Your first tradeshow can be an overwhelming experience. There are aisles and aisles of booths, vendors and models trying to attract your attention, and real work that needs to get done in the midst of a completely chaotic atmosphere. It could drive anyone crazy. Thankfully, with a little bit of planning and a sufficiently deep breath, you’ll not only survive the trade show but also create contacts and learn about new products.

Almost every industry has a trade show. Convention centers cycle them in and out, week after week. What looks like chaos to the average attendee is actually very organized. Here are a few tips to getting the most out of your trade show.

Look over the List of Participants before you arrive

Most industries provide a website or even mail you a list of participants when you register for the trade show. Make sure you go through this list carefully. Will important clients or suppliers be there? Have you spent a lot of time in this industry or are you new to the entire scene? While both of these questions sound simple, the answers can totally change your plans for the trade show. If you are using this time to connect with familiar sales reps, company owners or clients, you will want to allocate large blocks of free time that can be spent hanging out in their booths. If you are new to the industry, you’ll want to spend most of your time walking the floor, checking out all of the products and services that go along with your industry and making contacts with people across the board.

Set a Schedule

Once you have a general idea of who else is going to be at the convention, you will want to set a schedule. Depending on your personality, this can be as strict or fluid as possible, but it is a good idea to know what you need to accomplish and create a basic timeline.

Here’s an example for a typical 3½ -day trade show:

Monday: Walk the floor. Get a general idea of main players and set up appointments if not already scheduled.

Tuesday: Meet with main suppliers, clients, etc.

Wednesday: Finish up main meetings; check out smaller booths.

Thursday Morning: Visit any small or seemingly unrelated booths. Pack up and go home.

You may deviate from the schedule, but if you plot our your priorities, you can be sure you will visit every essential booth, even if you don’t get to see the guy selling giant chess boards in the far west corner.