My First Trade Show Booth: Lessons from Printing United
This month I exhibited at Printing United for the first time, and it was an incredible experience.
I was on a shoestring budget, so I went full startup mode. I booked the smallest, cheapest booth available. Instead of renting the overpriced tables and chairs through the trade show vendor, I bought a TV, tables, and chairs off Facebook Marketplace and hauled them to the show myself. It wasn’t glamorous, but it worked. It reminded me how much scrappiness still pays off when you’re building something new.
The Conversations That Changed Everything
Over the course of the show, I had more than 50 great conversations with print shop owners, franchise operators, and estimators. Each conversation gave me more validation that what I’m building with B2 Portal solves a real problem.
For smaller print shops that use QuickBooks for quoting and invoicing, B2 Portal immediately clicked. They could forward their customer RFQ emails, and in seconds the system would generate an accurate quote using their past pricing data.
For larger print and sign companies, the conversations made it clear that to unlock the full potential of B2 Portal, I need to go deeper with MIS integrations. The goal is simple: a customer forwards an RFQ email, and all the information auto-populates directly inside their MIS system. No more manual data entry, no more re-keying. Just a clean bridge between email and estimate.
What I Saw at the Show
I spent time walking the floor and checking out other software solutions, and there wasn’t anything quite like what I’m building.
Gelato had an impressive booth, but their solution required you to use their full MIS platform and it started at $27,000. Tools like Ordant and GoMake offered full-featured systems with CRMs, ecommerce, and job tracking, but they were heavy and expensive, costing $500–$1,000 per month.
B2 Portal takes a different approach. It is MIS-agnostic, lightweight, and designed to add value rather than replace what printers already use. Whether it is through faster estimating or eliminating manual data entry, the value is clear and immediate.
The Takeaway
Printing United gave me more than just leads. It gave me clarity. The conversations validated the pain points, the integrations became obvious, and the path forward for B2 Portal got sharper.
Sometimes, the smallest booth can lead to the biggest breakthroughs.