Cowabunga! How Surf Expo is making waves in B2B event networking

For nearly 50 years, Surf Expo has been the number one B2B marketplace for watersports and coastal lifestyle businesses. Held twice a year, the event brings together manufacturers and retailers from across the globe, with established brands like Billabong and Quicksilver alongside new manufacturers and original products.

As the name suggests, the event is deeply rooted in surf culture. However, Surf Expo has expanded over the years to showcase a wider range of products, encompassing all aspects of watersports and coastal life. Walk around the venue and you’ll see booths with the latest surfboards, skateboards, resortwear, souvenirs and everything in between.

When you’re not browsing the booths, there’s a full lineup of events to grab your attention, from industry parties to fashion shows. Previous years have also included skate demos, wakeboard winches and stand-up paddleboard yoga, with plans to bring in a full-size wave machine for the next show. 

Surfing culture with a business-first focus

A big reason for the success of Surf Expo is the people behind it. The event’s personnel turnover is low, and the majority of people working there have built up decades of experience and expertise. 

Jill Knowles, the Marketing Director at Surf Expo, has been with the company since 1998. In those years, Jill has seen many changes to the industry and event management in general. “The Surf Expo show floor reflects the ebbs and flows of so many different industries, sports and their popularity.”

For example, throughout the show’s 50 years, there has been an ever-increasing number of online retailers. Still, brick-and-mortar stores form the mainstay of Surf Expo’s business, with everything from mom and pop shops to large department stores, including enterprises such as museums and zoos.

However, one thing that hasn’t changed is the show’s focus. “We’ve always positioned ourselves as a marketplace for buyers and sellers, retailers and manufacturers,” says Jill. “It’s always been business first. We hope the attendees have a good time while they’re at the show, but it’s all about optimizing the store and product selections for the upcoming seasons.”  

The event may vary as it reflects the latest industry demands, but the attendees’ desire to connect and do business is unchanging. 

Making waves (and relationships) 

The event thrives on face-to-face connections. Most categories on the show floor have a lounge where people can relax and chat with their fellow attendees. “Almost all of them have a happy hour,” says Jill. “That’s when the relationships are made, although we’re careful to make sure things don’t get too wild!”

The company also holds seminars, or “Learning Labs”, throughout the day. Unlike traditional conferences with closed-off meeting rooms, these seminars happen right in the middle of the show floor. This setup encourages a more flexible, laid-back approach, where people can just drop in when they hear a topic that interests them.

One of the more significant changes in recent years has been the technology powering the connections. Previously, attendees lacked an easy, intuitive way to connect with exhibitors. The only real option was to browse a static online directory with exhibitor website links and connections were typically limited to ad hoc conversations on the show floor.

“There wasn’t an easy way for buyers to reach out in advance,” Jill recalls, “and lead retrieval was mostly one-way, just exhibitors using the scanning devices we provided to get attendees’ details.”

With Grip, all of that changed. Surf Expo now uses Engage, Grip’s suite of tools designed for maximum participant engagement. Grip Engage includes Grip’s award-winning mobile event app, with networking, connections, meetings and more. This enables attendees to browse exhibitors, connect, and schedule meetings up to six weeks before the event even started, extending the show’s impact. The built-in meeting scheduling tool meant buyers arrived at the show with a swell of business already in motion.

No more wipeouts: Capturing each crystal clear connection

Previously, exhibitors relied on standalone scanners to capture lead details. Now, with Grip’s Lead Retrieval badge scanning feature built into the mobile app, connecting is much easier. “The biggest recent change is this ability to go both ways, everybody being able to connect with everybody else,” explains Jill. “It enables people to instantly share details and form business relationships with other industry professionals. Anyone can scan anyone. The exchange can happen anywhere, even if you’re offline.”

Grip’s advanced Lead Retrieval feature also enabled exhibitors to easily manage every lead they interacted with at Surf Expo. Once scanned, they could add notes, score them and share details with colleagues. Participants could export their connections at any time, both during and after the event, thanks to Grip’s fully-featured event lead capture and networking capabilities. 

“With Grip, it’s all in one app,” says Jill. “As a marketer, it’s so much easier to explain than having an instruction manual on how to use a hundred different tools. It’s all right there.” And because everything was available in one handy place, the number of mobile app activations increased by 24%, which meant more people were benefiting from the app’s features. 

For example, Grip Engage’s AI matchmaking features provide attendees with recommended meetings, a particularly useful feature when people are searching for something specific, while the reporting feature helps event organizers understand participant behavior. The team was able to analyze scans across badge categories (e.g., roles, companies, etc.) and visualize engagement flows with Sankey diagrams.

For example, they could see when and where badge scans happened around the venue, which in turn revealed where people spent the most time. They then took immediate action, such as putting coffee carts into quiet areas to encourage more activity.

Along with badge scanning and lead retrieval data, Grip’s Insights feature gave the team a deeper understanding of the overall event performance, with a real-time dashboard including over 100 detailed reports and 400 data points per participant. 

Getting attendees onboard with new tools

While Grip’s features clearly offered a better event experience, getting attendees to engage with new tools can be difficult. This can be even more difficult when you’re dealing with different age groups. “We combine an aging demographic with younger attendees who want to adopt a sports and athletic lifestyle, then we’ve got everybody in between,” says Jill.

The technology side is crucial. Although the event organizers still print quite a bit of material for the benefit of older users, there has been a reduction as attendees become more engaged with the technology.

“Currently, we need to ensure that participants can make use of the tools to discover who’s exhibiting their desired products at the show,” says Jill. “It’s difficult without a printed directory. The exhibitors pay a lot of money for people to know they’re there.” 

To get around this, the Surf Expo team offers information calls, both for exhibitors and attendees in general. People are encouraged to ask any questions they might have, with the recorded call posted online for future reference. 

The team also provides additional assistance for the exhibitor side, doing their best to establish a collaborative partnership. “We want exhibitors to appreciate that we’re on their side, that they can feel free to call, email and talk to us. We make it easy for people to reach out and have a relationship with us, rather than seeing us as this big company that’s only interested in money.”

From shoreline to success 

Surf Expo’s strong focus on meaningful business connections – combined with Grip’s AI-powered event technology – means that exhibitors and retailers were all able to have a productive and successful event. 

For example, Lior Zimmerman, co-founder of Living in Sunshine (LISS), launched their brand at Surf Expo in January 2024. She went all in on the show to promote her brand at Surf Expo. By putting time into the show, such as completing the company profile and scheduling meetings through the app, her brand got a massive return. At that first show, she sold out her entire inventory and started a year-long waitlist for future orders. “Thanks to Surf Expo, we were able to secure our first major retail deals and gain exposure to key players in the industry,” says Lior. “Since then, I’ve already participated in three Surf Expos, each time building stronger relationships, growing our brand presence, and expanding our reach in the market. Surf Expo has been a key partner in our journey, and we are grateful for the role it played in helping us grow.”

Meanwhile, Jill and her team are looking for ways to make the next Surf Expo bigger and better. “The number one thing for us is finding new and innovative brands. Not just brands that will buy a booth, but brands that retailers would want to stock in their stores.”

As they continue evolving the show floor, Grip will play an essential role behind the scenes, making it easier for meaningful business connections to take place.

“Grip’s main value for our exhibitors is that it’s all in one place,” says Jill. “Instead of having the show details, matchmaking, and lead retrieval in three different apps, it’s all unified. You can go from searching for a product in the directory to connecting with that same brand all in one screen. Having minimal friction for businesses to connect and do deals is invaluable for everyone.”

When the path from discovery to deal is so seamless, it enables everyone to connect, establish business relationships and close deals. As the show heads toward its 50th year, Surf Expo is riding the wave of innovation that propels this ecosystem event to even greater heights. Cowabunga!