I recently went to an exhibition because Mrs Ames wanted a posh new front door and a high-tech door bell.

She found both and both took her email address.

The next day the door-bell people had been in touch to take down our requirements but, nothing from the front door people.

Within a week we had the door-bell quote but still nothing from the front-door people.

Two weeks later the front door people emailed to ask if we could take some photos of our front door and suggest a design.

Mrs Ames has bought the high-tech front door bell and has engaged a different company to install a £2000 front door.

Here’s the deal. Paying for the event; attracting people and making great stuff is the hard bit.

Following up promptly and making it easy for people to buy, is the easy part. At least it should be.

That means being organised and planning for the tasks that will come back in after the event, rather than having them return to a backlog of three days work.

Rule 1 for events: Follow up, follow up and follow up.