Stand design
How many seats should a meeting area have
Lokman Türkoğlu · Founder & Head of Design · 2 min read · Last updated:
Short answer
How many meeting tables should a stand have?
Table count follows the number of sales people on site. However many conversations run at once, that is how many seating positions you need; floor area does not change this, only the form the tables take. Where space is tight, high tables and stools work: standing conversations are shorter and make room for more visitors. Meetings that need discretion get a closed room.
Standing or seated
The answer depends on the fair. At a fast consumer show few conversations happen seated; visitors talk briefly, leave a card and move on. At an industrial show selling capital equipment the conversations are long and people need to sit.
High tables and stools sit between the two. The visitor perches rather than settles, and the conversation rarely passes twenty minutes. On small and medium stands this is usually the most productive answer.
Low armchairs and a coffee table are right only where hospitality is the point. A comfortable chair keeps a visitor for a long time, which is good in a distributor meeting and bad at a fast-moving show. How that decision ties to type is covered on the stand types page.
Where the table sits and which way it faces
The closer a meeting table is to the aisle, the shorter the conversation. The visitor feels the crowd passing behind them and grows restless. Moving the table deep into the stand lengthens conversations on its own.
Orientation matters too. It is usually better for the visitor to have their back to the aisle; nothing distracts them and they face your own surfaces. The salesperson sits facing the aisle and notices whoever walks in.
The gap between tables is easy to overlook. Two tables side by side and the conversations run into each other. Without a cabinet, a planter or a half wall between them, both conversations suffer.
When a closed room is justified
A closed room is an expensive decision: it takes floor, needs walls and reduces the openness of the stand. Against that, when prices are discussed, contracts signed or competitors kept out of earshot, nothing else does the job.
Put the room at the back, ideally next to the store. Full acoustic separation is not realistic, but a double wall and a door cut aisle noise noticeably.
Then there is the question of use. If the room is used twice a day over a four day show, those square metres were wasted. A half-enclosed niche or a table screened off is the smarter call. Looking at last year’s meeting records answers it before you decide.
Where should the meeting area sit?
Away from the entry, next to the store, with its back to the aisle. Meet those three conditions and conversations get longer on their own.
Can a counter replace a table?
For short exchanges, yes. But taking notes, opening a catalogue and handling samples are all awkward at a counter; technical products need a table.