Whether you're planning your first trade show or knocking out your umpteenth, working with a small booth is always tough. Usually the small space is accompanied by a small budget, which makes your task even more challenging. Sound familiar?

Rules and regulations. Each trade show has a daunting list of them and they vary by show and venue. You can't assume the rules and regulations from one show carry over to the next.

If you feel like you shouldn’t be somewhere, fake it. Do it not until you make it – but until you become it.

– Amy Cuddy

Disappointing trade show results are most often rooted in the lack of strategic pre-show planning, goal setting and/or effective post-show follow up. Meaningful and measurable goals are the most important step for improving your trade show results and your goals should guide your decisions at every step.

Trade shows are great opportunities to get the word out about your company's products or services. With the right degree of planning and effort, participation in trade shows can be well worth the marketing dollars spent. This said, trade shows can also be overwhelming to visitors who are bombarded with visual, auditory and other stimuli from the moment they walk in the door.

The degree to which trade show participation is mismanaged and misunderstood boggles the mind. But, in all fairness, tracking opportunities from leads to customers was very difficult without modern day technology. We knew trade shows were important (they are), but relied heavily on gut feelings, what we did in the past, what our competitors were doing and input from the sales team to determine what was effective and what wasn't.

Trade shows are gold mines when it comes to lead retrieval.

While trade shows are a very serious and important part of many companies' sales and business development strategies, crazy things sometimes happen. We asked the LinkedIn community to share the craziest trade show tactics they've seen. The post struck a chord.

The trade show industry, like all industries, has its fair share of myths. Whether you're new to trade shows or an old hand, you've probably heard your fill. Which are fact? Which are fiction? Luckily, new sophisticated CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and other technologies are exposing many of them for what they are: unfounded.

Marketing and sales teams are responsible for demonstrating positive and concrete return on investment (ROI) for trade show participation. This isn't news.