SIRHA Lyon: A Career-Defining Opportunity for International Affiliates

SIRHA Lyon, held every other January in France, is Europe's largest foodservice trade show. With 200,000+ visitors and 4,000+ exhibitors in 2025, it presents a once-every-two-years window for international affiliates to compress a year of European prospecting into five days of high-density meetings.

Why Lyon Outperforms Domestic Channels

Lyon attracts decision-makers from France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Average European restaurant ticket sizes for QR-menu SaaS are 30-50% higher than Turkish equivalents, with yearly-plan adoption running near 47% — significantly above the global blended average of 32%.

This matters because thMenu's affiliate commission is 20% lifetime. A Pro yearly plan (€290/year) yields €58 annually per active restaurant; a single Lyon-sourced cohort that renews five years contributes nearly €290 lifetime per signing. Multiply by four signings and you have €1,160 in steady, drip-released income that pays back the trip in months — not years.

Trip Cost Breakdown

A disciplined five-day Lyon trip typically costs the following:

• Flight (intra-EU or IST-LYS): €350-450 with 90-day advance booking
• Accommodation (4 nights, mid-tier near La Part-Dieu): €560 total
• SIRHA 4-day pass (pre-registered): €120
• Meals, transit, business cards, follow-up CRM: €770

Total investment: roughly €1,800. In 2025, one Istanbul-based thMenu affiliate executed exactly this budget, ran 84 booth-floor conversations, scheduled 12 demos, and signed four French restaurants within 90 days. Three opted for yearly plans, pushing the expected lifetime affiliate commission past €11,800 once tenure renewals and tier upgrades are factored in.

The Pre-Show Playbook That Actually Works

Success at Lyon is engineered six weeks before you board the plane. Download the SIRHA exhibitor list, cross-reference it on LinkedIn, and build a target list of 100-150 restaurant owners and group operations directors. Use the official SIRHA app to send pre-show meeting invitations; aim for 25-30 confirmed slots before arrival.

The killer differentiator for international affiliates is multilingual readiness. Because thMenu already supports 20 locales, your demo can flip the menu to French in two taps — that single moment of "this works for my actual diners" closes a meaningful share of borderline prospects. Pair it with a 90-second flow showing QR scan, French menu, table session, ordered to kitchen and you will average roughly 38% meeting-to-demo conversion.

FAQ

Do I need to exhibit or can I attend as a visitor? Attend as a visitor your first year (€120 vs €15,000+ for a booth). ROI on a stand only works when you already have 30+ committed leads to host.

Will my lack of French hurt me? No. About 78% of restaurant owners at Lyon speak fluent English, and your demo doing the language switching for them solves the language barrier at the moment of purchase.

When is the next SIRHA Lyon? The biennial cycle puts the next editions in January 2027 and January 2029. Off-years are well-served by SIRHA Europain and Equip'Hotel Paris.

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