Expo signal research

Show name plus year in. Company names (and booth numbers) out. Exhibiting is a growth tell, not ERP intent. Attending to buy a machine is a capacity window. Do not email a purchased list as a blast. Do not harvest badges.

ERP selection conferences (Digital Stratosphere and peers) are a different room: the agenda is already systems. Paid intercept in the host city is Conference-city Google Ads, not this scrape.

This page expands the expo pass in ERP signal research. Two public artifacts are easy. The third is gated and usually for-sale only to exhibitors.

Artifact	Typical access	What it is
Exhibitor list	Public directory on the show site or MapYourShow / a2z	Companies paying for a booth. Names, booth #, sometimes URL, product categories.
"See us at booth"	Company site, PR, trade press	The plant telling their customers they will be there. Confirms exhibit + year.
Attendee / registration list	Sold by the organizer, usually exhibitors only	People walking the floor. The list we actually want for "they are shopping for a press." Rarely public.

Tools

Tool	Agent surface	Use for
Cloudflare Browser Run	/markdown, /json, /links	JS exhibitor grids (MYS and a2z are heavy).
Firecrawl	/v2/search includeDomains, /v2/scrape, /v2/map	Find the directory URL, "see us at" posts, show dailies.
Exa	/search, /contents	Trade-press booth mentions, speaker lists.
ZoomInfo	After a company name exists	People at that exhibitor. Not the attendance file.

POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/{search|map|scrape}
POST https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/<accountId>/browser-rendering/{json|links|markdown}

Default loop: Resolve the show's directory host (MYS or a2z). Scrape exhibitors. Then search the open web for "see us at" to catch plants who exhibit under a DBA. Buy an attendee file only from the organizer, as an exhibitor or sponsor, if we decide that is worth a booth.

Context

G2 is for software vendors. A 50–500 plant walks machine shows. The owner may still work the booth. The plant manager and buyer walk the aisles looking at presses, mills, and automation. That aisle walk is the capacity event (SG_023 adjacent). The booth they pay for is marketing (SG_012 / SG_015 weak).

Love of client: "I saw you at IMTS" is a scene only if we were there or they published it. A broker PDF of 40,000 emails is not a scene. It is spray.

1. Which rooms (50–500)

Room	Organizer	Who from the plant	Directory host (typical)
NPE	PLASTICS (plastics industry association)	Owner, process, buyer	Show site + MapYourShow-class search
PTXPO	Gardner (Plastics Technology)	Same, more US processors	Show site exhibitor list
K / Fakuma	Messe Düsseldorf / Stuttgart	EU + serious US processors	Messe exhibitor search (GDPR-tight)
IMTS	AMT	Plant manager, programmer	IMTS site / MapYourShow-class
FABTECH	FMA / SME / AWS / PMA	Fab / weld / finish	FABTECH site / MapYourShow-class
EASTEC / WESTEC / SOUTH-TEC	SME — now Manufacturing Technology Series (mtseries.com)	Regional shops	MT Series site (EASTEC URL now redirects here)
Pack Expo	PMMI	If they package in-house	PMMI / MapYourShow or a2z
Automate	A3	If they are buying robots	Show site
MD&M / BIOMEDevice	Informa	Medical molders	Informa / a2z-class
SPE ANTEC, PLASTICS, NTMA, PMA, AMBA	Associations	Peer owners	Speaker/agenda PDF more than a floor
State MEP / Manufacturing Day	NIST MEP centers	Plants already asking for help	Agenda; attendee companies sometimes named
OEM distributor open house	Engel, Haas, Mazak, local MTDs	Maintenance + buyer	Almost never a public list; only if the plant posted it

Refresh the directory URL every season. Organizers rebrand (EASTEC → MT Series EAST). Do not hard-code a path that 404s; search, then scrape.

2. Services that host exhibitor listings

These are the platforms behind "Find an exhibitor." Scrape the show's instance, not the vendor's marketing site.

Platform	Site	What we get	Agent pattern
Map Your Show (MYS)	mapyourshow.com	Floor plan, exhibitor search, booth #, categories, sometimes product index. Used across US industrial shows.	Firecrawl site:mapyourshow.com {show} {year} exhibitors. Browser Run /json on the exhibitor search page.
a2z, Inc.	a2zinc.net	"Official online show directory" for many Informa / association events. eBooth pages.	Search site:a2zinc.net {show} {year}. Paths look like /{showcode}{year}/Public/.
RainFocus	rainfocus.com	Large-show CMS / directory (more mega-events).	Only if the show's exhibitor page is a RainFocus app.
Swapcard / Grip / Whova / Cvent app	Various	Attendee-facing apps. Exhibitor list often visible; attendee directory is login.	Scrape only the public exhibitor side. Do not log in.
ExpoFP / ExpoPlatform / EventScribe	Various	Floor maps + lists for smaller shows.	Resolve from the show nav "Exhibitors."
Messe Düsseldorf / Stuttgart native search	k-online.com, fakuma-messe.de	Exhibitor + product search	Browser Run; expect cookie walls and GDPR banners.
Gardner / SME / AMT / PMMI / PLASTICS first-party	Show .com	Sometimes a first-party list, sometimes an embed of MYS/a2z	/links on the show home; follow "Exhibitor directory."

Compusystems, Experient (Maritz), Freeman, GES, CDS (Convention Data Services) run registration, housing, and lead retrieval. They are not public directories. We do not scrape them. We buy from the organizer (section 4) or we exhibit and use official lead retrieval.

Agent: dump one show's exhibitors

1. Firecrawl search:

   {show} {year} (exhibitor directory OR "find an exhibitor" OR eBooth)
   site:mapyourshow.com OR site:a2zinc.net OR site:{show-apex}

2. Open the directory with Browser Run. If the list is paginated or filter-driven, /json with schema below, then paginate via /links (next, page numbers, "Load more").

3. Cap. A full IMTS dump is thousands of machine builders, not plants. Keep rows whose category is processor / molder / job shop / contract manufacturer. Drop machine OEMs unless the job is vendor research (Research).

   {
     "show": "NPE",
     "year": null,
     "directory_url": "",
     "platform": "mys | a2z | first_party | other",
     "exhibitors": [
       {
         "name": "",
         "booth": null,
         "city": null,
         "url_on_page": null,
         "categories": [],
         "kind_guess": "plant | oem | material | software | other"
       }
     ]
   }

kind_guess: plant is the 50–500 target. OEMs are capacity suppliers, useful as a later "who installed the new press" pass, not as ICP.

3. "See us at booth" (company-published)

The directory says they bought space. The plant's own words confirm year, booth, and which brand they used (parent vs DBA). Search after you have a name, or hunt without a name to find plants the directory transliterated badly.

"{company}" ("see us at" OR "visit us at" OR "booth" OR "exhibiting") (NPE OR IMTS OR FABTECH OR EASTEC OR PTXPO OR "Pack Expo" OR Fakuma OR "K 202")
"{company}" ("booth #" OR "booth number" OR "hall")
site:{company-domain} (NPE OR IMTS OR FABTECH)

Where it actually lives:

Place	Tool	Note
/news, /blog, /events, /trade-shows	Firecrawl /map search: booth NPE IMTS	Best first-party hit.
PR Newswire / Business Wire	Firecrawl includeDomains	Often SG_014 as well.
Plastics News, Plastics Technology, Modern Machine Shop, MoldMaking Technology, The Fabricator, IndustryWeek, CompositesWorld	Exa / Firecrawl	Pre-show "exhibitor previews" and show dailies name booths.
Show daily PDF (IMTS Daily, NPE Show Daily)	Firecrawl file parse if linked	Company + person in a caption.
YouTube / "booth tour"	Search; skip unless a name is in the title	Weak.
LinkedIn company page	Do not log in. Exa/Firecrawl web search for the post title	"We're heading to IMTS"

/json schema:

{
  "company": "",
  "event": "",
  "year": null,
  "booth": null,
  "role_shown": "exhibitor | speaker | attendee_claimed",
  "url": "",
  "growth_tell": false
}

growth_tell: true only for exhibitor (they paid). attendee_claimed is a window that they walked the floor; it is not proof they bought a machine. speaker is association-room, high trust, low volume.

4. Buying expo attendance lists

Exhibitor lists are a directory product. Attendance lists are a registration product. Different vendors, different contracts, different law.

Who actually sells them

Seller	What you can buy	Who is allowed to buy	Fit for us
Show organizer exhibitor kit (AMT, SME, PMMI, PLASTICS, FMA, Informa, RX, Emerald, Messe)	Pre-show registrants; sometimes post-show; fields vary (company, title, sometimes email)	Almost always contracted exhibitors or sponsors only	Legitimate path. Requires a booth or a paid sponsorship.
Lead retrieval on our own booth (CDS, Cvent, MYS Smart Scan, organizer app)	People who came to us	Exhibitors	Best list we will ever own. Not a buy of the whole floor.
Conference sponsor package (SPE ANTEC, association summits)	Delegate list for that conference	Sponsors	Smaller, denser, more "owner in the room."
Cvent / Experient / Compusystems	They run housing and badge ops	They sell to the organizer, not to random SaaS vendors	Do not cold-call them for a dump.
ZoomInfo / Apollo / similar	People at companies that look like attendees	Anyone with a seat	Not an attendance file. Use after we have exhibitor company names.
Bombora / 6sense / Demandbase	Topic intent, not booth scans	Marketing seats	"Injection molding" surge ≠ IMTS badge.
Random "IMTS 2024 attendee list" brokers	Resold, scraped, or invented emails	Anyone with a credit card	Do not buy. Quality is junk; origin is often theft or badge harvesting.

EU shows (K, Fakuma): assume no personal attendee file for sale. GDPR. Company-level exhibitor search only.

US B2B email still needs a real opt-out and a real relationship story. A purchased organizer file is not permission to sequence 20 touches. Love of process: use it as account research, then ZoomInfo a verified title, then a short human note that could pass the dinner test.

What the organizer file is good for (if we exhibit)

• Company names walking a machine show → capacity window hypotheses.
• Titles (plant manager, process engineer, buyer) → persona, not a problem.
• Geography → route to the right owner on our side.

It is not proof they need an ERP. Most badges are OEM shoppers.

How to get a legitimate file

1. Decide whether a booth or a cheap sponsorship at one regional show (MT Series EAST/WEST, PTXPO) is worth it. National IMTS/NPE booths are expensive relative to 50–500 outbound.
2. Ask exhibitor services: pre-show list included or extra? Format? Email vs postal? Refresh date? Use limits (one-time vs unlimited)?
3. Put the contract limit in the runbook. If it says "one email," we send one useful note or we do not send.
4. Match company names to domains (Research), size, process. Drop OEMs and software vendors.
5. Never combine with a broker file "to fill gaps."

If we will not exhibit

Stay on public exhibitor directories + see-us-at + show dailies + speaker lists. That is enough to name plants who paid to be found. For aisle walkers, the honest substitutes are: go ourselves, host a tiny reception on the official program, or read captions in the show daily. There is no clean SaaS that sells the IMTS attendee file to non-exhibitors.

5. Agent runbook

One show, one year.

1. Resolve directory URL (MYS, a2z, or first-party).
2. Scrape exhibitors. Classify plant | oem | other.
3. Firecrawl "see us at" for plant rows (catches DBA mismatch).
4. Optional: show-daily / preview articles for extra names.
5. Resolve domains. ZoomInfo size. ICP qualify.
6. Stop. No Salesforce bind from a booth number.
7. Attendance file: only if a person has approved exhibiting/sponsoring and the organizer contract is in hand.

{
  "show": "",
  "year": null,
  "source": "directory | see_us_at | show_daily | organizer_attendee_file",
  "company": "",
  "domain": null,
  "booth": null,
  "role_shown": "exhibitor | speaker | attendee_claimed",
  "kind_guess": "plant | oem | other",
  "growth_tell": false,
  "window_guess": false,
  "retrieved_at": "",
  "url": ""
}

window_guess: true when they are a plant attending or exhibiting at a machine show in a year they also opened capacity (pair with capital and jobs). Never from the badge alone.

What this is not

• ERP intent. A booth is marketing or machine shopping.
• License to scrape event apps behind a login, photograph badges, or buy broker "attendee dumps."
• A substitute for ZoomInfo phones.
• Permission to sequence a purchased list without the organizer's use limits.

Related knowledge

• ERP signal research
• Research — name → domain
• Capital signal research
• Sales stack
• Communication instructions
• CEO scene videos — "see us at" is a scene source, not a shopping signal
• Conference-city Google Ads — Presence ads in the venue city while an ERP conference is on; not an exhibitor dump
• Conference prep — LinkedIn tells that someone is going; still not a purchased attendance file

Change log

• 2026-09-05 — Point ERP selection conferences (Stratosphere-class) to conference-city Google Ads and conference prep; this page stays machine-show directories.
• 2026-08-31 — Exhibitor platforms (MapYourShow, a2z), see-us-at scrape, and buying attendance lists (organizer vs broker vs lead retrieval).