The trade-show exhibitors in our base — and how we turn a booth into a contact
In our priority-source piece we explained why trade-show exhibitors are the first place we look when matching suppliers for your request. This is the follow-up buyers actually ask for: which shows, how many exhibitors, and — the part that matters most — how a company that paid for a booth becomes a supplier you can actually reach by email.
Which shows we cover
Our exhibitor base is built from major, organizer-vetted trade shows — the kind where exhibiting means passing a real gate (business license, product category, often export history). The largest single block is the Messe Frankfurt series: eleven shows spanning consumer goods, automotive parts, sanitary, home textiles, lighting, technical textiles, e-bike, Christmas, creative, additive manufacturing, and laundry technology. We hold the 2026 edition of each.
Beyond Frankfurt, the base includes Canton Fair (both exhibitor and buyer directories, 137th–139th sessions), plus a long tail of sector shows: CES, CONEXPO, K Show (plastics), IFAT (water/environment), bauma and BAU (construction, Munich), MEDICA (medical), gitex (tech, Dubai), and more.
The email coverage from these shows varies a lot — and that gap is exactly what our verification step exists to close (more below).
How many exhibitors, and how reachable
Some real counts from the current base (2026 editions):
| Show | Exhibitors | With email |
|---|---|---|
| Ambiente (consumer goods) | 3,650 | 3,341 |
| Automechanika (auto parts) | 3,921 | 3,211 |
| ISH (sanitary/building) | 2,129 | 1,994 |
| Heimtextil (home textiles) | 2,199 | 1,922 |
| Light + Building (lighting) | 1,884 | 1,763 |
| Canton Fair (exhibitors) | 30,380 | varies |
| Canton Fair (buyer directory) | 107,338 | varies |
Figures are the 2026 editions currently in our base. Email coverage at intake ranges from ~90% (Frankfurt shows) down to single digits for some construction/industrial shows (bauma, BAU, productronica) — their directories ship with almost no public email, which is precisely the gap our verification step closes.
From "a booth" to "a contact you can email"
A show directory gives you a name and a product. It usually does not give you a working email. Here is the pipeline that turns a booth into a supplier you can reach:
Why this matters to you as a buyer
When you email us what you want to source, the suppliers we match are not anonymous web listings. They are companies that paid for a booth and passed a gate, then had their contact turned into something reachable. That is a very different starting point from "we found a website that might be a factory." It is also why trade-show exhibitors are our priority source — and why, when a show ships without emails, we verify before we ever put a supplier in front of you. (See how we verified UK suppliers)
Email us what you want to source and we'll match from this base — trade-show exhibitors first, then other verified B2B sources.
Frequently asked
How big is the supplier pool you match from?
We match from a large, continuously enriched base of companies — 1.61M+ in total, with 1.01M+ reachable via verified contact info, including 815K+ overseas reachable companies plus a China-based pool of 201K+ reachable suppliers. For buyers, what matters is the verified supplier side: trade-show exhibitors and other audited B2B sources we can find suppliers against your request and reach on your behalf.
Where does TokoAI's supplier data come from?
From public business databases, trade-show directories, and government procurement records, cross-checked into a reachable, high-quality supplier pool. We do not buy or resell third-party lists.
How do you verify a supplier's contact before reaching out?
We only use contact points collected from public sources — a company's own website, trade-show directory, or public business registry — never guessed or machine-constructed addresses. Each address is checked for a real, reachable path before we send on your behalf, and the source is recorded so it can be traced. When a supplier we found responds, it comes from a real, checkable source you can verify yourself.