One phase or two — how long should your trip actually be?

There’s no single right answer, but the framework is straightforward: count your categories and phases, add a buffer for travel and recovery, and resist the urge to either overpack the schedule or underestimate how much ground a single phase actually covers.

Start with your categories, not a generic number

A single, narrow category within one phase can realistically be covered in a couple of focused days. Sourcing across several categories within the same phase — or, per the phase breakdown, across two different phases — extends the trip accordingly. Map your categories to phases first; the day count follows from that, not the other way around.

Don’t schedule every hour

A packed schedule of back-to-back booth visits looks efficient on paper and tends to produce worse conversations in practice — rushed meetings, no time to follow up on a promising lead, no slack for a supplier who wants to show you more than expected. Building in some unscheduled time each day, especially on a first visit, tends to pay off more than squeezing in one more meeting.

Add a buffer day for arrival

Arriving the day before your phase starts, rather than the morning of, gives you room to absorb a flight delay, get your bearings, and handle badge registration without doing it on the same day you’d otherwise be on the exhibition floor. This matters more on a first visit than a repeat one, where you already know the routine.

Factor in follow-up time, not just floor time

Some of the most useful work of a trip happens in the evening back at the hotel — organising notes, following up by email with a supplier while the conversation is still fresh, comparing quotes across the day’s booth visits. A trip planned down to the last hour of floor time leaves no room for this, and it’s often where a good lead either gets locked in or quietly goes cold.

What’s next

Once you have a rough day count, book accordingly and check what the full trip is likely to cost at that length.