No Booth, No Problem: $20K Pipeline on a $3K Budget

We didn’t have a booth at MJBizCon 2025. We walked the floor with attendee badges, had conversations, and used BoothIQ to capture every one of them.

Here’s what happened - and what we learned about building pipeline as “just” attendees.

Three Takeaways

You don’t need a booth to build pipeline. Walking the floor with the right tool can beat sitting in a booth waiting for people to come to you. At MJBizCon, BoothIQ gave us exhibitor-level lead capture on an attendee budget.

Capture beats memory. 24 conversations in one day is a lot. Without real-time notes, half of those follow-ups never happen. With BoothIQ, the whole team sent personal follow-ups Monday morning because we had full context on every conversation.

Not every conversation deserves a follow-up - and that’s the point. We talked to 24 people and only added 9 to our CRM. The other 15 are documented, not deleted. No spam, clean pipeline, and a clear answer for anyone who asks why we didn’t pursue them.

Read on to see how we used BoothIQ to build pipeline on-the-go, ensure that every conversation was captured, and take the right action for each person we met during our time at MJBizCon.

Exhibitor Benefits, Attendee Pricing

Here’s the problem with walking a trade show as an attendee: you don’t get the tools exhibitors get. At MJBizCon, the official app only let exhibitors scan badges. If you were just walking the floor, you were stuck collecting business cards and hoping you’d remember who everyone was later.

But we had BoothIQ. We could scan any badge on the floor - exhibitor or not. We got the lead capture capabilities of a $15,000 booth for the cost of an attendee badge.

Every conversation got logged: who we met, what we talked about, contact info, notes for follow-up. No business cards stuffed in pockets, no “I’ll email them later” that never happens. Talk, capture, move on.

And honestly? The event was fun. I wasn’t stressed about forgetting someone or losing track of a follow-up because BoothIQ was handling all of that. I could actually focus on being there - spending time with the team, having real conversations - instead of wrangling spreadsheets or keeping track of business cards.

Context Recall: The Monday Morning Test

You know how this usually goes: you get home from a trade show, dump a stack of business cards on your desk Monday morning, and stare at them. Who was this person? What did we talk about? Were they even a good fit?

That’s exactly what happened to me. I pulled out the cards and couldn’t remember who half of them were.

But BoothIQ had all the context. I opened the app, saw the notes, and it all came back. The whole team sent quick, personal follow-ups that same morning because everything was right in front of us - who they were, what we discussed, what they cared about.

That’s the difference between collecting contacts and actually doing something with them.

$20K Pipeline: The Breakdown

Here’s what one day at MJBizCon gave us:

We talked to way more than 24 people - but 24 were real conversations worth logging. Not “hi, how are you” drive-bys or swag grabs.

Fifteen of them didn’t make it to our CRM. That was intentional. Some weren’t decision-makers. Some weren’t in our market. Some just weren’t interested. We didn’t want to spam them with irrelevant follow-ups, so we didn’t.

But here’s the thing: those conversations aren’t gone. They’re still in BoothIQ with full notes. If anyone ever asks “why didn’t you follow up with that person?” - we have the answer. Clean CRM, documented reasoning, no guessing.

Nine conversations were strong enough to add to the CRM. Two have started the process of becoming a deal. That’s $20,000 in pipeline from $3,000 spent.

To be clear: that’s pipeline, not closed deals. It’s been a few weeks plus the holidays, so things slowed down. We’re hoping to close those deals early this year.

Your Turn

Got a trade show coming up? Whether you have a booth or just a badge, don’t let it turn into a pile of business cards you never follow up on.

Try BoothIQ for free at your next event and see what happens when you capture every conversation.