Don't Book the Flight Until You Have Five Names.

Before you look at flights, do one thing. Write down five people worth meeting.

Not companies. People, or at least roles. Whoever sets the cap on the offer you've run longest. The network with real volume in your vertical in the geo you're moving into. The payment provider whose terms you'd rather argue about across a table than over a ticket. The advertiser whose name is on the offer and who you've never spoken to. Someone at the platform who can answer the question the rep keeps dodging.

Now check whether they're going.

That's the whole method. It takes ten minutes, it costs nothing, and it's the difference between the two kinds of trip.

Two trips, same ticket

You know both of them, because everyone who's done more than one conference has done both.

The first one, a buyer described like this: "Having 7 meetings locked in before you even get on the plane makes the whole trip feel different." Different how? You land with a reason. You walk the floor between conversations, not instead of them. The evenings have people in them you'd already planned to see. You come home with a list of follow-ups that have names and next steps.

The second one, another buyer described in five words: "6 business cards and zero meetings booked." And a line later, about the cards: "on my desk. they will stay there." A third, doing the maths on a trip like that: "genuinely feel like i lit $4k on fire."

Same industry. Similar ticket, similar hotel, similar four days. One came home with a calendar and one came home with cardboard and a sad feeling in the chest. The gap wasn't luck and it wasn't charisma. It was whether the meetings existed before the plane did.

Why the test comes before the brochure

Every event has a poster. The poster has logos and a headcount and a speaker wall, and none of it tells you the one thing you need to know, which is whether the five people you'd fly for will be in the building.

So run the test against a list, not a poster. That's what the AGS Rome 2026 Welcome Pack is for, and it's worth being precise about what's in it. The first thing is who's confirmed for 2 to 5 November at Fiera Roma, by vertical, with a line on what each company does: who's buying traffic, who's running offers, who handles payments. The second is a one-page worksheet called the five-people test: five rows, each with the company, what you run that they'd care about, and the one thing you'd want changed. Fill five rows and you've got a meeting list. Can't fill five? Stop. Ten minutes spent, and you know, which is a better result than most conferences give you.

What's on the list, and what a name does and doesn't tell you

Three examples from the confirmed side, chosen because they're different kinds of conversation.

ClickBank is a marketplace: offers listed with terms, affiliates choosing. A conversation there is about what's listed in your vertical, what converts, and what the listed payout actually means. TerraLeads is a network and a direct advertiser: it runs its own offers and pays partners per sale. A conversation there is about traffic fit, geo, cap and payment terms, with someone who can move a number. PlatformPay is payments: the conversation is settlement, reserves and the terms you've been accepting because nobody explained them. TikTok, Meta and Google are exhibiting with staff on the floor, which is a person to put a specific question to, not a rep rotation.

Here's what a confirmed name doesn't tell you: who from that company attends, whether they can talk terms, or whether they'll accept a request. A logo is a reason to request, not a meeting. That's why the test has three columns and not one.

The sequence, without skipping the middle

Get the pack. Read the confirmed list for your vertical. Fill the five rows.

Apply for the pass. If you promote offers or work with affiliate networks, you can apply for a complimentary Affiliate Pass with proof of activity. Review takes up to 24 hours. Approved, it's a Standard pass: welcome reception, the full exhibition, every session, and the Match App.

Request your five. Once you're approved, the Match App opens. You send requests to the companies on your list. They accept or they decline. Accepted requests are your itinerary, and the floor is what you do between them. If someone declines, that's information too; it's why the worksheet has five rows and not three.

One veteran, asked whether events are worth it, said: "The amount of connections, deals, knowledge, and sentiment I get while going has paid for itself every time." He goes with a list.

The rule buyers only make after the empty trip

The buyers who've done the cardboard trip once and refused to do it twice all land on the same rule, in their own words. One: "If it's not possible [to get the attendee list], I don't go to that conference." Another: "It's your job as the attendee to get the value." Another, on what the event is actually for: "The concentration of meetings helps a ton. That's really all the conference does."

That's it. Concentration. Several people you'd otherwise chase for a year, in one building, requestable in advance. The rule is: no conference without a shortlist of people who can talk terms, requested before their diaries fill.

You can start that right now. Get the pack, write your five, check who's there. If the list doesn't clear your bar, you've lost ten minutes. If it does, apply, and walk in the way the buyer with seven meetings walked in.

Look first. Book later.