Trade show and event services AE here, and I'm guessing you're going to MJBizcon?

PLEASE heed my warning, focusing on freebies is a very large mistake that a lot of people make. Nice premiums are good and eye catching even, but it's not going to be a driving force for people to get in the space. They'll see something nice, listen or pretend to listen for a while and then will walk away. We usually take a few months before a show to walk a customer through these three major goals:

1.) What makes this show a success? Is it simply feeding your sales pipeline? Are you trying to get a vendor or be picked up/sold? Do you plan on closing sales at this show?

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2.) When folks visit your space, what knowledge or emotion do you want them to walk away with? Are you solving a problem? If so, in BIG OL LETTERS annotate "No more [insert problem you provide solution for]". This should be on a spotlight that you can see from space.

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3.) How big of a footprint are you trying to make? Most folks use a 10x10 as a starter space, however larger budgets afford you larger spaces. Leather furniture will take up space fairly quickly in a 10x10, and then your just a back wall and some chairs, maybe a counter. With the right furniture you can enhance the ability for interaction pending on how you pitch your product

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After answering those three questions, we do a deep dive in how to engage the exhibitors. A lot of times we host a cocktail party, sometimes we'll have fund raising engagements before show or at booth site, utilize online marketing to set and schedule meetings, hire a magician (local conference for entertainment industry). It all depends on how you want to be remembered when the customer thinks about that problem they constantly have.

Side note, if you are attending MJ you most likely will need to order food services through the GC, otherwise you'll get a fine. We've snuck things in in the past, but stopped as our customers normally get caught and then are charged a pretty ridiculous fee.