Intent data

The gap between who someone is and what they currently want is where most bad matches come from. Two profiles can look nearly identical — same industry, same seniority — while one person is actively sourcing a warehouse system and the other signed up for the free conference track. Intent data is what separates them, and it's why the best-performing matchmaking programmes obsess over capturing it. Sources split into two families: declared intent (registration questions like "what are you looking to source this year?") and inferred intent (which exhibitors someone views, which sessions they bookmark, which product categories they search). Organizers use it beyond matchmaking too — intent-segmented email campaigns, floorplan recommendations, and post-event lead packages for exhibitors, which have become a meaningful revenue line at some shows. The common mistake is collecting intent once at registration and treating it as permanent. Intent decays and shifts; someone's priorities in the app during the show are more current than what they typed six weeks earlier, so systems should weight recent signals more heavily. One honest nuance: intent data is commercially sensitive and increasingly regulated — be transparent at collection about how it will be used and who will see it, especially if exhibitors receive it.