Tear-down night: who packs what

1–10 days

build time, against which tear-down is a fraction

Stand types

Installation and dismantling included

the site work covered by the unit price

Exhibition stand costs

Three jobs, one night

The moment the fair closes the hall becomes a different place. Carpet lifts, forklifts come into the gangways, a queue forms at the goods lift. The only way to work in that is to have fixed the order beforehand and to have everyone start their own part in the same minute.

The strike crew has to be in the hall before the fair closes. Once the closing announcement goes out the gangways fill within minutes and a crew arriving from outside cannot get in. They wait beside the stand through the last hour and start the moment the visitors are clear; half an hour lost at the start comes back doubled by the end of the night.

The first hour belongs to the exhibitor: products, samples, leftover catalogues, hospitality stock, laptops and paperwork. While company property is still on the stand, the stand does not come down. Then graphics and lighting come off; they are fragile, and being fitted last they come off first.

Third comes the structure. Walls, ceiling elements and the platform are stripped in that order. The floor lifts last, because people are still working on it. The build logic runs in reverse, but the step count does not shrink; it is simply compressed into one night.

What returns and what is scrapped

Not everything comes back. Single-use cladding, panels cut for one show and worn carpet usually stay in the hall. What does return is labelled and entered into the inventory; an unlabelled part cannot be found in store, and a part that cannot be found gets remade for the next fair.

Where the products go belongs on the list too. Some return to the company, some are delivered to a customer in the region, some are left as samples. The paperwork differs for all three, and abroad in particular the customs treatment of anything not coming back has to be planned before the show.

Making that split on the night is hard, because whoever has to decide is tired and it is late. The workable method is to prepare the list before the show: which elements are candidates for the next fair and which were specific to this one. On site the list is executed, not debated.

Waste separation follows the venue rules too. Timber, metal, carpet and cardboard are collected separately, and material left unsorted can attract a charge. The storage side of the decision is set out by type on the stand types page.

Keeping the packaging

The crates, foam and lids that come off during the build have to live somewhere for the duration. The easiest place is the stand store; without one, the venue’s empties storage service is used, and that is a chargeable service ordered in advance.

Reducing the volume of packaging is a strategy in itself. Collapsible cases instead of fixed crates cut the space that has to be stored through the show considerably. They cost more to buy, but they hand that back on every fair through lower storage and handling charges.

Lost packaging doubles the tear-down. A panel carried without its crate gets scratched, and a scratched panel does not go to the next fair. So packaging is numbered like part of the stand: each crate is marked with its contents and the section it belongs to.

Share the packaging plan with the exhibitor too. Product boxes usually end up in the same store, and at close of play two teams work through the same pile. A numbered system ends that and hands back the first half hour of the night.

How long does tear-down take?

Well under the build; on most stands, one night. Hall traffic decides the duration more than stand size does.

Can the stand crew pack the products?

They can, provided the responsibility is written down. For valuable or delicate items, having the exhibitor’s own staff present is better.