December 04, 2025
Building a strong base of exhibitors and sponsors is foundational to event success. They drive revenue, foster connections, boost credibility, and so much more. Every organizer knows that the value of their participation goes far beyond offsetting costs: they extend your marketing reach, transform your event into an interactive experience, and create measurable ROI for your attendees.
But earning their partnership is about more than just outreach. To attract exhibitors and sponsors, you need to prove to them that your event is worth it.
Whova’s Exhibitor Portal provides an all-in-one place for offering exhibitors everything they need, from lead generation tools to personalized outreach campaigns. Our Sponsor Center makes it easy to give sponsors high visibility with benefits like banners on both our mobile and web app.
Whova recently held an Event Insider live panel, where three experts shared their top tips and tricks for engaging and retaining exhibitors and sponsors.
- Shahara Anderson-Davis: Founder of 3D Vision
- Tom Clayton: Director of Training and Member Services at the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association (CAPA)
- Pam Goodell: Marketing Senior Director at the Institute of Transportation Professionals
With years of experience building community in their respective fields, they’ve all worked hard to plan highly successful events, conferences, and meetings. They know exactly what it takes to engage exhibitors and sponsors in ways that go beyond simple participation—delivering results with clear value for everyone involved.
Want to turn proven strategies into real success for your exhibitors and sponsors? Keep reading to learn five actionable insights from their expert advice.
1. Build Meaningful Relationships: Ask For Feedback and Listen To It
One of the simplest ways to earn the trust of your exhibitors and sponsors is to place emphasis on real connection and alignment. Find out what drives them: what are their goals, what do they like about your conference, and what would they like to see changed?
Alignment is key—your partners should feel genuinely connected to your organization’s mission and community, and see themselves as part of your journey. When they know they can reach out to you with ideas and that their input is valued, engagement grows naturally. And who knows? Their feedback and perspectives might spark wins for everyone.
Whether you’re building decades-long personal relationships with exhibitors and sponsors, leveraging programming throughout the year to connect with partners outside of your organization’s annual conference, or involving them directly in your event planning, the outcome is the same: showing your partners they mean something to you by making them active participants in your success.
“[We apply a] multi-pronged approach of not just interacting and engaging with sponsors when it comes to the annual AMAC Airport Business Conference, but also keeping up with them and showing them the value of AMAC’s membership throughout the year as well.”
–Shahara Anderson-Davis, founder of 3D Vision
Our event planning committee is made up of our larger vendors…They’re the ones carrying the conference. That’s one of the [ways] we engage them.”
–Tom Clayton, director of Training and Member Services at CAPA
2. Demonstrate Measurable ROI: Go The Extra Mile on Visibility
Strong connections lay the foundation, but at the end of the day, the proof of your event’s value lies in the concrete results. When it comes to visibility, one of the best things you can do is leverage event technology. Website homepages—and other locations like your agenda page—are a perfect opportunity to offer primary recognition.
To put it simply, get the word out in as many ways as possible: post social media spotlights, videos interviewing exhibitors and sponsors, send out dedicated newsletters, set up special product showcases, and more. You can make these perks tier-based to match support levels.
Utilizing your event’s mobile app is huge: placing in-app banners and sending messages prompting attendees to stop by certain booths—both of which the Whova app makes easy—highlights your exhibitors and sponsors in a tangible, simple, and high-reward way.
Whova’s Sponsor Center makes it easy to offer high visibility banners on both our mobile and web app, add product videos along with both virtual and in-person live product demos from your sponsors, and more.
“The recognition really is key…branding opportunities on marketing materials, website, through the Whova app—the ability to build their brand profile.”
–Pam Goodell, Marketing Senior Director at the Institute of Transportation Professionals
3. Leverage Everything in Your Toolkit
To maximize the crucial support you get from your exhibitors and sponsors, you must make every small detail matter—because it truly does. Leave no stone unturned!
When it comes to exhibitor and sponsor offerings, it’s easy to overlook the little things, but no tier or offering is too small. A diverse, well-rounded mix of options is the ideal way to maximize your profit, while simultaneously boosting leads and visibility in meaningful ways. From lower level opportunities like badge holder and water station branding, to major offerings like equipment manufacturing or session sponsorships, everything counts.
Whova offers Advanced Sponsor Banners to showcase certain sponsors in high-traffic locations, and exhibitor outreach and sponsor outreach campaigns, where they can send personalized messages to attendees and view detailed interaction/lead analytics. You can offer these opportunities only to high-paying exhibitors and sponsors to incentivize investment in premium packages, maximizing everyone’s ROI.
Similarly, Whova’s Passport Contest and Exhibitor Trivia offer fun, gamified ways to drive traffic to your exhibitors’ booths, which you can again make available only to certain tiers.
Curating a robust set of opportunities demonstrates value at every level, and helps you appeal to a wide range of organizations. A-la-carte items—such as an opportunity to sponsor the WiFi—are a great way to add variety.
–Tom Clayton, director of Training and Member Services at CAPA
4. Get Creative with the Spotlight
To deliver maximum visibility, brand exposure, and lead generation with surefire success, you need to go beyond the basics.
Don’t stop at static logos and booths—give your exhibitors and sponsors experiential ways to engage. Activation opportunities are everywhere if you look for them: set up pop-ups during your sessions (like a sponsored demo or featured book signing), customize structured networking and matchmaking opportunities, offer speaking roles, and more.
One great way to do this is with our new Exhibitor Trivia feature, which empowers your exhibitors to create their own trivia games for attendees—securing leads through fun, interactive engagement.
–Shahara Anderson-Davis, founder of 3D Vision
–Pam Goodell, Marketing Senior Director at the Institute of Transportation Professionals
5. Bring Exhibitors, Sponsors, and Attendees Together
Fostering strong engagement starts with offering attendees what they want. One smart, straightforward way to find exhibitors and sponsors is through word-of-mouth: ask your members and attendees who they’d love to see at your event.
This accomplishes two things:
- It sets you up for success with ready-to-go suggestions on who to reach out to—making it even easier to gather exhibitors and sponsors.
- It ensures real value for your attendees, allowing them to connect with the brands and organizations they really care about.
The key to keeping this momentum going for your exhibitors and sponsors? Bridge access to attendees. Make it easy for them to gather lists of leads—in other words, do some of the hard work for them! Whova offers QR codes that exhibitors can scan to effortlessly capture leads, so they can follow up at any time on the app.
You can even offer attendee insights ahead of time: share demographics and testimonials, and highlight key data points. This helps them plan meaningful engagement that drives ROI.
The Whova app makes it easy for exhibitors and sponsors to directly message attendees, and even save time with customizable message templates—they can use the same message template to reach out to hundreds of attendees. Exhibitors and sponsors also use our meet-ups feature to host group demos and information sessions for further connection with attendees.
–Tom Clayton, director of Training and Member Services at CAPA
In Conclusion: Make Every Opportunity Count
Attracting and retaining exhibitors and sponsors isn’t just about filling booths and banners—it’s about creating thoughtful, measurable value for everyone involved in the event.
To get more expert tips on how to plan with proven success, check out other Event Insider topics on our YouTube channel.
And to learn how Whova helps you maximize brand awareness for your sponsors and drive lead generation for your exhibitors, get a price quote today.