Let me be direct with you. Most people waste food shows. They walk around for three hours, collect a bag full of samples and brochures they'll never read, shake some hands, and head home thinking they did something. They didn't. They attended. There's a massive difference between attending a show and working a show and the people who understand that difference are the ones building stronger businesses on both sides of the booth.

The RC Show lands in Toronto next week. Ashton Media will be there with Sal Pedulla. We'll be doing what we always do covering the floor, talking to operators, meeting with vendors, and creating content that actually means something to this industry. But this piece isn't about us. It's about you. Specifically, it's about how you show up whether you're a buyer walking the floor or a vendor trying to earn attention.

The single biggest mistake vendors make is treating a food show like an event instead of a campaign. Your campaign starts no later than three weeks out. That's when you start building awareness, creating anticipation, and making it impossible for your target customers to walk past your booth without already knowing your name.

On social media, this means daily intentional content not generic "we'll be at RC Show, come see us" posts. Tell people what you're launching. Tease the product. Show the prep. Film a 30-second video of your team packing the samples and post it. Ask a question: "If you could solve one cost problem in your kitchen right now, what would it be?" Then show how your product is the answer. LinkedIn is where your B2B buyers are. Use it. Post early, post consistently, and tag the show.

Podcasts and content partnerships are criminally underused by vendors in the weeks before a show. If you can get a five-minute segment on an industry podcast before RC Show drops talking about your product, your story, why it solves a real problem you walk into that show with credibility that a booth display can't buy. Reach out to podcast hosts now, even if the show is a week away. A short clip, a newsletter mention, a quick LinkedIn Live preview with a distributor or customer all of it seeds the room before you even arrive.

At the show itself, urgency is everything. "Come by and say hi" is not a call to action. A CTA sounds like this: "We're offering show-only pricing on a 90-day trial for the first 15 operators who book a demo at the booth and we're closing that list by end of day Wednesday." That's a reason to stop. People move through a trade show floor like they're in a grocery store they're on a mission and they'll walk right past you unless you give them a specific reason to stop right now. Your signage, your team's opening line, and your handout should all say the same thing: here's what you get, here's what it costs, here's why you decide today.

Your booth team needs to know the difference between a browser and a buyer within 60 seconds of a conversation. Train them on this. The browser says things like "interesting" and "I'll look into it." The buyer says "we're opening a second location" or "my current supplier just raised prices on me." One of those people gets your full pitch and a follow-up booked before they leave the booth. The other gets your card and a warm send-off.

You collect 80 business cards and follow up with six of them two weeks later. Sound familiar? The vendors who win are the ones following up within 48 hours personalized, specific, and referencing the actual conversation. "Great talking to you Tuesday about your commissary kitchen build-out. Here's the case study I mentioned." That's a follow-up. A mass email blast that says "Thanks for visiting us at RC Show" is noise.

Post-show content is also massively underused. Film a two-minute recap at the booth on the last day. Post your top three takeaways from the show floor. Write a short newsletter piece about what operators were asking about most. This content keeps you visible after the show ends and positions you as someone who pays attention to the industry not just a brand trying to sell product.

Operators, buyers, and chefs this section is for you. A food show is one of the best ROI days you can have in a calendar year, but only if you treat it like a business meeting, not a field trip. If your plan is to "check it out" and "see what's new," you'll leave with a full stomach and an empty notebook.

For its first CTV campaign, Jennifer Aniston’s DTC haircare brand LolaVie had a few non-negotiables. The campaign had to be simple. It had to demonstrate measurable impact. And it had to be full-funnel.

LolaVie used Roku Ads Manager to test and optimize creatives — reaching millions of potential customers at all stages of their purchase journeys. Roku Ads Manager helped the brand convey LolaVie’s playful voice while helping drive omnichannel sales across both ecommerce and retail touchpoints.

The campaign included an Action Ad overlay that let viewers shop directly from their TVs by clicking OK on their Roku remote. This guided them to the website to buy LolaVie products.

Discover how Roku Ads Manager helped LolaVie drive big sales and customer growth with self-serve TV ads.

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Aniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

Learn more.

Before you walk in, you need three things written down: the problems you're trying to solve right now, the categories you're sourcing for in the next 90 days, and the vendors you want to have a real conversation with not just grab a sample from. Look at the floor map in advance. Identify your must-visits. Block off time for two or three education sessions, because the classes and panels at RC Show are genuinely good and the conversations that happen in the room after a session are often better than the session itself.

If you're bringing a team, split the floor by category. Don't walk the whole show together you'll slow each other down and miss half of it. Assign one person to protein and dairy, another to equipment and tech, another to packaging and sustainability. Regroup at a specific time with notes. The show is big. Divide and conquer.

Pay attention to the evening events. The RC Show social events, award nights, and hosted dinners are where real decisions get made. If you're invited to a dinner and you're debating whether to go go. The conversation over a shared table with a vendor, a chef, and a distributor rep is worth more than eight hours on the floor. Relationships move businesses forward, and those relationships don't start at a booth they start in a room where everyone has relaxed.

The show floor is live content. Use it. If you're an operator and you try something remarkable a new sauce, a new protein format, a piece of equipment that just changed how you think about your kitchen say so on LinkedIn or Instagram in real time. Tag the brand. That kind of authentic, in-the-moment content is exactly what vendors want to see shared, and it builds your profile as someone worth following in this industry.

If you're a vendor, every positive reaction at your booth is a content moment. Ask the chef if you can film a quick 20-second reaction video. Post it before the show day ends. That piece of content will do more for your brand than your entire pre-show ad spend. Real people, real reactions, real show floor that's the content that cuts through.

Food shows from spring through fall are a compressed window of industry access that doesn't happen at any other time of year. RC Show. SIAL. NEXT Food Expo. The Western Canada shows. These events put your customers, your competitors, your future partners, and your biggest industry thinkers in one building. What you do with that opportunity is entirely up to you.

Show up with a plan. Know what you need. Know what you're offering. Create urgency for others to engage with you. Follow up like your business depends on it because it does. And when the fall shows roll around, do it again, but better.

We'll see you on the floor.

Jay Ashton | Canada's Restaurant Guy