Preparing an overseas show with an export voucher —what the budget alone won't show you

Once you have been selected for an export voucher and start preparing for an overseas trade show, the budget is usually the first thing you look at.

How much the booth costs, how much you can produce, how much the trip will run to — you work through it item by item.

At this point, though, we think you should also be looking at who does what once the show is over.

Who to contact again from the people you met, who sends the material they asked for, how the next meeting gets arranged.

Talking about the return leg before you have even flown out may feel early.

But if this isn't settled in advance, good conversations on site often end there.

What matters in the end is less about taking part in the show, and more about whether the openings it creates can be carried forward.

At CES, the plan changed every day

When we were on the ground with clients at CES 2026, we couldn't stick to the schedule we had drawn up either.

The venue was vast, and each client's situation was different. We kept changing where to go next and which meetings to prioritise based on what we saw on site.

One team was running its booth with just the founder and a developer.

While neither of them could leave the booth, we looked up additional companies worth seeing, organised incoming leads and divided up who to contact again.

With another client, we went back to the accommodation and went over the people met that day, then sorted out the next day's route and priorities.

And there was one variable that mattered more than we expected.

Stamina.

When meetings run back to back, the conversations themselves go fine — but there is no energy left in the evening to write things up and follow through.

So from then on we built rest time and time to catch up into the schedule itself.

That is also what we weigh most when we look at an overseas show schedule.

Whether the meetings you have booked can actually be absorbed, and whether there is time left to carry those conversations to the next step.

If you have decided who staffs the booth and who sits in the meetings, but no one is left to write up what was discussed and follow up, that work needs a place in the schedule too.

Plenty of the work never shows up in a budget sheet

Booths and production come with quotes, so the cost is visible straight away.

Finding targets, reaching out in advance, writing up meetings and following up after you return usually don't appear in the budget at all.

It is easy to assume someone internal will just handle it.

But in practice, someone has to.

If the founder is explaining the product all day, staffing the booth, then writing up the day's meetings in the evening and preparing for the next day's, it is worth asking honestly how far that is possible.

If the team can genuinely cover it, go ahead.

What is worth separating out in advance is the work that has no owner, or no time.

When we look at a budget after an export voucher award, we usually think about it in this order.

• First, write down everything this trip will actually require.
• Then decide who does each of those things.
• Attach the support and cost needed for whatever has no owner or can't be covered internally.
• Finally, check which of those items the voucher can be used for, and what you will need to fund separately.

Looking at it this way changes the question you ask when you request a quote.

Not simply "how much is it?", but:

"How much of this does the cost cover — pre-show outreach, the event itself, and the follow-up after we return?"

That is the question you can put to them.

When we build the target list, we look at what comes after it too

Finding a lot of companies before a trip is not the goal in itself.

You first need to decide what you want to confirm on this trip.

Whether you want to read the market, find customers who could realistically adopt, or meet partners to sell alongside — each points to different companies and different people.

Once the purpose is set, we look at exhibitors and expected visitors against it.

We don't only check whether the industry matches.

We look at where the overlap with your product is, who you should actually be contacting, and whether this is a company worth approaching now.

Then we reach out on LinkedIn or by email and narrow down what to confirm in the meeting based on what comes back.

For instance, "the product looks interesting" and "could this work in our environment?" are both positive replies, but they call for different next questions.

The first lets you ask which part they found interesting. The second lets you ask about the conditions for adoption and who internally would review it.

Even before you meet anyone in person, these responses build up a clearer view of what the meeting should cover.

On site, we carry the same thread forward.

What role the person plays, what caught their interest, what conditions still need checking, what material they asked for.

And when the meeting ends, we decide what happens next.

How many people you met matters, but once you are back the sharper question is:

"So which companies are we actually still in conversation with, and about what?"

We don't treat before, during and after as separate

At Scailout we work in six stages, from preparation through to follow-up.

When preparing an overseas show with an export voucher, it also helps to lay the whole timeline out at once, as below.

This table does not represent export voucher support categories.

It is closer to a frame for working out what this trip will actually involve.

Fill in who covers each item internally and what external cost is needed, then check separately whether the voucher can be applied.

Our deck sets out preparation starting one to two months before the trip, with on-site execution and follow-up stages running afterwards.

Actual timings depend on the event dates and the scope of work required.

So rather than fixing only the show dates, it is better to block out the time to reach out beforehand and the time to pick things up afterwards as well.

Whether the voucher covers it has to be confirmed separately

One thing needs to be clearly separated here.

Deciding what work is needed and confirming whether that work can be paid for with an export voucher are two different questions.

The export voucher scheme lets selected companies choose the export support services and providers they need.

The official service categories include trade shows, events and overseas sales support — but whether you can actually use it depends on the programme you were selected for and the service you are contracting.

Before signing, it is worth checking the following with the operating body or the service provider.

• whether the service is eligible
• whether delivery and settlement fit within the programme period
• whether there are costs you have to cover separately
• what documentation is required

The latest details are also available on the official export voucher settlement guide board.

Pricing should also be looked at separately from any grant.

As stated in our deck, Scailout Project starts from KRW 5,000,000 for two months, with a success fee of 10–30%, running up to six months after the show.

That is Scailout's starting price and fee structure. It does not represent an export voucher support limit or the average contract value among selected companies.

We quote once we have established how far the scope of this trip needs to go.

Booth construction, logistics and interpretation are not part of the base service, so if you need them, check whether they can be arranged and at what cost.

If you've already settled some of it, start there

If you have been awarded a voucher and don't know where to begin, there is no need to organise everything before coming to us.

Start from whatever is already decided.

• if the show is chosen, start from those dates
• if you have product material, start from that
• if you know the type of customer you want, start from that criteria
• a list of overseas companies you have contacted before works well too

Working from that, we settle together what you want to confirm on this trip, who to meet, how far to reach out beforehand, and who picks it up afterwards.

If you are focusing on one specific show, Project is the format to look at. If you already have a validated market and need ongoing relationship management alongside new target research, Pipeline is worth considering.

If you are using programme funding such as an export voucher, tell us the programme name and its conditions as well.

We start from the work this trip requires, then confirm whether the budget can be applied against that programme's rules.

And where possible, it is worth writing what happens after you return into the trip plan itself.

• who sends the material promised on site
• who answers the follow-up questions
• when the next meeting happens

Only when that much is settled does someone you met at a show turn into the next opportunity.