The Best Value for Money Guide

AGS Rome 2026 Welcome Kit · compare the passes, skip the upgrade you don't need, budget the whole trip, and decide what would make it worthwhile

The ticket is only the start of the bill. You know that, because you're the person who feels every PO the day the card is charged. So this guide does the maths a retainer never did: what the whole trip costs, and what a commercial outcome would have to contribute for it to beat the same money in the next test campaign. Run it with your numbers. If the answer is "not this year," you've lost ten minutes. If it isn't, you'll know exactly why you're going.

Part 1. The passes, exactly

Door prices are what you pay if you leave it.

Hosted dinners sit in the paid tiers. Don't assume a dinner includes the specific person you want; request that person through the app instead.

Part 2. When an upgrade is unnecessary

Start from Standard and make the upgrade earn its place.

Standard is enough when your shortlist is three to five named companies, you'll hold the meetings at the venue, and you're not trying to be found by people you didn't request. That's most founders on a first trip. Everyone on the floor can be requested from a Standard pass. Everything you need is in it, and it's €375 now against €525 later.

Premium earns its €297 difference when the Basic level of the Match App would get you meaningfully more of the requests you want accepted, or the half-day activity puts you in a small group with people you couldn't otherwise reach. Small rooms are where "the good stuff" at any event happens; the question is whether this one has your people in it. Ask.

Platinum earns its €630 difference when you want the lounge as your meeting room, the awards night as a room full of the networks on your list, and playback for the sessions you'll miss because you were in meetings. It's a working pass, not a status pass. Second trip, for most brands.

The test: name the specific person or room the upgrade gets you. Can't? Don't.

Part 3. The whole-trip budget

Your figures. Nothing is estimated for you.

Part 4. What would make it worthwhile

Planning with your assumptions. Nobody knows what your conversations produce, and anyone who tells you is selling something.

Step 1. Name the outcome. Not "meet people." One of: a partner who sends orders on commission; a marketplace listing that's live; a lower landed cost in a new market from one logistics conversation; a platform contact who solves what support couldn't; a founder you can call when things go wrong. Pick the one you'd most want.

Step 2. Put a contribution on it. For a partner: orders per month you'd call a success × margin after cost of goods, fulfilment and the partner's commission. For a saving: the saving per order × orders per month. Over a period you choose. Six months is honest for a partner met in November, because the holiday rush comes first and partners take time to launch.

Step 3. Compare.

Total cost of the trip ÷ contribution per month = months for the outcome to cover the trip

If the outcome you'd realistically bet on covers the trip inside the period you chose, go. If it needs an outcome you wouldn't bet on, don't, or come next year. Both are fine answers, and this guide was built to allow both.

Step 4. Against the alternative. The same money in the next test campaign. Which has the better chance of producing the outcome in step 1? For a brand whose paid channels are already pulled to the stop, the honest answer is usually the room. For a brand still growing on paid, it's usually the campaign. You know which you are.

Part 5. The conversations you'll request

Once you hold a pass, the Match App opens. Your three names from the roster page, your one question each from "What you bring." The request is short: who you are, what you sell, the three numbers, the thing you want to discuss. A request that reads like a business gets accepted. A request that reads like a brand story gets the "let's connect" pile.

Send them the day the app opens. The networks you want are the networks every brand wants, and the calendar fills from the front.

Then, before you fly: samples packed, offer page live on your phone, the November checklist done. If a request is accepted, you have a meeting to prepare for. If it isn't, you still have the floor and their stand, and a product in your hand.

We update this kit from time to time as confirmations, prices and event details change. This page is current as of 12 September 2026.