Installation schedules at Koelnmesse

1–10 days

on-site build time, fitted into the venue window

Stand types

8 stand types

each type carries its own build time and schedule

Stand types

Planning backwards

A build schedule is set backwards, not forwards. The starting point is not the opening day but the earliest fixed date the venue publishes: the deadline for approval drawings. After that come the cut-offs for service orders, then the departure date of the freight, then the build window.

For a fair abroad, the freight date governs. Once the vehicle leaves, nothing in production can change, so production is planned back from that date rather than from the build. The gap between the two can run to a week.

That is why the design stage closes earlier for fairs abroad. The same design time, the same production time, but freight and customs sit in between. Copy the dates the venue publishes into your own sheet exactly, without interpreting them. A date written down as "around" gets stretched throughout the preparation, and in the final week that stretch cannot be recovered. Whoever holds the sheet should also record which document each date came from.

Order cut-off dates

Power, water, internet, cleaning, furniture hire and waste each carry their own order and their own cut-off date. Orders placed after the cut-off are chargeable at most venues and some are not accepted at all. Putting those dates on one sheet is the most productive half hour of the preparation.

The electrical load deserves particular attention. The declared figure is the sum of lighting, screens and any pantry equipment on the stand. Increasing it later depends both on a surcharge and on what the hall infrastructure can supply.

Another item often missed is the temporary power used during the build. It can be a separate order from the supply used during the show, and forgetting it costs the first hours on site. Keep the confirmations when you place the orders. Most of the arguments during show week come from orders everyone assumed had been placed but nobody had recorded. An order with a confirmation is settled on site in five minutes; one without is placed again, at a surcharge.

What a delay costs

The cost of a delay is not linear. A week lost on the approval file becomes two weeks in production if a revision is requested. A day lost in transit can take the whole first day of the build once waiting at the border is added.

So slack goes into the schedule in three places rather than one: after the approval file, after production finishes, and after the freight arrives. Slack pooled in a single place is spent on the first setback.

There is no slack available at tear-down; the hour is fixed. The only flexibility is having decided in advance what goes to storage and what goes to disposal. The reuse decision changes the cost side as well. Write down in advance who gets told when a date moves. If the haulier, the site crew and the organiser are not informed on the same day, one setback spreads into three. Setting up a single chain of notification lowers the cost of a delay noticeably.

Can the build window be extended?

Some venues allow early access for a fee with a prior application. Extending tear-down is generally not possible.

Who tracks the order cut-offs?

One person. Split the items across departments and one date is always missed; whoever holds the sheet should also be able to decide.