Interesting, but very loaded, question. It depends on the industry segments, location of your business and the reach you want to have, as well as your budget.

I have organized trade shows all over the world and in over 65 industries. So look at industry, location, country/city, attendee profile, demographics, and some other factors. There are over 10,000 trade shows every year in the USA alone. You need to do some "shrinking" of the reach and take it from there.

Let me know if you have specific questions and we can schedule a call. Good luck!

So the answer really depends on your target client profile (size, comp, industry etc) as well as your budget/availability of team members to attend. the other question you'll want to consider is what participation at these events can mean. In my experience, especially at the various ecommerce events around the country/globe, is that you can interact with others in a range of ways (from just being a normal attendee to setting up a booth as a vendor and in some cases even participating in a keynote or panel discussion etc.)

I would consider focusing on tradeshows that highlight the tech stacks you specialize or work in (make sure that the largest % of the pool are on services or technology platforms you specialize or have deep knowledge in.) So Shopify and Spree for Rails, Magento and Wordpress for PHP etc.

Happy to offer any insight/advice I can, sounds like your shop is where my was 4-5 years ago (so, definitely been in your shoes haha.) Feel free to reach out and schedule some time to connect!

I wrote a list of the best conferences for retailers and I've personally attended most of them.

here's the list for 2016
https://ecommercetrainingacademy.com/ecommerce-conferences-2016/