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This study illustrates neglected elements of knowledge transfer from trade fairs to industrial clusters. Based on a case study of the knowledge interactions between a trade fair and a furniture industrial cluster in China, the article presents several non-pipeline-based knowledge creation and diffusion mechanisms that have been downplayed in existing literature. Major findings of this article include that, first, trade fairs do not exist in isolation from each other; rather, they are hierarchically related with each other mainly by unidirectional knowledge flows. Trade fairs in different hierarchical levels have distinct market or technology positioning, meeting variegated knowledge needs of inferior fair participating firms. Second, trade fairs are not simply places where exhibiting firms from afar meet and establish "global pipelines"; rather, due to the openness of the market they offer opportunities for many nonexhibiting (but visiting) firms to gain critical knowledge at the site and the vicinity (including back regions) of trade fairs. Third, if trade fairs are in geographical proximity to industrial clusters, they are connected not necessarily by established global pipelines, but rather by improvised unique knowledge spillovers in the local space that are neither typical local nor global buzz. Findings suggest that existing literature has paid much attention to the pipelines of trade fairs as temporary clusters while downplaying their attribute as an open market that can facilitate more spillovers of (quasi) public knowledge both at and beyond the fair venue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]