not from the desk the following week. The record's underlying argument is that these events are trust compression — months of due diligence collapsing into one meeting — and compression only happens if you arrive with targets rather than hopes.