Stands at food and beverage fairs

1–10 days

installation time, with chillers commissioned on the final day

Stand types

The tasting counter sets the traffic

On a food stand the tasting point governs visitor flow. Put the counter flush with the aisle and the queue forms in the gangway; two days in, the organiser will ask you to fix it. The right move is to pull the counter a metre and a half inside and leave a waiting pocket in front of it. The queue then stands on your own floor, and passers-by see the activity and come closer on their own. The crowd is the advertisement here; the problem is never the crowd, only where it stands.

The counter has two sides. The face the visitor sees stays clean and clear; the working side behind it takes knives, plates, napkins, waste and washing-up. Stands that skip this split find the counter cluttered by the third hour, the display invisible behind it and no photograph worth taking. Give the working side at least sixty centimetres of depth; anything tighter stops two people working at once.

Counter height for standing tastings sits between 105 and 110 centimetres. If seated meetings are also planned, build a separate table; combining the two in one piece of furniture spoils both, because one is for quick standing contact and the other for a long seated conversation. Draw the two functions separately at the stand design stage, with a gap between them.

Chilling, water and electrical load

Once a chiller cabinet, a fridge, a glass washer and a coffee machine run together, the electrical load climbs quickly. The power order given to the organiser should be based on the rating plates of those appliances rather than an estimate. Coming up short means buying extra supply on the morning of the show, which is expensive and, at some venues, not possible the same day. The starting current of compressor appliances belongs in the sum too.

Water is a separate item and is not available everywhere in every hall. Supply and drainage are drawn from the channel in the hall floor, which means the position of the tasting counter depends on the service point before it depends on aesthetics. Ask where that point is before signing the space contract, because a channel ten metres away forces the pipework to run under the whole stand.

Where a connection is impossible, the counter runs on a bottled supply with a waste container underneath. That container has to be emptied every evening; if the job belongs to nobody it gets done by nobody, so put a name against it. Ask as well whether chillers stay powered overnight: some venues throw the main switch at closing and the product is spoiled by morning.

Smell, waste and the look of hygiene

Smell is both an invitation and a risk on a food stand. If you cook hot product, the smell drifting to neighbouring stands brings complaints, and many venues require separate permission for open flame and fryers while some refuse it outright. The practical way to hold it inside is to move the cooking point to the back line and put an extraction hood over it. A filtered mobile hood works where no ductwork can be run.

Waste is a visible problem here. Over four days napkins, cups and plates pile up, and without lidded bins reachable from inside the counter a bin bag ends up in the corner of the stand and in the first photograph. Draw a waste compartment under every counter, and ask before the show where the evening collection is taken.

The look of hygiene feeds straight into perceived product quality. A white, seamless surface reads as clean even over timber; matt lacquer or compact laminate works well, while textured cladding and open joints read as dirty. Under our exhibition stand services these surfaces are prepared in the workshop and only assembled on site, which keeps the number of joints down.

How large should the tasting area be?

Depth equal to the counter run is enough, but leave at least a metre and a half of waiting space in front of it. Queues spill into the aisle because that pocket is missing, not because the area is small.

Should we hire chillers or bring our own?

Bringing your own is usually cheaper domestically. Abroad, once freight, customs and plug compatibility are counted, hiring from the venue is both faster and safer.