Sensonio’s Event Strategy: How Going All-In on One Show Beat Attending Seven

Sensonio’s Event Strategy: How Going All-In on One Show Beat Attending Seven

Last year, Sensonio’s team attended nine events. Three major trade shows with large custom stands requiring construction companies. Six or seven smaller exhibitions with simple nine-square-meter booths. The results? Exhaustion, stretched budgets, and diminishing returns.

This year, they did something radical: they went to one event. Just one.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Martin Kosak, CMO at Sensonio, shared how this strategic concentration transformed their event ROI and offers a framework any B2B company can apply.

The Burnout Year

For B2B companies, especially in industries like waste management where relationships matter and buying cycles stretch across quarters, trade shows feel mandatory. Skip the major industry event, and competitors fill the void. Miss the regional exhibitions, and you surrender territory.

So Sensonio did what many B2B marketers do: they said yes to everything.

“Last year was really crazy and we did like three really big shows with the big stands where we also needed, let’s say, construction company,” Martin explains. “And then we had like, I don’t know, six or seven smaller events where you just need a really nine square meter space and you’re ready to go.”

The logistics alone were overwhelming. Three major stands meant coordinating with construction vendors, shipping materials, training booth staff, and managing complex setup schedules. Seven smaller events meant constant travel, endless pre-event promotions, and perpetual follow-up cycles.

“But it was pretty crazy also for the sales team,” Martin notes. The cost wasn’t just financial—it was human. Sales teams spent weeks on the road instead of closing deals. Marketing resources went toward event logistics rather than strategic initiatives. The calendar became a blur of setup, teardown, and travel.

The Strategic Pivot

Faced with another year of the same grind, Sensonio’s team made a decision that would have terrified most B2B marketers: radical concentration.

“This year we decided just to go to this one big event in Germany and really go all in,” Martin says. Rather than spreading their budget across nine events, they poured everything into dominating one: the top waste management exhibition in Europe.

The investment was significant. “Like almost 60. We paid quite a big budget for our presence,” Martin explains. But concentration enabled something spreading thin never could: true standout presence.

Instead of a respectable booth among many, Sensonio could create something memorable. Instead of sales teams rushing between conversations, they could have deep discussions. Instead of marketing creating nine sets of promotional materials, they could perfect one campaign.

The Results: 250 Leads in Five Days

The concentrated approach delivered immediate, measurable results.

“We gathered like 250 leads over five days,” Martin reports. That’s 50 qualified leads per day—far exceeding what smaller events typically generate. But Martin views the ROI through a more sophisticated lens than just lead volume.

“On the one hand it was a straight B2B, marketing and only brand awareness,” he explains. Some of those 250 leads will convert quickly. But the real value extends beyond immediate pipeline.

“On the other hand, it’s something that shows the result. Maybe later, because I’m sure there were many visitors. They saw our presence and how beautiful our stand was. And maybe they even had a conversation with our sales team on the stand.”

This is where most event ROI analyses fail. They measure badge scans and follow-up meetings but miss the compounding brand value of standout presence.

The Dual ROI of Event Concentration

Martin identifies two distinct value streams from major event participation—and both matter.

The first is direct lead generation. “We gathered like 250 leads over five days. So, okay, on the one hand it was a straight B2B, marketing and only brand awareness.”

These leads enter your CRM, get nurtured through email sequences, and flow into sales pipelines. They’re measurable, trackable, and directly attributable to event spend. This is what CFOs want to see.

But the second value stream is equally important, if harder to quantify.

“Maybe it was exactly about this brand awareness creation that, okay, they register us, they know we are here. And when they will enter the market, they will come back to us,” Martin explains.

Think about the hundreds or thousands of attendees who walked past Sensonio’s stand. Maybe they’re not in-market today. Maybe they’re locked into existing contracts or just researching for future projects. But they saw the presence. They registered the brand. They filed away that Sensonio exists and operates at a certain scale.

When these prospects eventually enter buying mode—six months, twelve months, eighteen months later—that brand recognition shapes their consideration set. They might not remember every vendor at the show, but they remember the standout presence.

The Post-COVID Amplification

Timing amplified Sensonio’s concentrated bet. “After Covid, people really miss those off site meetings,” Martin observes. “And we saw that now in Germany, it was like number one even in Europe for the waste management.”

The pandemic forced two years of virtual events and Zoom fatigue. When in-person shows returned, attendance surged. Buyers were hungry for face-to-face conversations, live product demonstrations, and the serendipitous connections that only happen in person.

This created a perfect environment for Sensonio’s concentrated strategy. High attendance meant more qualified prospects per square meter. Enthusiasm for in-person engagement meant deeper conversations and stronger connections.

The same budget that generated modest results spread across nine events delivered outsized returns concentrated on one show in this post-COVID environment.

The Framework: When to Concentrate vs. Spread

Martin’s experience offers a decision framework for B2B event strategy. The question isn’t whether events work—it’s how to allocate finite budget and team energy.

Spreading across multiple events makes sense when you’re testing markets, establishing initial presence, or serving truly distinct regional audiences. If your prospects in APAC never attend North American shows, you need geographic distribution.

But once you’ve identified your core markets and key events, concentration beats distribution. Here’s why:

First, standout presence matters more than basic presence. Being memorable at one major show outperforms being forgettable at five shows. In crowded exhibition halls, prospects remember maybe 5-10 booths. You need to be one of them.

Second, sales team effectiveness compounds with focus. Instead of context-switching between different audiences and event formats, your team can perfect their pitch, handle objections smoothly, and build deeper relationships.

Third, brand momentum builds differently. When prospects see you dominate the major industry event, it signals market leadership. When they see you at small regional shows, it signals you’re still building.

Fourth, team sustainability matters. Burned-out teams deliver mediocre results. Martin’s observation that “it was pretty crazy also for the sales team” isn’t just about comfort—it’s about performance. Fresh, focused teams close more deals than exhausted, overscheduled ones.

The Tactical Implications

For B2B marketers evaluating their event strategy, Martin’s experience suggests several tactical shifts:

Audit your event portfolio brutally. Which events generated actual pipeline? Which delivered only badge scans and lukewarm follow-ups? Which left your team energized versus depleted?

Calculate true cost. Beyond booth fees, factor in team time, travel, opportunity cost of sales attention, and the cumulative weight of constant event preparation.

Identify the one event that matters most in your core market. Not the one with the best parties or the easiest logistics—the one where your best prospects congregate.

Model what “going all in” looks like. If you redirected your entire event budget to that one show, what could you create? A booth twice the size? Premium placement? Memorable experiences? Better pre-event promotion?

Test the concentration hypothesis. You don’t need to commit forever. Try it for one year, measure rigorously, and compare to your distributed approach.

The Confidence to Say No

Perhaps the hardest part of concentration is saying no. Every sales rep has a regional show they swear matters. Every industry has secondary events that promise access to niche audiences.

But resource constraints are real. “I think it’s important to do, for example less channels but properly also creating value,” Martin explains, applying the same philosophy to events as to marketing channels broadly. “It’s better than just being everywhere, just for being there and not creating any value.”

The same logic applies to events. Better to dominate one show than merely attend seven. Better to be remembered at the industry’s marquee event than forgotten across a dozen smaller ones.

For Sensonio, saying no to eight events freed them to say yes—fully, completely, memorably—to one. The result: 250 leads, countless brand impressions, and a team that’s energized rather than exhausted. That’s a framework worth stealing.