Qanaq Group · Events Practice · MMXXVI
Curated strategic convenings
C-suite · Board · Business Development
Local and in any city in the world

Same budget.
Different room.

A conference where you are one of hundreds of attendees — or anywhere in the world, on your own stage, with a hand-picked guest list and an agenda built around you. The budget stays the same. The business does not.

[ Qanaq Events — Curated Strategic Convenings for Companies ]
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01 — The Reality of Conferences

Hundreds of fairs, hundreds of conferences —
and yet, deep relationships remain rare.

Every year, companies allocate millions to conferences, fairs, and sponsorships. CEOs board flights, teams prepare for weeks, brochures are printed, booths are built.

And yet, the numbers tell the same story: hundreds of business cards, mostly untouched conversations, and names sitting in "opportunity lists" for months on end.

This is not your team's failure. A conference is someone else's stage — and that someone is not you. The figures below are global averages:

Leads never followed up on
80%
Eight out of every ten business cards collected at a trade show are never contacted.
[Wave Connect · B2B Sales Report, 2026]
Cards discarded within one week
88%
The vast majority of printed cards disappear within seven days.
[Momencio · Event Lead Analysis, 2026]
Conversion — even with best follow-up
5–10%
Even disciplined companies convert only this fraction of their conference contacts.
[UFI · Global Exhibition Industry, 2026]
Senior agendas pre-planned
85.6%
Senior attendees plan most of their schedule before arrival — leaving you to hope for lucky encounters.
[IMEX Group · Attendee Survey, 2025]
02 — Same Budget, Two Scenarios

Same money. Two entirely different outcomes.

The choice between funding a conference and funding your own room is not about cost — it is about the quality of relationships you own at the end of it.

vs
Scenario A — Standard conference participation

Being one of a hundred companies in the hall

  • ×
    Stage The conference organizer's stage. Your brand visibility is a logo on a banner, an ad in the side margin.
  • ×
    Agenda The organizer's agenda. No one asks whether it aligns with your strategic priorities.
  • ×
    Attendees Hundreds of unknowns. Which are the right people for you? Unclear.
  • ×
    Depth of relationship Three-minute introductions. "Let's email each other" — most never return.
  • ×
    Your team's role Standing at the booth. Waiting for the next walk-by. Tired and scattered.
Investment Equal Budget
hundreds of cards,
80% never followed up,
a handful of loose ties.
Scenario B — A Qanaq-curated convening

Hosting your own stage

  • ✓
    Stage Your stage. Venue, ambience, lighting, and menu — everything composed around your brand.
  • ✓
    Agenda Your agenda. Built backwards from where you want your company to be in one year. Every minute curated.
  • ✓
    Attendees 12–20 senior executives hand-selected for you. Each invited for a reason that is known.
  • ✓
    Depth of relationship Dinners that stretch for hours. Small-table conversations. Emails arriving the next morning. A real beginning.
  • ✓
    Your team's role Hosts, not booth attendants. Each table has one of your people. The team operates as one.
Investment Equal Budget
twelve qualified relationships,
three serious negotiations,
two new markets opened.
The question is not budget. The question is:
where, how, and with whom the same money is invested.
— Qanaq Events · MMXXVI —
— Curated Convenings · Worldwide —

Same budget. Two different outcomes.

— One attendee at a conference, or the host of an evening —
03 — The Anatomy of a Budget

The same $120,000.
Two entirely different allocations.

A typical international B2B trade fair participation costs between $50,000 and $250,000. Below is where a mid-range exhibition budget (~$120K) goes in two scenarios.

Scenario A — Trade fair booth participation

Watching from behind the booth

$120,000
Total · 1 fair · 1 week
Booth space rentalPaid to the show organizer
25%
Booth design & buildFurniture, lighting, banners, digital displays
40%
Logistics & freightShipping, drayage, installation labor
15%
Team travel & lodgingFlights and hotel for booth staff
15%
Marketing collateralBrochures, swag, digital ads
5%
85% of the budget goes to venue, materials, and booth operations. The share dedicated to relationship-building, identifying the right people, and hosting: nearly nothing.
Scenario B — A Qanaq-curated convening

Sitting at the head of the table

$120,000
Total · 1 private evening · 16–20 senior guests
Strategic curationMonths of relationship mapping, invitation process, agenda design
35%
Premium venue & ambiencePrivate room, closed-door setting, brand integration
15%
Senior dining & hospitalityChef-led menu, sommelier selection, hospitality details
20%
Sector moderatorExpert who guides the conversation and protects its depth
10%
Family programme (optional)Parallel cultural programme for spouses and children of senior guests
10%
On-site execution teamGuest relations, photography, follow-up documentation
10%
75% of the budget goes to the relationship itself — curation, hospitality, moderation, and continuity. Venue and materials are secondary; the real investment is in people.
+ Already exhibiting? Layer Qanaq alongside it.
04 — The Fair Add-On

Don't abandon your trade fair —
layer Qanaq alongside it.

Skipping your trade fair is only one option. The other: keep exhibiting, and add a strategic curation around it. The booth stays where it is; the evenings and breaks become your own stage.

A trade fair brings the right people into the same city in the same week. That is an unrepeatable logistical opportunity — but no deep relationship is built on a fair floor.

Share your annual fair calendar with us. For each fair, we identify the other senior executives already attending, and the local sector leaders in the host country, and bring them to your table.

Deals are not signed at the booth. They are signed at the dinner table. Your fair budget stays untouched; with one additional curation investment, your fair's return multiplies.

i.
Share your annual calendar
Which fairs, which countries, which teams? One concise brief at the start of the year.
ii.
A strategic map for every fair
We identify the other senior executives attending — name by name. The shortlist is sent to you for approval.
iii.
Local players added
Sector leaders, regulators, and investors in the host city — the right ones are invited to the table.
iv.
A parallel evening programme
Aligned with the fair calendar: a private dinner, a closed-door roundtable, a late-evening salon — on your stage, your agenda.
v.
Continuity and follow-up
When the fair ends, Qanaq does not. We steward introductions, second meetings, and the next room in the next city.
A sample annual fair calendar — with a Qanaq parallel programme
MMXXVI
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Client's trade fair attendance
Big 5 DubaiConstruction · UAE
Hannover MesseIndustry · DE
ADIPECEnergy · UAE
BaumaConstruction Eq. · DE
Qanaq parallel programme
Riyadh Roundtable+ 12 local CEOs
Frankfurt Dinner+ 14 DAX executives
Abu Dhabi Salon+ 8 fund managers
Munich Evening+ 11 Mittelstand owners
Client's existing trade fair attendance
Qanaq parallel curated programme
05 — What Your Company Gains

Not a meeting,
a strategic asset.

Qanaq Events is not an event company — it is a strategic partner woven into your company's growth plan over the coming years. Five concrete things we deliver:

i.

The right person at the right table in your target market

The person your CEO needs to meet in Nairobi, Riyadh, or Singapore is identified, invited, and brought to the table weeks in advance. Not by chance — by strategy.

ii.

Elevating the company's standing

The stage where your senior executives, their families, and your brand appear shifts your perception from "attendee" to "host." In the eyes of your counterparts, this difference holds for years.

iii.

Making business development measurable

Every convening is built with a brief, guest list, agenda, and follow-up plan. The result: who attended, what was discussed, which conversations opened — all documented, attributable, measurable.

iv.

Leadership that becomes global and cohesive

Your executives bond internally while building real relationships with senior counterparts in the target country. Education, hospitality, and family programmes — woven into one experience. One week that does the work of ten years.

v.

Turning trade fairs into your own stage

We do not pull you away from the trade fair you are attending — we build a private dinner, a closed-door roundtable, a late-evening salon around it. The fair starts to revolve around you. Deals are not closed at the booth; they are closed at your table.

06 — Sample Convenings

Five companies. Five cities.
Five very different outcomes.

№ 01
The need A Turkish industrial group seeking strategic entry into East Africa; the CEO and three deputies travel to Nairobi to open doors.
Four days. One-on-one introductions to three sector leaders in Kenya. A parallel family programme in the Maasai Mara. Before the delegation boarded the return flight, three letters of intent had been signed.
3
Letters of intent
in 96 hours
№ 02
The need An energy technology firm attending Hannover Messe — not as a sponsor, but as a host.
Three evenings aligned with the fair calendar. A private collectors' dinner with German Mittelstand procurement leads. The real business was discussed not at the booth, but at the dinner table.
42
Curated senior
principals hosted
№ 03
The need A construction holding entering the Saudi Vision 2030 ecosystem — as a partner and a counterparty.
A six-day Riyadh + AlUla immersion. Days: site visits and ministerial introductions. Evenings: hosted dinners. In parallel: an AlUla cultural programme for spouses and children. One week placed an entire senior team inside the market.
9
Senior leaders
onboarded into a new market
№ 04
The need A logistics group seeking to globalise and align a thirty-person director cohort within a single week.
Five days across Singapore and Jakarta. Faculty from INSEAD, sector veterans, regional regulators. A leadership academy in residence.
30
Directors aligned
in one week
№ 05
The need A family business aiming to integrate its third generation with senior management — and open first conversations with Gulf investors.
Five days in Dubai. Mornings: closed sessions on family governance and succession. Afternoons: curated family principals' lunches. Evenings: closed-door meetings with the DIFC investment community.
2
Co-investment
conversations initiated
07 — How We Work

A convening is built
over months, not weeks.

Strategic curation begins long before anything is served at the table. Our method proceeds in four stages:

i.

Strategic listening

A confidential conversation with leadership. We map the next eighteen months — the markets, the target companies, the open relationships, and the doors that remain closed.

ii.

Curation and design

City, calendar, guest list, agenda, moderator, and the cultural fabric around it — each engineered to serve a single strategic purpose for the company.

iii.

On-site execution

Our team deploys to the target city. Logistics, hospitality, family programmes, and the thousand quiet decisions that separate an "event" from a "turning point."

iv.

Continuity and follow-through

A convening is the beginning of a relationship, not its conclusion. The stewardship of introductions, the next meetings, and the preparation of the next room — all carried by Qanaq.

08 — Qanaq Group

Qanaq Events is
a practice of Qanaq Group.

— Group · Established —
EventsThis site
AdvisoryStrategic Consulting
CapitalCapital Relations
BridgeMarket Entry

We are part of a group that walks alongside companies on their growth journey.

Qanaq Group brings together — under one roof — the disciplines a company needs when stepping into a new geography, a new stage, or a new segment: from consulting and capital relations to market entry and strategic curation.

Qanaq Events is the human-fabric arm of those disciplines. The point where strategy leaves the page and becomes a table, an evening, a handshake.

— We work with few companies a year —

Where shall the next room
be built?

If your company is entering a new market, building a new relationship, or accelerating a conversation that needs to happen in the next 12–24 months, a senior member of our practice will be in touch within seven days.

Request an Invitation
Same budget. Two different outcomes.