By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 13 min read
Short answer
Plan 7–9 weeks for double-decker stalls and count them backwards from build-up day one. The lead time comes from the stand: a 3-week floor, plus 1 week once the stand passes 24 sq.m, plus 2 once it passes 54, plus 2 for premium finishes and 2 for a double-decker. Most of those weeks are not fabrication — they are approvals and artwork, which is why the single item that compresses a schedule is almost always print-ready artwork rather than the build. Seven to ten days is possible with a system build, stock finishes and no certification in the path.
Key takeaways
- Count backwards from the first build-up day, not from the opening of the show. Build-up often starts two or three days earlier.
- Seven to ten days is possible with a simplified scope. It is a different product, not a compressed version of the same one.
- A premium finish genuinely adds two weeks, because curing time cannot be shortened by adding crew.
- The critical path is brief, layout, specification, organiser approval, production, inspection, dispatch. Everything else can run alongside it.
- Lead time: 3 weeks base, +1 from 24 sq.m, +2 from 54 sq.m, +2 premium finish, +2 double-decker.
- Hold one buffer week between completion and dispatch, and refuse to spend it on an early change of mind.
Double-Decker Stalls: weeks, not guesses
Structurally certified two-storey stands with private meeting rooms upstairs and open display below.
Expect 7–9 weeks between the brief and the first build hour. That is a range because the stand sets the lead time, not the diary, and the formula behind it is published rather than improvised: a 3-week floor, plus 1 week once the stand passes 24 sq.m, plus 2 once it passes 54, plus 2 for premium finishes and 2 for a double-decker. Put your own numbers through it and the answer stops being a rule of thumb.
In practice: 3 weeks for a 12 sq.m system stand, 4 for a 36 sq.m custom build, 6 for the same stand in premium finishes, 5 at 54 sq.m, and 7 to 9 for a two-storey 72 sq.m stand. Treat eight weeks as the floor for anything that needs a structural certificate or an outside permission, since those queues belong to somebody else.
None of this counts the internal time: picking the show, freeing the budget, and settling who approves what. That stretch is frequently longer than the fabrication and almost never appears on a plan. Floor space itself goes three to six months earlier again, and the plot you secure then determines the brief you write later.
Week by week, working backwards
One row per milestone, with the thing it blocks beside it. The timings here are for a mid-size standard build, which the formula puts at 4 to 6 weeks — a larger or premium stand pushes every row earlier by exactly what the formula adds.
The useful question each week is not how much has been done. It is what is currently blocked, and by whom. The third column answers that, which makes this a dependency map rather than a to-do list.
| Time remaining | Milestone | What is waiting behind it |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Brief issued: goal, products, height limit, references, brand assets at print resolution | Concept work, which otherwise starts on assumptions and is later redone |
| 6 | Internal sign-off chain named: who approves, in what order, by when | Every approval date downstream, because an unnamed reviewer always appears late |
| 5 | Concept and layout approved by everyone who can reverse it, on one version number | 3D visualisation, costing and the technical drawing set |
| 4 | Structural and fire certification arranged wherever the design needs it | Clearance at the gate, and any two-storey or hanging element |
| 4 | Print-ready artwork released at final size with bleed | Every printed surface, which is most of what a visitor actually sees |
| 3 | Production released to the workshop; long-lead items ordered | Fabrication, finishing and the pre-dispatch date |
| 3 | Freight and storage booked, with the vehicle type matched to the load | Arrival at the venue, which sets your real number of build hours |
| 2 | AV, furniture, flooring and plants confirmed; crew and passes arranged | Delivery slots, which are allocated in the order they are requested |
| 2 | Staff roster, briefing notes and qualifying questions agreed | Lead quality, which is a training outcome rather than a design one |
| 1 | Transport booked, vehicle passes issued, unloading slot confirmed | Arrival time, and therefore the build hours you actually get |
| Build-up | Flooring, structure, electrical, graphics, cleaning, handover inspection | The handover, which then happens after doors have opened |
| Show day −1 | Staff briefed, stock placed, lead capture tested, snag list signed off | Day-one lead quality, which you do not get a second attempt at |
These columns describe the 4–6 week case. Every increment the formula adds moves each row earlier by the same amount, which is why a 9-week project has an entirely different shape rather than simply a longer version of this one.
Size, space and weeks, side by side
The relationship between area and weeks is not linear, and the table shows why. Storage is 10% of the plot to 18 sq.m and 15% beyond it, a meeting corner takes 5% unless you are genuinely hosting meetings, display is whatever is left, and staffing is area ÷ 9 with two as the floor.
The column people ignore is staffing, and it belongs next to lead time. At 9 sq.m you need 2 people and 3 weeks. At 100 sq.m you need a rostered team and 5 weeks before any upgrade — and getting a dozen people briefed to say the same thing takes as much lead time as the joinery does.
| Stall size | Display area | Storage | Staff | Visitors at once | Standard lead | Premium lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 sq.m | 7.6 sq.m | 0.9 sq.m | 2 | 3 | 3 weeks | 5 weeks |
| 12 sq.m | 10.2 sq.m | 1.2 sq.m | 2 | 4 | 3 weeks | 5 weeks |
| 18 sq.m | 15.3 sq.m | 1.8 sq.m | 2 | 6 | 3 weeks | 5 weeks |
| 24 sq.m | 19.2 sq.m | 3.6 sq.m | 3 | 7 | 4 weeks | 6 weeks |
| 36 sq.m | 28.8 sq.m | 5.4 sq.m | 4 | 11 | 4 weeks | 6 weeks |
| 54 sq.m | 43.2 sq.m | 8.1 sq.m | 6 | 17 | 5 weeks | 7 weeks |
Size alone gives the standard column. Finish and structure are separate increments — 2 weeks for premium, 2 for a double-decker — and they are additive, which is how a 5-week 72 sq.m stand becomes a 9-week one.
What has to be sequential, and what does not
A project this length is mostly waiting, and waiting can be used. Hire items, graphics, flooring, giveaways, travel and lead capture are all independent of the build. The sequence that genuinely cannot be compressed is short: brief, layout, specification, approval, release, fabrication, inspection, dispatch.
One task reliably drags everything else with it: final artwork. The printing is a matter of hours; the approval is a matter of weeks, because it sits with a team that does not know the fascia, the brand wall, the backlit panels and the counter graphics are all waiting for them. Organiser approval is the only close competitor.
Manage the chain, not the task list. Pull approval and artwork forward, let furniture, giveaways and travel drift, and accept that a slip on the spine is a slip of the whole project — because nothing sits between dispatch and the first build-up hour.
01
The chain that cannot overlap
Eight steps, strictly in order, each one genuinely waiting for the last: brief, layout, specification, approval, release, build, inspection, dispatch. The temptation is always to start the next one on an assumption, and the result is always paying for the same work twice.
02
Parallel — run these alongside
A surprising share of the project is independent of the build: artwork prep, hire items, flooring, plants, rosters, travel, invitations and lead capture. Push all of it into the waiting weeks and the final fortnight stops being crowded.
03
Order these before the design settles
LED panels and large screens, specialist lighting fixtures, imported fittings, structural steel for raised or two-storey elements, and anything that has to clear customs. What makes these long is availability during a busy show season rather than manufacturing time, so order early even if the design is still settling.
04
Fixed by somebody else — plan around them
You cannot negotiate with a submission deadline or an access window, and attempting to is how a fortnight disappears. Write these dates down first, then fit production inside what is left.
05
Artwork: the real bottleneck
Everything printed — and most of what a visitor looks at is printed — is downstream of one approval. Give that approval its own date, ahead of production release, and the rest of the critical path stops being fragile.
A buffer week you have already spent is not a buffer week.
Three stands, three different timelines
A 9 sq.m stand is a short project with a long wait inside it. The build is quick; the 3 weeks exist because an organiser has to stamp a drawing and a brand team has to sign off artwork. Treating it as too small to brief properly is the only reliable way to make it late.
The 72 sq.m double-decker is engineering before it is joinery: a staircase that needs certifying, a structural drawing reviewed separately by the organiser, loads checked against the hall's rating, 57.6 sq.m of display and 8 staff to brief. The formula says 7 to 9 weeks; plan eight or more, because the parts you cannot accelerate are the parts in the middle.
The difference that matters is not the number of weeks but what each week is for. On a small stand the weeks are a queue. On a large one they are genuine work in sequence — engineering, then approval, then fabrication of load-bearing elements, then a longer build-up that often needs night shifts to finish inside the organiser's window.
| Small: 9 sq.m | Mid: 36 sq.m | Large: 72 sq.m double-decker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead time, standard finish | 3 weeks | 4 weeks | 7 weeks |
| Display area | 7.6 sq.m | 28.8 sq.m | 57.6 sq.m |
| Storage allowance | 0.9 sq.m | 5.4 sq.m | 10.8 sq.m |
| Visitors inside at once | 3 | 11 | 23 |
| Extra approvals in the path | Fascia name and declared power load | Drawings, load and fire certificates | Structural certificate, staircase and floor loading |
| Where the time actually goes | Artwork and organiser approval | Fabrication and finishing | Engineering, approval and a longer build-up |
The difference between the standard and premium rows is drying and pressing time. It is the one part of a build that extra crew cannot shorten, which is why it appears as weeks rather than as cost.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
Where the weeks actually go missing
Nobody loses a month at once. They lose a week to an extra reviewer, a week to artwork, a week to a resubmission and a week to a delivery — and discover the total during build-up. All four are predictable if the dependencies are being watched.
Watch for sub-contracted builds with no quality control and non fire-retardant materials rejected at the venue. Neither shows up in a quote and both show up in a schedule, usually in the last fortnight when there is no time left to respond to them.
- Late arrival on site that eats into build-up time
- Hidden extras for electrical, carpet or dismantling
- Sub-contracted builds with no quality control
- Non fire-retardant materials rejected at the venue
- Scope added after sign-off — a second screen, a meeting room, a raised floor — each of which quietly re-opens approvals
- No buffer week, or a buffer week spent early on a change that could have waited
- Products or samples confirmed late, so the display they sit in cannot be dimensioned
- A show date that moves earlier while the brief, the approvals and the artwork deadline all stay where they were
- Artwork supplied at screen resolution or at the wrong dimensions, so everything printable restarts from the beginning
- Payment milestones lagging the production schedule, so finished work waits in a workshop over an invoice
- Site passes applied for after the venue's cut-off, which turns a crew into spectators for half a day
- Internal approval with more reviewers than the schedule assumed — each additional person who can say no is a week, not a day
The immovable dates in every programme
Fabrication weeks are the part of the schedule a workshop controls, and they are rarely what makes a project late. What makes it late are the dates belonging to somebody else: the organiser's submission deadline, the return of the stamped approval, the services order cut-off, build-up access hours and the dismantle window. None of those move because you have paid more, and a rejected drawing that needs resubmission costs a working week nobody planned for.
Put the external dates on the plan first, then fit your own around them. And where there is a submission involved, go early: a week of margin in front of an organiser deadline is the cheapest insurance in the project, because it is exactly what a rejection costs.
- The organiser's drawing submission deadline, which usually falls earlier than the build-up schedule suggests it should
- Venue labour rules, which decide whether your own crew may work or whether you must use the hall's
- The exhibitor badge and pass cut-off, after which your crew is a visitor rather than a contractor
- Rigging inspection slots, booked across every exhibitor who wants to hang something that week
- Freight and customs clearance on anything crossing a border, where the delay is administrative rather than logistical
- Build-up access hours, including whether night work is permitted and at what rate
- The dismantle and clearance window, with overstay charges attached to the far end of it
- Power, internet, water and compressed air orders — cheaper before the deadline, and occasionally unavailable after it
If your show is in 7 to 10 days
The urgent answer is yes, with conditions. Everything that takes time to decide or to dry comes out, and what is left is a system build with printed graphics assembled by a crew working extended hours. That is a legitimate product, and it is not the same product as a planned build.
An urgent fabrication job is decided by the stock list, not by the schedule. What exists in the workshop and in the city this week is what the stand can be made of. That is a real constraint rather than a sales line, and it is why the honest urgent answer always starts with a narrower set of materials.
Below ten days the limiting factor stops being the workshop and becomes the organiser. A stamped drawing approval, a rigging permission, a structural certificate or a services order cannot be accelerated by paying more. If your stand needs any of them, the urgent route is closed regardless of how fast anyone can build — which is why the first question on an urgent enquiry should be about the venue and the date, not about the design.
- Any raised platform, hanging structure or second storey that requires certification and separate approval
- LED walls and specialist AV, unless the exact specification happens to be uncommitted that week
- Premium finishes: veneer, PU paint and anything that needs a spray booth and curing time
- Choice of transport. You take the vehicle that is available, which sometimes means two trips rather than one
- Imported fittings and anything that has to clear customs, which no amount of urgency shortens
- A proper pre-build. You will inspect photographs, or you will inspect on site, and neither is as good as standing in front of it
- Custom joinery and bespoke forms — you build from what the system and the available stock can do, not from a blank page
- Rehearsal and test time, which is the first thing a compressed schedule eats and the last thing you should let it
Working backwards from your own date
Do this once, on paper, before anybody briefs a designer. It takes ten minutes and it is the difference between a schedule you are managing and a schedule that is managing you.
You are looking for five numbers on a calendar — first build hour, dispatch, production release, submission deadline, artwork due. Once those exist, every other task has somewhere to sit, and any request that breaks one of them is really a request to move the show.
01
1. Start at build-up day one
Not the first show day. Build-up frequently opens two or three days before doors, and your deadline is the first hour your crew can legally get into the hall. Confirm it from the organiser's exhibitor manual rather than from last year's memory.
02
2. Work out your own lead time
Take your own square metres and finish level through the formula rather than borrowing somebody else's answer. The result is a specific week, and that week is the one your brief has to be out in.
03
3. Put the submission date in first
Submission dates are published months ahead and they do not move. Put that date on the plan before anything else, and give yourself a week of margin in front of it for a resubmission you hope not to need.
04
4. Put artwork ahead of production release
Set the artwork date a week in front of production release and name the person responsible. Almost every schedule that holds has done this, and almost every one that collapses has not.
05
5. Do not spend the buffer early
Hold a week between planned completion and dispatch. Do not spend it on a change of mind in week two, because it is the week that absorbs a rejected drawing, a failed delivery or a material that turns out to be out of stock.
Send the dates and we will send the countdown
Send the show, the city, the build-up and show dates, the plot size and the open sides, plus a couple of references. Back comes a concept, an itemised scope and this countdown with your actual dates in it, normally inside two days.
We design free with every confirmed fabrication order, fabricate in our own workshops, handle the organiser drawings and approvals, and put one project manager on the job from brief to dismantle. A timeline only holds when one person owns every date on it, and that is the point of having a project manager rather than a supplier.
Frequently asked questions
Which tasks can slip without damaging the schedule?+
The ones nothing depends on: furniture selection, giveaways, plants, hotels and staff briefing material. Protect the spine instead — brief, layout, specification, approval, production release, inspection, dispatch.
What is the shortest time you can work with?+
Seven to ten days, with a simplified scope: a system or modular layout from stock, fabric or vinyl graphics, no curing finishes, and no element needing structural or rigging approval. Share the date and venue first, because feasibility depends on the organiser's deadlines as much as on production.
When should I book the floor space itself?+
Three to six months ahead for most shows. Corner and island plots are taken first, and the position you end up with changes the design brief — the number of open sides alone decides the layout, the lighting runs and how many staff you need.
Can you work to a date we have already missed?+
Sometimes. The first two questions are whether the organiser still accepts submissions and whether the stock exists in that city, and both can usually be answered within an hour of hearing the venue and the date.
What happens if the organiser rejects our drawing?+
You resubmit, and the round trip typically costs a working week. That is the main argument for submitting early rather than on the deadline, since a week of margin in front of the submission absorbs a rejection without touching production.
Can design and fabrication overlap?+
Only partly. Layout and specification have to close before production is released, or the workshop cuts material twice. What can overlap is everything outside the structure: graphics preparation, AV and furniture hire, flooring, logistics and staff planning all run alongside fabrication.
How much buffer should the plan carry?+
One week between planned completion and dispatch, left unspent. It exists for a rejected drawing, a failed delivery or a material that turns out to be unavailable, and a buffer spent on an early change of mind is not a buffer.
How long does a double-decker take?+
7 weeks at standard finish and 9 at premium by the formula. Plan on eight or more in practice, because a structural engineer's certificate and a separate organiser review of the two-storey drawing both sit on the critical path and neither can be accelerated.
Double-Decker Stalls near you
Our crews deliver double-decker stalls in every major Indian city.