GITEX 2026: how exhibitors can capture every booth lead

GITEX GLOBAL 2026 opens at Expo City Dubai with a summit day on Monday 7 December, followed by the exhibition from Tuesday 8 to Friday 11 December 2026 (gitex.com, checked 28 September 2026).

For an exhibitor, those four days are a stream of short conversations on a loud, busy stand. The hard part isn't meeting people. It's leaving the show with leads you can act on: who each visitor is, what they asked for, and their permission to contact them. This guide covers what to set up before the show, how to capture leads at the booth, what to do in the 24 hours after it closes, and a checklist you can hand to your team.

GITEX GLOBAL 2026 at a glance

Build-up times, badge rules and artwork deadlines come from the organiser and your stand builder, so check your exhibitor portal for the dates that apply to your stand.

Before the show

Give everyone on the stand their own card

Create a digital business card for each person who will staff the stand, with their name in English and Arabic, their role, the company and a WhatsApp button. Visitors remember a person more easily than a stand number, and the follow-up then comes from the person they actually spoke to. You can create each card free; the quick setup takes a couple of minutes per person.

Then give each person something to tap:

• A PVC NFC card (AED 99) for each staff member. A tap opens their card on the visitor's phone, with no app. See how NFC cards work on iPhone and Android. If one person orders the cards for the whole stand, contact our sales team with the order and we link each card to the right person's profile.
• An NFC sticker (AED 49) on the counter or demo unit, linked to your company card, so visitors can tap even when everyone is busy.

Put a QR code on your booth graphics

Some visitors would rather scan than tap, and a code on the backdrop works from across the aisle. On your card's Share page, download the QR code as SVG for print: it stays sharp at any size. Keep the code dark on a light background with a clear margin around it. Before the artwork goes to the printer, print a test at the final size and scan it from where visitors will stand. Use the same code on screen loops, brochures and the last slide of your presentation. QR scans show up in your analytics separately from NFC taps.

Set up one shared lead inbox

With Cardly.ae Teams, every staff card follows your locked brand template, and leads from every card land in one list that owners and admins can export to CSV. Teams costs AED 180 per seat per year, with a minimum of 3 seats. If one person runs your stand, Pro (AED 25 a month or AED 199 a year) adds CSV export and 12 months of analytics. On the Free plan, leads still reach your Leads inbox, with email alerts, but CSV export isn't included and analytics cover the last 7 days.

Order NFC cards in time

Cards are made to order and dispatched within 1–3 working days of a paid order with complete print details. Standard delivery across the UAE then takes 2–4 working days (AED 20, free on orders of AED 199 or more), and Express arrives the next working day in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi (AED 35). Counting back from the opening day, and allowing for the National Day public holidays in early December, we suggest ordering by Friday 20 November 2026. That leaves time to correct a typo and reprint.

At the booth

Capture leads with a form, not a pile of paper

Add a Lead form block to each card and give it a title that fits the show, such as “Let's talk after GITEX”. Ask only for what you need: the form always includes the visitor's name, plus an email address or a phone number, and you can add company, job title and a message. Also switch on the Exchange contact button in the card's Settings, so visitors have a one-tap way to send their details right next to Save contact.

Before sending, the visitor ticks a consent box, and Cardly.ae stores that consent with the lead. The lead lands in the card owner's Leads inbox with an email alert, so a colleague can start the follow-up while the show is still on. Alert emails pause once the owner passes 20 leads in 24 hours across all their cards, so on a busy day keep the Leads inbox open: every lead is saved there.

On a busy stand, this rhythm works well:

1. The visitor taps a staff member's NFC card or scans the QR code on the backdrop.
2. They tap Save contact to keep your details, and Exchange contact to send theirs.
3. The staff member asks one question, “What should I send you?”, and suggests the visitor types the answer in the message field.

Follow up on WhatsApp, the right way

Many business conversations in the UAE continue on WhatsApp. With a WhatsApp number on each staff card, a visitor can message the person they met straight from the card. When you reply to someone who left their number, keep it personal and relevant: send what they asked for, from the person they spoke to, and don't add them to broadcast lists. Use a visitor's details only for the follow-up they agreed to.

Check each day's numbers

Your analytics show views, contact saves, button taps and leads by day, and how visitors opened your card: NFC tap, QR scan or link. Look at them every evening. If the backdrop QR code gets plenty of scans but few leads, move the lead form higher up the card. If one person's card collects most of the leads, find out what they're doing differently.

After the show: the first 24 hours

1. Export your leads. On Teams or Pro, export the list to CSV on the last evening (or every evening) and import it into your CRM or a shared sheet.
2. Send the promised follow-up within 24 hours: the brochure, the demo slot or the quote, from the person the visitor met.
3. Move each lead to a stage (new, contacted, qualified, won or lost) so nobody is contacted twice or forgotten.
4. Update show-specific wording. If a card says “Visit us at GITEX”, change it once the show is over. Edits go live straight away, and your NFC cards and printed QR codes keep working.
5. Review the numbers. Leads per day and per person show you what to change for your next event.

GITEX exhibitor checklist

Four to six weeks before

• Agree who will staff the stand, and create a card for each person.
• If three or more people will staff it, set up Teams and your brand template.
• Add a lead form with a show-specific title to every card.

By 20 November

• Order NFC cards for the team (tell our sales team who each card is for, so we link it to that person's profile) and an NFC sticker for the counter.
• Send the booth artwork with your QR code, after test-printing it at the final size.

The day before opening

• Test every card on an iPhone and an Android phone: tap, scan, save the contact and send a test lead through the form.
• Check that lead emails reach the right inbox, and keep the Leads inbox open during the show: alert emails pause after 20 leads in 24 hours.

Every show day

• Check the Leads inbox at lunchtime and in the evening, and reply to anything urgent.
• Look at the day's analytics and adjust.

Within 24 hours of closing

• Export the leads, send the promised follow-ups and move each lead to a stage.
• Remove show-specific wording from the cards.

For the year-round version of this setup, see Cardly.ae for events and exhibitors.

Sources

• GITEX GLOBAL official website, gitex.com: summit and exhibition dates and the venue. Checked 28 September 2026.

Cardly.ae is not affiliated with or endorsed by GITEX GLOBAL or its organiser. This is Cardly.ae's own guide for exhibitors, not the official exhibitor manual.