Exhibition Stands - What's The Difference Between The Different Types

What type of exhibition stand is right for your purposes? What type of exhibition stands fit your budget? To find the answer you will need to be aware of the differences between the different types of stand available

This article explains what types of exhibition stands are available and gives a concise insight into how exhibitions are organised.

What type of stands are there?

Generally an organisation, be it an industry body, a trade publication or an individual or company will rent a hall or a number of halls at an exhibition venue. This 'Event Organiser' will be your point of contact or the point of contact for your contractor. The larger exhibitions may be at the NEC or EXCEL while smaller ones may be in large hotels, or regional exhibition centres such as the BIC in bournemouth or the Business Design Centre in London.

The Event Organiser will divide up the space available into stand spaces of varying sizes. Some of these areas will be intended to have a Shell Scheme defining them whereas other spaces will be sold as space only areas. All spaces are calculated using the meter as the standard unit of measurement. The stand areas are split up into meters or fractions thereof - for example 2.75m x 6.5m but the will tend to use units that will accommodate various systems for creating the exhibition stand structure.

The units will be priced depending on there square meterage and may also take into account the stands prominance within the hall and will also vary with the take up of space by exhibitors and how close the show date is getting; some organisers will give away space close to the opening date rather than having empty areas in the hall.

If you chose to have a shell scheme stand you will generally get a space that will have walls created using a system (most often Octonorm but can be one of a number of systems at smaller shows) and usually some kind of fascia panel that will have the company name and the stand identification number on it. The shell scheme stand will usually be carpeted with carpet tiles which may or may not be the same colour as the aisles.

If you opt for a space only you will be expected to carpet the area or otherwise create a floor that delineates your stand area. The type of stand that you choose to put on it may be of any of the types discussed in this article but whatever you decide remember, space only means exactly what is says - you are expected to supply, through you contractor or exhibition designer, everything needed to fill the hired space. Further, if your space is adjacent to another exhibitors space (i.e. not an "island site") the responsibility of providing an acceptable covering to the rear of the walls of adjacent stands; this generally only applies to the wall below a height of 2.5m - above that they are responsible for that finish.

The stand that you choose to fill this space may be one of the following

Custom Build Modular or System Portable

Custom Built stands are just what the name implies; they are designed and built to fulfill the customers brief for a particular show. They may be designed so that elements can be re-used in different configurations at other events but they are generally less re-usable than other types of stand. Walling is often constructed from panels which are framed

They are also much more impressive than other types of stand - they say something about the size and status of a company and can generally convey a much stronger image to the target audience. These benefits, however, come at a price. Design of the stand, although generally offered free of charge at the pitching stage, will be built in to the overall cost of the stand as will a management cost to pay for the organisation involved. Transport costs, labour costs and storage costs are all likely to be higher due to the complexities of construction and the potentially awkward sizes and shapes of the components.

Modular or System stands are created using standard components from one or a variety of manufacturers. These can be combined to construct multitudes of different stand configurations and with imaginative use of graphics can be difficult to tell apart from a custom built stand. Wall panels clip or bolt together, counters can be easily created and graphics incorporated as infill panels or velcroed over the system to hide and frames involved.

Because of the use of standard components, this type of stand offers the opportunity of hiring the stand rather than buying it outright apart from, of course, the graphics. It can also be much more easily adapted to multiple events in different configurations. The initial costs and the ongoing costs are generally less than a custom built stand.

Portable stands encompass such things as popup displays, bannerstands, pole and panel systems, folding display kits and other such smaller systems that can generally be delivered and erected on the day of the event. They are often used within a shell scheme stand in order to brand the otherwise generic space.