No matter what your industry—human resources, healthcare, education, technology, real estate, hospitality, government, and beyond—there are likely a number of relevant trade shows and conferences you can attend. Hundreds of thousands of industry-specific events are held around the world each year, and millions of people attend these events.Trade shows are not only a great place to network and grow your knowledge of a specific industry; they’re also a key way to bring visibility and credibility to your brand. Exhibiting at events is often an expensive marketing strategy, but it’s a proven way to generate highly interested (and qualified) leads to expand your customer base.To maximize the benefits of exhibiting at a trade show, you should consider adopting an offline mobile form app. Offline forms capture crucial lead data locally on a tablet or other mobile device even if there’s no internet connection or Wi-Fi. Then, once an internet connection is available, the data is automatically uploaded to the cloud and sent to any third-party apps that have been set up.In other words, offline data capture provides a new opportunity to streamline lead collection at events. Not convinced? Here are three reasons you need an offline form mobile app at your event booth:

#1: Internet Connection Limitations

A strong internet connection is not a guarantee at any event. In fact, event attendees often complain about unreliable Wi-Fi at convention centers.Event organizers typically rely on one of three options for internet connectivity:

1. The venue's in-house network
2. Attendees' personal cellular data networks
3. A third-party dedicated network solution

With option one or two, attendees often become frustrated as they deal with dropped signals or slow speeds. With option three, exhibitors and presenters are typically required to pay an expensive access fee to offset the cost.With an offline form app, you can avoid the frustrations and fees associated with the internet and still seamlessly collect lead data.

#2: High Booth Traffic

A top goal for any business exhibitor at a conference or trade show is to connect with as many people as possible. If your booth is in a prime location and/or you’re offering enticing freebies, you should see the high traffic you seek.However, if you have a clunky process for gathering information from those who stop by your booth, you won’t close many deals or make many friends. To capitalize on the opportunity to connect with enthusiastic event attendees, you need to provide hassle-free form-filling.With mobile offline forms, you can lock a lead collection form into a kiosk mode, which keeps the form fully displayed on the screen at all times and reloads a blank form after each form submission. This allows for quick, continuous data collection during times of high traffic.

#3: Faulty Lead Scanners

If you’re a savvy marketer familiar with exhibiting at events, you may be wondering why you need an offline forms app when many events provide digital lead scanners. The answer is threefold:

1. Event lead scanners are expensive.
2. They come with limitations, such as how you can ask questions.
3. They require manual export/import to pass leads to you sales team.

An offline mobile form app is not free, but being able to use it at any and all events or for other offline form needs makes it a worthwhile investment. You also have full control over the lead collection form you build and what fields to include. Additionally, information you collect with your offline form will automatically route to a CRM, email marketing tool, or other third-party app when an internet connection is established—streamlining your post-event workflows.

‍Ready to invest in an offline mobile app for your next event? Formstack can help! Click below to learn more about our Offline Forms add-on, powered by Formstack Go.