Six months out: a fair preparation timeline

1–10 days

on-site installation time, the last link in the calendar

Stand types

From six months to three

The calendar opens on the day the space contract is signed. No drawing starts before floor area, open sides and position in the hall are known. The fortnight after signing goes to the brief: the result expected from the fair, the products to be shown, how many seats the meeting area needs, storage requirements and the ceiling on spend, all set down in writing. A brief that stays verbal doubles the number of concept rounds.

Concept work begins at four months, and two rounds of revision at that stage are normal. At three months the design freezes. A frozen design means the floor plan, the material list and the dimensions of the graphic panels will not move again.

The budget has to firm up at the same point. The stand line is calculated on a price per square metre; once area and type are fixed, the figure stops being a guess. In the same week, put rough numbers against floor rental, power and freight as well; a budget approved on the stand price alone turns the remaining five items into surprises later. Allow for the approval process itself too: if internal sign-off takes a fortnight, the design freeze moves a fortnight earlier.

From three months to two weeks

Production is planned after the design freezes. A workshop programme runs on its own workload, not on your fair calendar, so the build slot is reserved early. Graphic files move on a separate timeline and are usually the last item delivered. Getting the final pre-press approval date in writing is the cheapest way to avoid arguing about colour on the show floor.

At six weeks the paperwork for the organiser queues up: stand approval drawings, the declared electrical load, any rigging application and the contractor list. Deadlines for these vary by venue and are published in the technical manual, which should be read before design starts rather than after production does.

At two weeks the freight plan closes. How many vehicles, in what loading order, which part comes off first — that order decides how the first day on site goes. In the same week the site crew is named to the organiser and passes are issued; a crew without them cannot enter the hall on build morning. Accommodation is confirmed now too, and extended to cover tear-down night. The final fortnight is not for starting work; whatever is still open gets solved on site.

Who holds the calendar

The most common breakdown in fair preparation is not technical but a question of ownership. If marketing handles the rental, procurement the stand, logistics the freight and HR the accommodation, four separate calendars appear and none of them waits for the others. One person should hold every deadline, and it matters as much that this person can decide as that they can chase.

A practical method: give each item an owner and a date, then add the step that triggers that date. Late design approval means late production; making that dependency visible on the sheet ends the argument about what a delay costs.

Sharing the calendar with the team building the stand is part of the job. How we run the process is set out on our exhibition stand services page, and who owns which step is settled at the first meeting. A weekly round by whoever holds the calendar is enough: one question to each owner, and the answer written down. The round takes half an hour and makes a delay visible weeks before it bites.

What if there is less than six months?

Design rounds are shortened, materials are chosen from stock and the type decision moves towards systems that build quickly. The one step that cannot be compressed is the organiser’s approval period.

Which step slips most often?

Graphic content. Product photography, translation and copy approval sit with three different people, so the print file usually lands in the final week.