Your Roadshow Neighbor Is an Opportunity
Walk into any roadshow and you'll see agents doing exactly what they should — lining up for supplier reps, pitching for allocation, building the relationships that get them better rates. That instinct is right.
There's just one more relationship in that room worth just as much: the other agents standing in line with you. They're not only competition. A good number of them are your future referral network, and roadshows put more of them in one place than almost any other setting you'll be in this year.
Why other agents are such a good growth channel
Every agent ends up with a niche, whether they've named it or not. The honeymoon specialist gets asked about family safaris. The Southeast Asia expert gets a corporate group inquiry outside their comfort zone. The solo-travel agent gets a request for a 20-person wedding party abroad.
These don't have to be missed opportunities. With the right relationships in place, they become referral fees or reciprocal goodwill — and a roadshow hands you dozens of potential referral partners in one afternoon, which is hard to replicate through solo prospecting alone.
The one question that opens this up
Most agent-to-agent small talk at events stays surface level — "how's business," "crazy season" — pleasant, but it doesn't lead anywhere. One small shift changes that:
"What's the inquiry you get that you wish you had someone great to send it to?"
This does two good things at once: it tells you exactly what kind of referral this person might send your way, and it opens the door for you to share what you'd love to receive in return. Ask this a handful of times at your next event and you'll likely find at least one person whose gap is your specialty.
A rough way to see the upside
Build even five solid referral relationships with other agents over a year, and if each sends you one converted booking annually, that's five bookings sourced from conversations that cost nothing beyond time you were already spending in the room. It's not a guaranteed number — just a good reason to give those conversations real attention instead of treating them as filler before the next supplier meeting.
"Aren't other agents just competition?"
Less often than it feels. Two agents both selling "international travel" sounds like overlap until you learn one only does luxury and the other only does backpacking trips. The turned-down-inquiry question above is a quick, friendly way to find out — more often than not, you'll discover a gap you can fill for each other rather than a rivalry.
Turning one good conversation into a real channel
A single referral swapped at one event is a nice win. A few small habits turn it into something that keeps paying off:
Agree on the terms early, even loosely. A simple "I'll send you anything outside my niche, you do the same, and we split at [X]%" conversation, had once, keeps things easy later.
Send the first referral yourself. Going first is what actually gets remembered and reciprocated — it sets a generous tone for the whole relationship.
Check in between events, not just when you happen to cross paths again. A short "how's the season treating you" every couple of months keeps you top of mind for the referral that might not surface for a while.
Why this pays off faster than it looks
Referral bookings from other agents tend to convert quickly, because the trust transfer is already done — the client isn't meeting a stranger, they're meeting "the person my agent recommended." That's about as warm a start as any channel available to a small agency.
At your next roadshow, give the agent next to you five real minutes before you head for the supplier booth. The rep will still be there. And the agent you just got to know might be the reason you're not turning down a great inquiry a year from now.