We found an 'agency' that was really one guy with awesome connections to designers, trade show staff (so we ended up at least 'Bronze' sponsors to every show wi

We found an 'agency' that was really one guy with awesome connections to designers, trade show staff (so we ended up at least 'Bronze' sponsors to every show with almost no outlay), where to spend money on presence, and a really good sense of ability when it came to young talent. He projected costs on a monthly basis, and we had the ability to say whether we were OK with the amount or whether we needed him to find lower-cost options. We were pretty well capitalized (my co-founder and I are old :-)) but we paid between $8k and $25k/month, most of the high-end occurring when we were hitting competitive trade shows for premium placement. Even then, he was smart about finding spaces that were on an arterial aisle leading to refreshments and surrounded either by totally JV firms or large constructs that had a history of understaffing (so we would catch their overflow). Edit: Just to reinforce my original comment, if we had a tool that could help this guy be superman and trim our costs even further, we would be all over it.