Page 24 - EXHIBITION BOOK - BOOK 1 Before!_Neat

CHAPTER 8 CHOOSING YOUR STAND CONTRACTORS

The whole area of contractors and stand design is a rather personal one as your company image and how
you want to portray yourself at an Exhibition is different for each company. Stand design is rather like
interior design…some people will look at one design and think it’s wow while others don’t…What’s
considered to be good stand design for one may not work for another. By and large if you are selling a
product you can’t physically bring everything to the Exhibition as space doesn’t allow you to do that so it’s
important you build your stand around what you do bring and use strong graphics for other product ranges
that you don’t bring with you.

A couple of things you need to consider when choosing your Exhibition contractor will include:

Does the contractor we chose do the work or do they subcontract it out:

It’s important to know that the people you are dealing with will be the ones who are directly responsible
for the actual stand build as often things can get lost in translation if there are too many people involved
and your messages and deadlines can get lost in the middle. Some smaller stand build companies are really
brokers and subcontract the work out and whilst I am not saying there is anything wrong with this you
must be aware that who you are dealing and who builds the stand may be separate companies. Sometimes
this situation may lead to a higher overall cost as each layer of the process may be adding in their own
margin which may result in a higher final cost so a bigger company that offer the full package may in fact
be the more cost-effective solution. It’s crucial that in choosing the right contractor you know all these
details first and have one key point of contact or go to person for the whole project. From experience,
dealing with multiple people in Exhibition contracting companies can cause confusion and this will lead to
frustration. You need to be confident that the stress of the stand build is left to the professionals and you
know it will be done on time and on budget.

Has the contractor accreditation to any associations?

Whilst Associations are not necessarily the be all and end all the world, they do give you some re-
assurance and credibility that the people you are using are experienced in the industry. Most industry
associations operate to certain set guidelines and this is re-assuring when you are concentrating on all the
other aspects of exhibiting. In order to become a member of many of these associations, contractors need
to meet certain requirements and show a level of expertise within the stand build industry and this gives
you the peace of mind that you have chosen a company who can get the job done the way you want. Many
associations would also insist that the contractor has a certain level of insurance which again is an
advantage to you in case something does go wrong. There are many different Exhibition Associations
globally and some are geographically based but here’s a few that may be of help.