The fact is that every single person going to these kinds of events are going to have the same end all goal as you do, yet I've noticed a number of people who attend them that seem to miss this little fact.

Why would it really matter if they're aware of it or not? Let's say I'm standing at a booth handing out various pieces of material and business cards. Someone walks up to me from another booth who's just taking a break to walk around. Already they're starting to become overwhelmed by all of the material they've been handed, obviously not prepared to take any of it in, and not prepared to organize all of the contacts they're being given.

They still take it because they suddenly realize how useful a lot of the material is. After talking to me they have interest in my business, but they just don't have much room to take any of my material with them. They confide in me that they hadn't been really looking for leads like this upon coming, and had just been expecting to hand out their own stuff. They'd gotten plenty of business card printing done, but they hadn't set up any way to organize the color business cards they were now getting from everyone else.

If you aren't expecting to generate leads or you aren't expecting to get business cards from others than you're going to quickly get swamped, and possibly pass up some very valuable leads because of it. I've come away from plenty of events like this myself where all I did to prepare was get my own business card printing done. Once everything was over I had a pile of business cards to sort through, and was well aware I'd lost some business cards along the way because I hadn't had anyplace to put them.

What kind of leads did I lose because I didn't have the cards anymore, or because I didn't have time to sort through this messy pile of cards?

These days I always make sure to have a plan already in place to keep things organized. That way I can be certain that I keep things in check, and that I never have to worry about potentially losing a lead because I was disorganized.

All it takes is a little foresight and a better understanding of what you're going to in order to do the same. You never want to miss an opportunity just because you weren't expecting it to come along. Always be prepared, and understand what the situation really is.