Your booth
Choosing a position from the live floor, understanding what shell scheme includes, buying the extras a stand actually needs, and getting passes for the people staffing it.
Choosing from the live floor
Booth selection happens against the organiser's actual plan — you see the hall, what is taken, and where you would be. Not a list of numbers with no context.
Because everyone chooses from the same live plan, two exhibitors cannot end up holding the same booth. That is the renumbering argument that spreadsheet-run shows produce a fortnight before doors open.
Choosing holds the position. Paying makes it yours.
What to weigh
Open sides
Inline has one, corner two, peninsula three, island four. More open sides cost more and are worth more.
Traffic
Entrances, catering, toilets and anchor exhibitors move people. Position relative to those matters more than square metres.
Neighbours
Who is beside you affects who walks past. Next to a competitor is not automatically bad — buyers comparing is traffic.
Height limits
Check before commissioning anything tall. A build that violates them is modified on site, at your cost.
Shell scheme or bare space
Add-ons
Extras the organiser has made available: additional passes, furniture, power, storage, branding placements, catering. What is on offer varies by show.
Some add-ons issue passes immediately
Buying extra staff passes mints them on payment rather than creating a request the organiser fulfils by hand. You have them at once.
Order services early. Power, internet and rigging bought on site cost more than the same thing bought six weeks out, and some venues will not add them at all on the day.
Passes for your team
Your package comes with an allocation. Two things about them are worth knowing before build-up:
Exhibitor passes cover build-up and dismantle, not just show hours. A visitor pass will not get your stand built.
Contractors need their own passes. If a third party is building for you, they need contractor access for the build days, which is a different kind from yours.
Under-ordering is the common mistake. On-site rates are higher, and sharing one badge between three people is usually a breach of the exhibitor terms.
Your team on the booking
Add colleagues to the booking so more than one person can act on it. The person who booked the stand is rarely the person who needs to order power at 6pm on a Friday.
Before build-up, confirm
- The build-up window, and when your freight can arrive
- Height limit, and whether your design was approved
- What power you ordered and where it lands on the stand
- Who is holding the passes, and that contractors have theirs
- Where your exhibits are, and who is meeting them
Getting in
The sign-up flow from first click to a confirmed booth — what each step asks for, why you can start before creating an account, and what happens if you do not finish.
Leads
Scanning badges at the stand, what makes a captured lead different from a business card, and how the follow-up continues after the hall empties.