By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 9 min read
Short answer
Thirteen fields make an eco-friendly stalls brief quotable: what you sell, which show and venue, the build-up and show dates, the area in square metres, the number of open sides, the height and rigging limit, one primary goal with a number in it, the buyer you want to meet, the products or messages to feature, the zones you cannot do without, your brand files and references, a budget range, and the approver with a date. Anything missing becomes an assumption, and assumptions are priced defensively.
Key takeaways
- Send the identical brief to every supplier. Quotes are only comparable if they answer the same question.
- 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.
- Share the budget as a range. A supplier who does not know the band will either over-design and lose your week, or under-design and lose the show.
- Write "advise us" rather than deleting a field. A supplier cannot tell a deliberate no from an oversight, and prices the safer reading.
- Attach the exhibitor manual. Its rules on height, rigging and materials decide what can be drawn at all.
- Give product weights and power requirements. Without them plinths and sockets are sized by assumption and rebuilt on site.
Why the brief, not the supplier, decides the quote
A spread of quotes is usually read as a spread of competence. It is far more often a spread of guesses. Fix the dimensions, the dates, the specification and the outcome and competent suppliers converge; leave those open and each one fills the blanks differently, which is exactly what produces three prices that cannot be reconciled.
That matters commercially. Marketing heads, brand managers and event agencies who need a stall concept that is approved quickly and builds exactly as rendered, and the complaint that follows a bad procurement round is almost always the same: the quotes were not comparable. They were not comparable because the brief did not fix the variables. For eco-friendly stalls the variables that move the price most are number of concept options and revision rounds, depth of 3D work (stills, 360° views or walkthrough video) and technical drawing detail required by the organiser — and all of them are things only you can state.
The second reason to write it down is time. A brief with every field answered produces a concept and an itemised quote inside 48 hours. A brief with four fields missing produces a clarification email, a reply two days later, a second clarification, and a concept in week two — out of a lead time that was already 3 weeks for a stall this size. The brief is the cheapest week you will ever buy back.
A supplier cannot leave a gap unpriced. Every blank field becomes an assumption, and the safe assumption is the expensive one.
Every field, why it is asked, and a filled example
Below is the whole template in one grid: the field, why it is asked, and how a complete brief answers it. The worked column follows a single exhibitor throughout — industrial pump manufacturer, selling to plant engineers and EPC contractors, with 18 sq.m (6 × 3 m) — so the answers hang together rather than being a dozen unrelated examples.
Use the middle column as a test. An answer that would not let you make the decision described is not yet an answer. That is the difference between a brief that produces a proposal and one that produces a question.
| Field | Why it is asked | Example answer |
|---|---|---|
| Event name, city, venue and hall | Determines freight, crew availability and the rules the design has to satisfy | Three-day B2B industry show; hall and stall number as per the allotment letter |
| Build-up, show and dismantle dates | Every other date in the project is calculated backwards from this one | Build-up two days before; show three days; dismantle the final night |
| One primary goal, with a number | This is the sentence the design is a solution to. Without it the work optimises for looking finished | Book 40 qualified distributor meetings across three days |
| Who you want to reach | Sets how open or how focused the whole thing has to be, and from how far away it must read | Plant maintenance heads and procurement managers; mostly pre-booked, some walk-in |
| Products or messages to feature | Fixes the hero position and everything that has to support it — loading, power, cues, sightlines | Two pumps, the larger at 180 kg, plus a cutaway section model |
| Brand assets and references | Print-ready files decide whether graphics can be produced at all; references tell the designer what you mean by words like "premium" | Logo in vector, brand guidelines, product photography; three reference images with a line on each |
| Approvers and decision date | Tells the supplier how many revision rounds to plan for and whether your dates are realistic | Marketing head approves; sign-off within five working days of the concept |
| Stall area in sq.m | It sets the price, the staff count and the build weeks before any design decision is made | 18 sq.m (6 × 3 m) |
| Number of open sides | Changes the cost per square metre more than any design choice, because it changes how many faces have to be finished | One open side, inline |
| Height limit and rigging rules | Fixes whether a hanging banner, a brand tower or a second storey is even allowed, and whether the organiser needs structural calculations | 4 m maximum; no rigging from the hall roof permitted |
| Must-have zones | Each zone is subtracted from display area, so listing them is how you find out whether the space works | Demo counter, closed two-seat meeting corner, lockable store for literature and bags |
Keep every heading even where the answer is "none" or "advise us". A deleted line reads as an oversight, and an oversight gets priced defensively.
The blank version, ready to paste
Paste the block below into an email or a document and fill it in. Keep the headings exactly as they are and send the identical text to every supplier you are approaching, because the moment one of them receives extra detail the comparison is worthless.
Do not describe the references, attach them — and annotate them. An unannotated image is ambiguous: the designer cannot tell whether you liked the shape, the lighting, the colour or the fact that it was busy in the photograph.
- Company / brand, and what you sell:
- 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):
- Reference images attached, with a line on what you liked about each:
- Budget range, and what it excludes:
- Who approves, and by when:
- 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:
- Stall / stand number, as allotted:
- Build-up dates and hours:
- Show dates and opening hours:
- Dismantle window:
- Stall area in sq.m, and dimensions if known:
The same brief, written out properly
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
Who we are and who we sell to
We manufacture industrial pumps and sell to plant engineers, maintenance heads and EPC contractors. Our buyers are technical, they arrive with a shortlist, and they want to see a cutaway and ask about service intervals rather than read a tagline. We have exhibited twice before with a shell-scheme upgrade, so this is our first custom stall and our first time at this size.
02
The space
18 sq.m (6 × 3 m), one open side, inline, as per the allotment letter. Maximum height 4 m with no rigging permitted from the hall roof. Build-up is two days before opening, the show runs three days, and the organiser's dismantle window is the final night. We will share the exhibitor manual and our organiser portal login with the appointed supplier.
03
The job the stall has to do
One primary goal: book 40 qualified distributor meetings across the three days. Secondary: have the cutaway model photographed well enough to use the images for the next twelve months. That means a closed two-seat corner where a contract conversation is possible without shouting, a demo counter that works standing up, and a clear path from the aisle to the hero product that does not pass our own team first.
04
Contents, weights and storage
Two pumps, the larger at 180 kg, plus a cutaway section model. Literature for about 400 visitors, bags and jackets for 2 staff, and a small lockable store, because we do not want stock on the display floor. Demo counter, closed two-seat meeting corner, lockable store for literature and bags. Nothing above 4 m, and we would rather not have a raised platform if it means a step our visitors have to cross.
05
The money
Budget: ₹3–4 lakh, covering the stand only — space rent is settled with the organiser and GST is extra. If the figure comes back high we would sooner cut structure than cut lighting. Please also flag what is reusable, since there is another show on the calendar inside twelve months.
06
Approval, timing and who else is quoting
Our marketing head approves, with one technical reviewer from the product team. We can turn a concept around in five working days, and we are approaching three suppliers with this identical brief. We need an itemised quote — structure, graphics, lighting, flooring, furniture, transport, installation, dismantle and taxes on separate lines — not a single figure.
What that brief turns into
With every field answered, the quote is arithmetic rather than conversation. Here is what the brief above produces at 18 sq.m: the structure at the bottom of the published ₹9,000–₹18,000 per sq.m band, then each additional scope on its own line. It comes out inside the ₹3–4 lakh band the brief stated — which is what a budget range is for.
What to take from this is the split, not the number. 48% is the build; the remaining 52% is graphics, lighting, flooring, furniture, freight and crew. Within a lump sum those six lines are invisible and interchangeable, so a brief that asks for itemisation is asking for the only thing that makes two quotes legible.
| Structure, joinery and platform (18 sq.m at ₹9,000 per sq.m) | ₹1,62,000 |
|---|---|
| Graphics — fabric brand wall and product panels | ₹48,000 |
| Lighting — track and spots on the hero position | ₹26,000 |
| Flooring, carpet and cable management | ₹21,000 |
| Furniture — reception counter, seating and a lockable store | ₹19,000 |
| Freight to the venue and back | ₹29,000 |
| Installation, crew, supervision and dismantle | ₹35,000 |
| Indicative total, before GST | ₹3,40,000 |
Illustrative. The structure sits at the bottom of the published ₹9,000–₹18,000 per sq.m band; space rent and GST are outside the figure entirely. Finish level, city, build-up hours and AV all move it, which is why the brief exists.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
The cost of a blank field
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 | Work that presents well and achieves nothing in particular |
| Who you want to reach | A broad, mixed audience | A broadcast solution when you needed an intimate one, or the reverse |
| Budget range | Mid-band, or the top of it | A wasted revision round in one direction or the other |
| 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 |
| Stall area | Nothing can be assumed | Either no figure, or a per-unit rate that hides the real number |
| Number of open sides | Usually the worst case — more finished faces | Priced for more structure, graphics and lighting than you need |
| Height limit and rigging | The conservative limit | A design shorter and flatter than the organiser would have allowed |
| Finish level | Mid-band laminate | You get a defensible finish rather than the one in your head |
| Reuse intentions | A one-off build | Fixed panels instead of a frame, and no second-show saving |
Every row here is a reasonable response to missing information. That is the point: the cost is not caused by the supplier, and it cannot be negotiated away afterwards.
Suppliers do not punish vague briefs. They price them safely, which amounts to the same thing.
Extra lines to add for eco-friendly stalls
The core fields apply to any stall or event scope. For eco-friendly stalls 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.
Where you have no view, say "advise us" — a supplier will happily recommend, and will price the recommendation. What they cannot do is price a blank.
- How many concept options you want to see, and how many revision rounds you expect
- Whether you need stills only, 360° views, or a walkthrough video for internal approval
- Whether the design has to be submitted to the organiser, and in what format
- Whether fabrication will be awarded to the same partner or tendered separately
- Whether the layout has to work at more than one stall size this year
Mistakes that make a brief unusable
There is no correlation between the length of a brief and its usefulness. The effective ones are short and full of numbers; the ineffective ones are long and full of adjectives. The list below collects the ways briefs fail, roughly ordered by cost.
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 second worst is a different brief to each supplier. It feels efficient to add detail as you learn what to ask. It guarantees that the quotes you receive cannot be compared, and you will end up choosing on the basis of presentation rather than scope.
- Three goals of equal weight, which means the result has to compromise all three
- Five pages of company background and no single sentence about the outcome
- No named approver, so revision rounds expand until production is squeezed
- No budget range, which produces either an unaffordable concept or an under-designed one
- A different, improved brief sent to each supplier, destroying comparability
- Dates missing, so the schedule and any rush cost are both unknown
- Asking for a "best price" instead of an itemised quote against a fixed scope
- Product weights and power requirements left out, so plinths get rebuilt on site
- Not sending the exhibitor manual, which contains the rules the design has to obey
- Reference images with no explanation of what you liked in them
What happens when you send it
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.
Comparable to custom builds; lower over repeat use. Design is free with a confirmed fabrication order, production happens in our own workshops, organiser submissions are ours to prepare and file, and one named project manager owns the job from the brief through to clearing the site. Tight dates are better declared than discovered.
- Fabric instead of flex
- Reusable frames
- Lower waste to landfill
- Bamboo and recycled boards
Frequently asked questions
How long should the brief be?+
Short enough to read in two minutes. The useful brief is a list of answers, not an essay: the scope, the dates, the goal, the money, the contents, the approver. Company background can be one sentence; everything a supplier needs in order to quote fits on a single page.
Should I send the same brief to every supplier?+
Send the identical text, word for word. The moment one supplier has extra detail, the quotes stop being comparable and you are choosing on presentation instead of scope. Add any new detail to all of them at once.
What if I do not know the answer to a field?+
Say so explicitly. "Advise us" is a useful instruction and will get you a recommendation; a missing line gets you an assumption, and assumptions are priced for the worst case. Keep every heading in the document even when the answer is "none".
Why does the number of open sides matter so much?+
Because it changes how much of the stall has to be built, not just how it looks. One open side means one face to finish and a back wall you can hang graphics and storage on; four means four finished faces, four lighting runs, nowhere to hide cartons and more people needed to cover the perimeter.
What does a brief like this cost to deliver at 18 sq.m?+
The example here comes to ₹3,40,000 before GST at 18 sq.m, with the structure at the bottom of the published ₹9,000–₹18,000 per sq.m band and everything else — graphics, lighting, flooring, furniture, freight, crew — on its own line. Space rent and tax sit outside that figure.
How quickly will I get a concept back?+
A complete brief usually returns a concept and an itemised quote within 48 hours. An incomplete one returns a clarification email instead, and that exchange typically adds two days at the front of a schedule that is rarely generous.
Do I need to specify finishes and materials in the brief?+
Describe the level, not the product code. "Laminate on the walls, spray finish on the curved element, fabric for the brand wall" is a useful brief; naming a specific laminate is the supplier's job in the finish schedule. Insist on that schedule before approving anything.
Should I write the brief before or after booking the space?+
Ideally before, because the goal should decide how much area you take and how many open sides you want. In practice most briefs follow the booking, in which case write down the area and open sides you actually have and design against them rather than around them.
Who should write the brief internally?+
Whoever will own the approval. The common failure is a brief written by marketing without sales, or by sales without the people who have to get the product to the venue, and the gaps surface as change requests after sign-off. Collect the comments first, publish one brief.
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