How conference organizers can give sponsors the leads they paid for

The sponsor renewal call is in March. The exhibitor who paid for the coffee station asks one question: how many leads did we get? You have a footfall estimate, the badge-scan devices they rented, and an attendee list you're not allowed to share. Conference sponsor leads are what sponsors renew on, and most organizers have little to show them beyond a headcount.

Textiful gives each sponsor its own way in. Every sponsor gets a QR code on their booth, their session's closing slide, or the table tent at the breakfast they paid for. Attendees scan, answer a question or two by text, and get what the sponsor is offering. Each sponsor's leads report separately, the sponsor's team can be emailed as each one arrives, and after the show you export a list per sponsor.

The problem with sponsor lead reporting

Sponsors buy a booth, a session, or a branded moment, and then judge it by contacts. The organizer usually controls the attendee list and can't hand it over, so the sponsor's leads come from whatever the sponsor's own staff managed to scan. A breakfast sponsor or a session sponsor, with no booth and no scanner, often leaves with nothing.

When there is data, it's rarely tied to the thing the sponsor paid for. "Everyone saw your logo" doesn't help a sales team. A list of the people who asked for their guide does.

Why the usual fixes fall short

• Badge-scan devices are rented per exhibitor, need staff to hold them, and do nothing for sponsors without a booth.
• Sharing the registration list usually runs into what attendees agreed to when they registered.
• A sponsor's own web form behind a QR code works, but each sponsor builds a different one and the organizer sees none of the results.
• A logo on the lanyard or the stage screen is exposure, and exposure is hard to count.

How to set it up in Textiful

1. Build one flow per sponsor. Start from "Send an offer or info" or "Give away a download," set it up for the first sponsor, then copy it for the rest. Name each flow after the sponsor.
2. Give each flow its own trigger. A free QR code per sponsor costs nothing, with a pre-filled message such as "Send me Acme's buyer's guide." Each flow has one trigger, so every sponsor's scans and contacts are counted separately. Add a keyword only for the sponsors who need one read aloud from stage. One is included, and more are $10/month.
3. Ask what the sponsor wants to know. Email and company cover most sponsors. A sponsor that wants to qualify can add one custom question. Across Textiful flows over 90 days in 2026, two-question flows were completed 83.1% of the time.
4. Deliver the sponsor's offer. Upload their guide or white paper to Handouts and send it by text or email the moment the attendee finishes. Handout emails go out under your account's name, so mention the sponsor in the message.
5. Route each lead. Add "Tag the contact" with the sponsor's name. Add "email me a notification" with the sponsor's rep addresses, so they see each lead (with the answers) as it arrives. For a sponsor that wants leads in its own system live, add a webhook pointed at a URL they give you.

Reporting back to each sponsor

During the event, the notification emails are the sponsor's live feed. Each one lists what the attendee gave and the tags on the contact.

After the event, open Contacts, filter by the sponsor's flow or tag, and export the CSV. It includes the email, name, every answer the flow collected, and when each person first texted in. Send that file with the scan count for the sponsor's QR code and you have a sponsor report built from real contacts. The keyword activity report adds totals by date range for any sponsor with a keyword.

Sponsors shouldn't get a login to your account to see this. Team roles, including view-only, see every contact in the account, not just one sponsor's. Keep the account to your own team and send sponsors their files.

Variations

• Session sponsors. Put the sponsor's QR code on the closing slide of the session they sponsor, offering the speaker's slides. Attendees get the deck, and the sponsor gets everyone who asked for it.
• Sponsor giveaways. Give a sponsor a giveaway drawn on their booth screen. Rules for drawings vary by state, so check with your counsel.
• Sponsor polls. Build a live poll for the main stage into the sponsor's flow and ask for an email after the vote. The voters report with the rest of that sponsor's leads.

Before and after

	Badge scans and a headcount	One Textiful flow per sponsor
Sponsors without a booth	Nothing to show	A QR code on their slide, table, or sign
What the sponsor gets	Scans their staff collected	Every attendee who asked for their offer
During the event	Nothing until the export	A notification email per lead
After the event	An export from a rented device	A CSV per sponsor, filtered by flow or tag
What attendees asked for	Unrecorded	The sponsor's guide, demo, or prize

You pay per conversation across all sponsors' flows, with plans from $19/month. A heavy event adds conversations automatically at $15 per 100. See pricing, and for the rest of the event, see conferences and events.

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