how to capture trade show leads without a badge scanner.

Put a QR code on your booth that opens a pre-filled text message. When the visitor sends it you have their mobile number, and the text conversation asks your qualifying questions, takes their email and books a meeting on the spot.

the five steps.

Give each rep a QR code that opens a text, not a web form. Scanning it opens the visitor's texting app with a short message already written. A text works on any phone, needs no download, and doesn't depend on the venue's Wi-Fi. With one code per rep, every scan reaches the person who started the conversation.
Ask your qualifying questions in the thread. Role, company size, intent: whatever decides whether this is a meeting. Ask in the text, where the visitor already is, before you offer a time.
Book the meeting before they leave. Offer open times from the rep's real calendar and let them reply to take one. The meeting goes on the calendar while you're still talking, not in a follow-up email after the show.
Ask for an email for the invite. Once they've picked a time, the confirmation asks for their email so the calendar invite can follow, in the same chat.
Send reminders, then sync the lead. Texts 24 hours and 30 minutes before the meeting, so no-shows drop. Then the contact goes to your CRM, or out as a CSV.

Boop does all five: the QR, the questions, the booking on Google or Outlook, the reminders, and HubSpot sync or CSV export. See how Boop's lead capture works.

badge scan, lead-retrieval app, business card or QR-to-SMS.

Method	What you get	When you have it	Meeting booked at the booth?
Badge scanner	The registration fields the show shares for that badge.	At the scan, or in the show's lead file afterwards, depending on the device.	No. The meeting is a follow-up.
Lead-retrieval app	Badge data, plus the notes and answers your rep types in.	As the rep scans.	Not by itself. The meeting is usually a follow-up.
Business card	Whatever is printed on the card.	When someone types it in or scans it.	No.
QR-to-SMS	Their mobile number, their answers to your questions, and their email.	The moment they hit send.	Yes, on the rep's Google or Outlook calendar, before they leave.

The trade-off: a badge scan asks nothing of the visitor, while QR-to-SMS asks them to scan and hit send. That one step is what puts the conversation, and the meeting, in their own texts.

good ones to ask.

do attendees need to download an app?

No. The whole flow runs in their native SMS thread, no app, no install. Works on any phone.

what if the venue has bad wifi?

SMS runs on cellular, not wifi. You're never dependent on the venue.

how is this different from lead retrieval apps?

Lead retrieval captures badge data. Boop books the meeting on the spot: the scan takes your next open time, and the calendar invite lands before they leave the booth.

what events does this work at?

All of them. Trade shows, conferences, dinners, field marketing: if you meet in person and they scan your QR or give you their number, Boop books the meeting.