By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 9 min read
Short answer
A conference setups brief needs thirteen fields: company and what you sell, event and venue, load-in and show dates, the surface or screen dimensions, show times and repeats per day, available power and rigging points, one primary goal with a number attached, who you want to reach, what is being shown, who is producing the content and in what format, what has to carry a spare, budget range, and who approves by when. Fill them all and you can compare quotes line for line. Leave any blank and the supplier has to assume — and an assumption is always priced for the worst case.
Key takeaways
- State one primary goal with a number attached. "Build brand awareness" and "book 40 distributor meetings" produce two completely different results at the same cost.
- Every blank field becomes an assumption, and every assumption is priced for the worst case. That is the whole argument for filling it in.
- Write "advise us" rather than deleting a field. A supplier cannot tell a deliberate no from an oversight, and prices the safer reading.
- Share the venue's power, rigging points and curfew. They decide what is physically possible before anyone discusses what would look good.
- Say who is producing the content, in what format, and by when. It is the longest-lead item on most AV scopes.
- Name the approver and the decision date. The real timeline is usually your sign-off chain, not the workshop.
What a good brief is actually worth
Most exhibitors believe a quote is a statement about a supplier. It is mostly a statement about a brief. Given the dimensions, the dates, the specification and the outcome, any competent supplier arrives at a similar number; given "we need something impressive for the event next month", three will return three unrelated figures, and the gap between them is not skill — it is the different assumptions each one made to fill your gaps.
The practical consequence is a procurement problem. Event managers, corporate communication teams and agencies running conferences, launches, dealer meets and public shows tend to discover it at the comparison stage, when three figures refuse to line up. For a conference setups scope the price is driven mainly by show duration and number of event days, equipment size and specification (screen size, projector brightness or drone count) and content creation and programming time, and every one of those is information that lives with you rather than with the supplier.
The other return is calendar time, and it is larger than people expect. Complete brief: a proposal and an itemised quote in about two days. Incomplete brief: a question, a two-day wait, another question, and a proposal in the second week — from a schedule that still needs content made and a rehearsal run. Twenty minutes of writing buys back most of a week.
A supplier cannot leave a gap unpriced. Every blank field becomes an assumption, and the safe assumption is the expensive one.
What to write, and why anyone wants to know
Read this as the template itself rather than as advice about one. Each row names a field, explains what decision it feeds, and shows a usable answer. The example column belongs to one organisation — pharmaceutical company, running a three-day medical conference — and the same brief is written out in full further down.
Read the middle column carefully. Every one of those reasons connects to a decision somebody has to make within the next few days, which is why vague answers do not simply produce vague results — they produce delayed ones.
| Field | Why it is asked | Example answer |
|---|---|---|
| Event name, city and venue | Determines freight, crew availability and the rules the design has to satisfy | Annual partner conference, hotel ballroom; venue confirmed |
| Load-in, rehearsal and show dates | Every other date in the project is calculated backwards from this one | Load-in and rehearsal the day before; show as per the run order |
| One primary goal, with a number | Decides the whole approach. The same budget spent on reach and spent on depth produce completely different work | Run 40 sessions across three days with no technical downtime and recordings of every one |
| Who you want to reach | Determines sightlines, reading distances and how much of the scope is intimate versus broadcast | Practising clinicians and hospital department heads; 600 delegates |
| What is being shown or revealed | Fixes the hero position and everything that has to support it — loading, power, cues, sightlines | Main-stage presentations with slides and video, plus two breakout rooms |
| Brand assets and references | Artwork you own the rights to, at final size — plus three images that replace a page of adjectives | Logo in vector, brand guidelines, product photography; three reference images with a line on each |
| Budget range | Without it the first concept lands above or below your band and a revision round is wasted | ₹7–8 lakh, excluding venue charges and GST |
| Surface, screen or room dimensions | Everything downstream is sized from this: how many projectors or panels, and what processing they need | a launch set with a reveal mechanism and a 6 × 3 m LED backdrop |
| Show times and repeats per day | Sets the crew bill, which on a short show is often larger than the hardware bill | One press evening, one rehearsal, 400 guests |
| Available power and rigging points | Determines what can physically be hung and powered at that position, and whether a generator or distribution board is needed | To be confirmed on a site visit; venue curfew applies |
| Content: who makes it, and in what format | Content is the longest-lead item on most AV scopes, and the wrong aspect ratio cannot be fixed on the night | We produce it; confirm format, resolution and the last acceptable delivery date |
If a field genuinely does not apply, write "not applicable" rather than deleting the line — a supplier reading a shortened brief cannot tell the difference between "no" and "forgotten".
The template itself — copy, fill, send
Copy this into whatever you write in. Leave the headings alone — they are what makes two replies comparable — and send the same text to everyone on your list. Improving the brief between suppliers is the quickest way to end up unable to choose between them.
Send brand files and references as attachments, with a sentence on each image saying what you liked. "This layout but not this palette" tells a designer more than three paragraphs of description, and it takes ten seconds to write.
- Who buys from you, and who you want to reach at this event:
- Event name, city and venue:
- Primary goal, with a number attached:
- Secondary goal, if any:
- What is being shown, demonstrated or revealed:
- Elements you do not want:
- Brand assets attached (logo, guidelines, product photography):
- Budget range, and what it excludes:
- How many suppliers you are briefing:
- Anything the venue or organiser restricts that we should know about:
- Whether you need the quote itemised, and in what format:
- Room, stage or surface dimensions:
- Load-in date and available hours:
- Rehearsal slot, and who will attend it:
- Show dates, running times and repeats per day:
- Available power at the position, and rigging points:
- Content: who is producing it, in what format, by when:
- Who calls the cues on the day:
- What must carry a spare (projector, server, radio channel):
A complete brief, in full sentences
Fields in a table can still be answered uselessly. Below is the same brief written as a supplier would want to read it — six short paragraphs, each answering a group of fields with something specific enough to work from.
Notice how little of it is about appearance. Appearance is the one thing a supplier can propose; everything else has to come from you.
01
Context
We host a clinical conference each year for about 600 delegates, with a main stage and two breakout rooms running in parallel. Speakers are practising clinicians who arrive with their own slides, often on the morning of their session, and some present remotely. Last year we lost most of a session to a laptop that would not connect.
02
Venue, power and show times
The scope is a launch set with a reveal mechanism and a 6 × 3 m LED backdrop, one press evening, one rehearsal, 400 guests. We will confirm the venue's available power and rigging points with you on a site visit, and the venue applies a curfew we have to work inside. Load-in is the day before, with the rehearsal that evening.
03
The outcome, with a number on it
The primary goal is reliability: 40 sessions over three days with no technical downtime, and a usable recording of every one for our education portal. Secondary is speaker comfort — confidence monitors and a clear countdown, because our speakers are not professional presenters. We would rather spend on redundancy and a technician in every room than on a larger screen.
04
Content, cues and non-negotiables
On the night: main-stage presentations with slides and video, plus two breakout rooms. The must-haves are main stage with confidence monitors, two breakout setups, recording of every session, and a technician per room. We will deliver content in whatever format you specify; what we need back from you is the cut-off date for final files and a view on what to do if one arrives late.
05
Budget and priorities
₹7–8 lakh for the technical scope, excluding venue charges and GST. We would rather spend on redundancy and crew than on a larger screen. Please cost content, hardware, crew and rehearsal as separate lines so we can see the trade-offs.
06
The decision
Our conference committee approves, which meets weekly, so build a week of decision latency into any schedule you propose. We are briefing three suppliers. Please be explicit about what carries a spare, what happens if a speaker arrives with an incompatible laptop, and who is in the room during each session.
From brief to itemised quote
With every field answered, the proposal is arithmetic rather than conversation. Here is what the brief above produces for a launch set with a reveal mechanism and a 6 × 3 m LED backdrop, one press evening, one rehearsal, 400 guests, with each element on its own line. Quoted per event. The example sits inside the ₹7–8 lakh band the brief named — which is what a budget range is for.
Look at the proportions rather than the figures. The set fabrication line is 37% of the total; the remaining 63% is content, rigging, power, crew, rehearsal and freight. Crew and rehearsal are the lines exhibitors most often try to cut and most often regret cutting, because they are what make a show run rather than merely exist.
| Set fabrication, reveal mechanism and finishes | ₹2,85,000 |
|---|---|
| LED backdrop and video processing | ₹1,65,000 |
| Lighting — fixtures, control and the reveal cue | ₹88,000 |
| Audio — PA, playback and radio microphones | ₹62,000 |
| Crew, technicians and show-calling | ₹76,000 |
| Content, programming and rehearsal | ₹44,000 |
| Freight to the venue and back | ₹50,000 |
| Indicative total for the scope, before GST | ₹7,70,000 |
Illustrative. A reveal mechanism, the backdrop specification and the amount of rehearsal time are what actually move this figure, and all three come from your brief. Venue charges and GST are separate.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
What happens to your quote when a field is blank
Here is the argument for the twenty minutes. A gap in a brief is not a gap in a quote; the supplier has to put a number against it either way. Guessing low exposes them, so they guess safe, and safe is more expensive. You pay for every field you did not fill in.
The invisibility is what makes it expensive. Assumptions are never itemised, so two quotes built on opposite guesses look like a straightforward price difference — and the one that guessed your way is indistinguishable from the one that is genuinely cheaper.
| Field left blank | What the supplier has to assume | What it does to the quote |
|---|---|---|
| Primary goal | A general-purpose approach | Budget spent on looking impressive rather than on the one thing you came to do |
| Dates and times | A comfortable schedule | Night-shift and rush charges surface after the order rather than inside the price |
| Budget range | Mid-band, or the top of it | Either a concept you cannot afford — a lost week — or one that under-delivers |
| Brand files | Artwork will be supplied later | The longest-lead item starts last, which is where shows are lost |
| Approvers and decision date | One reviewer, fast turnaround | Two rounds become four and the workshop or prep bay starts late |
| Surface or screen dimensions | Nothing can be assumed | Either no figure, or a day rate that tells you nothing about the total |
| Available power and rigging | The conservative case | Either an unnecessary power line, or a rig the venue will refuse |
| Content format and delivery date | Content arrives in good time | Programming and rehearsal both compress, and rehearsal is what makes a show run |
| Redundancy requirements | No spares | A single point of failure between you and a dark screen |
| Who calls the cues | The supplier will | No rehearsal with the person actually triggering the show |
None of these assumptions is a supplier behaving badly. Each is the only rational response to a gap. The fix is on your side of the table and takes twenty minutes.
You will never see "we assumed the worst case" on a quote. You will only see a number that looks expensive.
What a conference setups brief needs beyond the basics
The core fields apply to any stall or event scope. For conference setups there are a handful of additional lines that change the quote materially, and they are the ones most often left out because they sound technical. They are not — each one is a yes, a no or a number.
"Advise us" is a legitimate answer to any of these and will get you a recommendation with a number attached. Leaving the line out gets you an assumption instead.
- Screen size and pixel pitch, or projection surface dimensions and ambient light level
- How many times the show repeats per day, and the total number of event days
- Available power at the position, rigging points, and the venue's noise and curfew limits
- Whether a technician is needed through show hours, and when the rehearsal can happen
- What has to be lockable or removed overnight, and who is responsible for securing it
How briefs go wrong
A brief fails in predictable ways, and almost none of them are about effort — plenty of unusable briefs are five pages long. What distinguishes the usable ones is numbers and outcomes rather than description.
Top of the list is describing the look rather than the job. Adjectives do not constrain anything, which is why every supplier can agree to them and still produce something you did not want. Name the behaviour instead: what should someone do, and where should they be standing when they do it?
The other expensive habit is sending a slightly better brief to each successive supplier. The result is a set of quotes answering different questions, and a decision made on the quality of the presentation rather than the scope behind it.
- Not sharing the venue's power, rigging and curfew limits, which decide what is possible
- Three goals of equal weight, which means the result has to compromise all three
- No word on content — who makes it, in what format, by when
- Reference images with no explanation of what you liked in them
- No named approver, so revision rounds expand until production is squeezed
- Asking for a "best price" instead of an itemised quote against a fixed scope
- No surface, screen or room dimensions, which makes the quote arithmetic impossible
- Dates missing, so the schedule and any rush cost are both unknown
- No budget range, which produces either an unaffordable concept or an under-designed one
- Five pages of company background and no single sentence about the outcome
Send it, and what comes back
Email it or paste it into the enquiry form, attachments included. What comes back is a concept and an itemised quote, normally inside 48 hours, plus an honest view on whether your dates are workable — which is worth more than the price if the event is close.
Quoted per event. We design free with every confirmed fabrication order, build in our own workshops, prepare and file the organiser drawings, and put one named project manager on the job from brief to dismantle. If your dates are tighter than the brief suggests is comfortable, say so in the brief and we will tell you honestly what is achievable.
- AV and recording
- Stage and podium
- Registration desks
- Hall branding
Frequently asked questions
How long should the brief be?+
One page. Around twenty lines, most of them one-word or one-number answers, with brand files and three annotated reference images attached separately. Length is not depth — a five-page brief with no dimensions, dates or budget in it is less useful than four lines that have all three.
What if I do not know the answer to a field?+
Write "advise us" or "not applicable" rather than deleting the line. A supplier reading a shortened brief cannot tell the difference between a deliberate no and an oversight, and will assume the version that is safer to price — which is the more expensive one.
Why do show times and repeats matter so much?+
Because crew is often the largest line on a short show. Hardware is hired for a period, but technicians and operators are paid by the day, and a setup that runs four times a night for two nights needs a different crew plan from one that runs once. It also decides whether equipment can be reset between runs or has to hold its state.
What does a scope like this cost?+
₹7,70,000 before GST, for the illustrative scope on this page. That figure is there to show where the money sits — set fabrication is 37% of it — rather than to price your event, because conference setups is quoted per show against the specification in your brief. Quoted per event.
How quickly will I get a concept back?+
Within about two days, if the brief is complete. The delay in practice is never the drawing; it is the round trip of questions a half-filled brief generates — and that round trip happens at the start of the project, where you can least afford it.
Do I need to specify equipment in the brief?+
No. Specify the constraints and the outcome — surface or screen size, ambient light, audience size, show times, what must not fail — and let the supplier propose projector counts, pixel pitch and fixture lists in an equipment schedule. Over-specified kit is the commonest line of waste on an AV quote.
Should I brief before or after confirming the venue?+
After confirming the venue if you can, because available power, rigging points and curfew decide what is possible and they are properties of the room. If the venue is not yet fixed, brief against the two or three you are considering and ask what each one rules out.
Does this template work for conference setups as well as for a plain stall?+
Yes — the core fields apply to any scope. For conference setups add the extra lines on this page, which cover the variables specific to this kind of work: screen size and pixel pitch, or projection surface dimensions and ambient light level, how many times the show repeats per day, and the total number of event days and who is producing content, and whether it exists yet in the right aspect ratio.
Who should write the brief internally?+
One person, with input from everyone who will later have an opinion. The brief is also the document that resolves internal disagreement before it reaches a supplier — which is cheaper than resolving it across two revision rounds and a redesign.
Conference Setups near you
Our crews deliver conference setups in every major Indian city.