EMT #43 with Matt Williams - Turning Trade Shows into Year-Round Relationship Engines

Event Marketer's Toolbox

In this episode of Event Marketer’s Toolbox, Chris Dunn and Brendon Hamlin sit down with Matt Williams, the creator of the Plant Grow Harvest framework - a simple, honest approach to social selling that helps sales and marketing teams stop lurking and start connecting.

Matt brings years of experience bridging sales and marketing through authentic relationship building — online and in person. Together, the three dive deep into how LinkedIn and trade shows work hand-in-hand to drive meaningful business growth before, during, and after the event.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make your trade show investment last beyond teardown, or how to align your online brand with your in-person presence, this episode is full of insight, humor, and real-world examples you can start applying right now.

Key Takeaways

1. Relationships Don’t Start on the Show Floor
Matt reminds us that trade show success begins long before you arrive. The work you do before the event - commenting, supporting, and engaging on LinkedIn - builds familiarity so people already know who you are when they walk by your booth.

2. Support > Sell
“The biggest mindset shift”, Matt says, “is going from being a supplier to a supporter”.
When you show up online to add value and celebrate others, your audience becomes more receptive and your conversations more genuine.

3. Create a 90–120 Day Plan
Treat your next trade show like a campaign. Use that window to:

• Follow and engage with prospects.
• Post about the show and tag the event hashtag.
• Build your visibility and relevance leading up to your appearance.

4. Events Are Content Gold Mines
Brendon and Matt discuss how to use live events to capture authentic content — behind-the-scenes footage, setup shots, and real conversations — to create relatable, evergreen material for months after the show.

5. Follow Up Like a Human
Forget the post-show “nice to meet you” email blast. Instead, use personal notes and short video DMs referencing your real conversation. As Matt says: “People remember faces, not follow-ups".

6. Empower Your Team’s Personal Brands
Matt urges companies to “weaponize” their employees’ personal brands. People connect with people — not logos.
Your team’s authentic voices will outperform polished company posts every time.

7. Play the Long Game
This isn’t a 90-day hack. Building trust takes patience. “You can’t throw 10,000 emails through a filter and expect results anymore”, Matt says. “The timeline for trust has been extended — but the return is bigger”.

Matt Williams reminds us that LinkedIn is the modern trade show floor, and the relationships built there can drive real business when approached with patience, empathy and creativity.

👉🏼 Join us for more insightful discussions like this by tuning into 'Event Marketer's Toolbox,' where industry leaders share the tools, tactics, and trends driving success in the event world.

This Show is sponsored by Blue Hive

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فصول

1. Intro: Chris, Brendon, and Matt set the stage (00:00:00)

2. Matt’s background and the birth of the Plant Grow Harvest framework (00:03:39)

3. Why trade shows are relationship engines (00:09:39)

4. The 90–120 day pre-show strategy that changes everything (00:15:39)

5. Content creation before and during the show (00:22:39)

6. Leveraging video and behind-the-scenes moments (00:27:39)

7. Post-show follow-up: from notes to video DMs (00:33:39)

8. Shifting from supplier to supporter (00:39:39)

9. Building personal brands inside your company (00:46:39)

10. Playing the long game and letting trust compound (00:52:39)

11. Matt’s final advice and key takeaways (00:58:09)

12. Wrap-up and where to connect with Matt (01:00:09)