What to ask before you book your first trade show

If you’re thinking about exhibiting at a trade show for the first time, you’ll usually be quoted a rate per square metre (or per square foot in the US). It looks simple, but it leaves out a lot of what you’ll actually pay.

I run Stand Central, a UK company that supplies exhibition stands and display graphics. Recently we read the exhibitor pages of 202 UK trade shows and 21 exhibitor manuals to see what exhibitors are charged and when. The figures below come from that research, so they’re UK prices, but the questions apply to most shows wherever you are.

Who will actually be walking the aisles?

It’s tempting to compare shows on price per square metre, but the price says more about the audience than the venue. One organiser charged £207 per m² at one of its shows and £885 at another.

The dearest rate cards we found all sold access to specific professionals, such as business travel, pharmacy or technology buyers. So before you compare prices, ask the organiser who visited last year. Job titles and sectors are more useful than a headline attendance figure.

What is the smallest space I can book?

Most shows sell two kinds of stand. A shell scheme is a ready-built stand (a booth, in the US) with walls. Space only is bare floor, where you bring your own stand.

Space only looks cheaper per square metre, but it isn’t always the budget choice. Some organisers set a minimum size for space only. At all five shows we found that publish both a minimum and a shell rate, the smallest space-only booking cost 1.3 to 2.1 times as much as a 3m × 3m shell stand, before anything had been built on it. At one pet trade show, space only started at 24 m², which came to £7,920 against £3,771 for a shell.

The walls themselves cost little: across 25 rate cards with both rates, the shell upgrade had a median of £50 per m². Most shows don’t publish a minimum size at all, so ask for the smallest bookable space and its price in writing.

What does the shell scheme include?

A shell stand sounds like something you can walk onto and switch on, but often it isn’t. Of the 26 UK shell rate cards that list what’s included, only 7 include a power socket. Four say electrics cost extra, and 15 don’t mention power at all. At three of the shows we checked, a basic package with one socket and spotlights was £349 extra.

If you plan to run a screen or lightbox, ask the organiser to confirm each of these:

• power, and how many sockets
• lighting
• carpet or flooring
• a name board
• furniture, such as a table and chairs
• how you’re allowed to attach graphics to the walls

Which fees does every exhibitor pay?

Some organisers add compulsory fees to every booking. Six of the shows we checked publish them, and they added 4.4% to 13.9% to the cost of a 3m × 3m shell stand. At three of those shows, the compulsory fee worked out at more per square metre than the shell walls.

Only 46 of the 202 shows published any price at all, so ask for the full rate card, compulsory fees included, before you commit. All the prices in this article are before VAT.

When is each deadline in the exhibitor manual?

Once you’ve booked, the organiser will send an exhibitor manual, and it’s worth opening the day it arrives. The 21 manuals we read had a median of four separate deadlines per event, and one had eleven, because graphics, electrics, furniture and freight often come from different contractors.

The first deadline fell a median of 38 days before the show opened. If you only open the manual a month before the show, you’d already have missed the first deadline at 15 of the 21 events.

Missing an order deadline usually means paying more for the same thing. The manuals and order sites we read published late surcharges of up to 25%, and up to 50% for orders placed at the show. Almost every late-order clause also said “subject to availability”, so a late order can simply be refused.

Paperwork works differently. Space-only exhibitors had to send stand plans, risk assessments and method statements a median 44 days before opening, and no fee gets you out of a missed one. One manual said that if plans arrive late, building won’t be allowed to start until the organiser approves them.

Who is designing the graphics, and what if they’re wrong?

Graphics are easy to leave until last, but they can be one of the dearer things to get wrong. At the five UK display suppliers we found that publish a design fee next to a 3m fabric display, design added 9.1% to 58.2% to the display price. A replacement 3m graphic cost £299 at one supplier and from £282 at another, both more than the highest fixed design fee we found (£195).

So whoever designs your graphic, ask for a proof on the supplier’s own template and check it carefully before it goes to print. On a shell scheme, check the manual for the panel graphics deadline as well.

A simple order to work in

For a first show, I’d work in this order:

1. Ask the organiser for last year’s visitor breakdown.
2. Ask for the full rate card in writing, with minimum sizes, compulsory fees and what the shell includes.
3. Price the smallest stand you’re allowed, then add power and fees, before you compare shows.
4. Open the exhibitor manual as soon as you book and put every deadline in your calendar separately.
5. Send any compulsory paperwork first, then place your orders before the first price rise.
6. Order your stand and graphics early enough to check a proof properly.

On timing, starting about nine weeks before the show would have met each type of deadline at three out of four of the events we checked. Most of this is a case of asking early and getting the answers in writing.

Tom Watts is Director of Stand Central, which supplies exhibition stands and display graphics to UK exhibitors.