By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 9 min read
Short answer
An exhibition lighting brief needs thirteen fields: company and brand, event and venue, build-up and show dates, stall area, number of open sides, height limit, one primary goal with a number attached, who you want to meet, what you are featuring, must-have zones, brand assets and references, budget range, and who approves by when. Fill all thirteen and you can compare quotes line for line. Leave any of them blank and the supplier has to assume — and an assumption is always priced for the worst case.
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.
- Area and open sides do more to the price than any design decision. 36 sq.m with two open sides and 36 sq.m inline are not the same job.
- Write "advise us" rather than deleting a field. A supplier cannot tell a deliberate no from an oversight, and prices the safer reading.
- 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.
This is why briefing well is a commercial skill rather than a creative one. Event managers, corporate communication teams and agencies running conferences, launches, dealer meets and public shows are the people it costs most, because they are the ones who have to defend a comparison internally. On exhibition lighting the figures move with show duration and number of event days, equipment size and specification (screen size, projector brightness or drone count) and content creation and programming time — none of which a supplier can know unless you write it down.
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 4 weeks for a stall this size. The brief is the cheapest week you will ever buy back.
A quote is mostly a statement about your brief, not about the supplier. Fix the variables and the numbers become comparable.
The fields, their reasons, and worked answers
This table is the template. The left column is what to write; the middle column is the reason a supplier asks, so you can judge for yourself whether an answer is good enough; the right column is a worked answer from a complete brief — food-processing equipment maker, selling to factory owners and QSR chains, working with 36 sq.m (6 × 6 m).
The middle column is the part worth arguing with. If you can see which decision a field feeds, you can tell whether your own answer is specific enough to be useful — and a field answered uselessly costs the same round trip as one left blank.
| 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 | This is the deadline everything is reverse-engineered from, including whether night-shift labour is needed | Build-up two days before; show three days; dismantle the final night |
| 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 20 live demonstrations a day and capture 150 scored leads |
| 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 | Factory owners, production managers and central-kitchen heads; largely walk-in |
| Products or messages to feature | Fixes the hero position and everything that has to support it — loading, power, cues, sightlines | A working depositor line, 140 kg, and three product samples kept chilled |
| 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 | ₹6–7 lakh, excluding venue charges and GST |
| Stall area in sq.m | It sets the price, the staff count and the build weeks before any design decision is made | 36 sq.m (6 × 6 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 | Two open sides, corner |
| Height limit and rigging rules | Decides what is legal before it decides what is possible, and whether an engineer has to sign anything | 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 | Live demo bay with drainage, a sampling counter, chilled storage, and a standing meeting table |
One page, filled in like this, is enough to produce a proposal and an itemised quote without a single clarifying question.
The template itself — copy, fill, send
Here is the blank form. Most lines are a word or a number. Fill it in once, send it unchanged to each supplier, and keep a copy, because it is also the document you will check the quote against at sign-off.
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.
- Company / brand, and what you sell:
- Event name, city and venue:
- Primary goal, with a number attached:
- Secondary goal, if any:
- What is being shown, demonstrated or revealed:
- 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:
- 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:
- Show dates and opening hours:
- Dismantle window:
- Stall area in sq.m, and dimensions if known:
- Number of open sides (1 inline, 2 corner, 3 three-side open, 4 island):
- Height limit, and whether rigging from the roof is allowed:
- Must-have zones (demo, meeting, storage, pantry, seating, reception):
- Whether elements need to be reusable at a later show:
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.
What is striking about a good brief is how little of it describes the result. The creative decisions are the supplier's to propose — the constraints, the outcomes and the contents are the parts only you know.
01
Who we are and who we sell to
We build food-processing equipment — depositors, sealers and conveying lines — and sell to factory owners, production managers and central kitchens for restaurant chains. Our buyers decide on what they can see running, so a static display is close to useless for us. We have exhibited at two regional food shows and want a stall that lets us run the line continuously.
02
The space we have been allotted
The space is 36 sq.m (6 × 6 m), two open sides, corner, per the allotment paperwork. Height limit 4 m, no roof rigging. Build-up opens two days before doors; the show is three days; the stand has to be cleared the last night. Manual and portal login are ready to hand over.
03
The job the stall has to do
The primary goal is throughput: run 20 live demonstrations a day and capture 150 scored leads across the show. Secondary is sampling, because a visitor who tastes the output stays twice as long. That needs a demo bay a small crowd can gather round without blocking the aisle, a surface that tolerates water and crumbs, and somewhere for the queue to stand that is inside our space rather than in the gangway.
04
What goes in it
What has to fit: a working depositor line, 140 kg, and three product samples kept chilled, along with literature, coats and bags for 4 staff, and a secure store so cartons never reach the display floor. Live demo bay with drainage, a sampling counter, chilled storage, and a standing meeting table. Tell us if any of that will not fit in 36 sq.m — we would rather know now than at concept stage.
05
What we intend to spend, and on what
Our band is ₹6–7 lakh for the stand, with space rent already paid separately to the organiser and GST on top. Priorities inside that: lighting first, the hero position second, structure last. We would also like to know which elements could come back for the next edition, and what holding them in storage costs.
06
The decision
Decision sits with our director and the production head jointly, and they are travelling for the next fortnight, so we need the concept in a form that can be reviewed on a phone. We are briefing two suppliers. Please quote line by line, and flag anything in the design that would need a power or water connection beyond the standard allotment.
The same brief, costed line by line
With every field answered, the quote is arithmetic rather than conversation. Here is what the brief above produces at 36 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 ₹6–7 lakh band the brief stated — which is what a budget range is for.
Look at the proportions rather than the figures. The structure is 51% of the total; graphics, lighting, flooring, furniture, transport and crew are the other 49%. A supplier quoting a lump sum can move money between those lines invisibly, which is exactly why the brief asks for itemisation.
| Structure and joinery (36 sq.m × ₹9,000) | ₹3,24,000 |
|---|---|
| Graphics — fabric brand wall, backlit panels and wayfinding | ₹86,000 |
| Lighting — track, product spots, backlit brand mark | ₹47,000 |
| Flooring — raised platform, carpet and concealed cabling | ₹38,000 |
| Furniture — demo counters, seating, display cases and store | ₹33,000 |
| Freight to the venue and back | ₹44,000 |
| Installation, supervision, show cover and clearance | ₹58,000 |
| Indicative total for the scope, before GST | ₹6,30,000 |
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.
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.
Worse, the assumption is invisible. You will not see "we allowed for the conservative case because you did not say" on the quote; you will just see a number that is higher than a competitor's, and you will conclude the competitor is cheaper when in fact they assumed the opposite.
| 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 |
| Who you want to reach | A broad, mixed audience | Sightlines and headline sizing pitched at the wrong reading distance |
| 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 |
| Stall area | Nothing can be assumed | Either no figure, or a per-unit rate that hides the real number |
| Height limit and rigging | The conservative limit | A design shorter and flatter than the organiser would have allowed |
| Product weights and power | Standard plinths and a domestic socket | On-site rework during build-up, at build-up prices |
| Must-have zones | Display only | Storage and meetings get added after sign-off, taking area from display |
| Finish level | Mid-band laminate | The stand is built as specified, and the specification was a word |
| Reuse intentions | A one-off build | A stand that cannot come back, so next year costs what this year did |
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.
A blank field is not neutral. It is a surcharge you chose without knowing you were choosing it.
The exhibition lighting-specific lines worth adding
The core fields apply to any stall or event scope. For exhibition lighting 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.
- Who is producing content, and whether it exists yet in the right aspect ratio
- 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 carry a spare — a second projector, a backup server, a redundant radio channel
- What has to be lockable or removed overnight, and who is responsible for securing it
Mistakes that make a brief unusable
Long briefs are not better briefs. The ones that work are short, numeric and specific about outcomes; the ones that fail are long, adjectival and specific about appearance. Below are the failures worth avoiding, in rough order of how much time each one costs.
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.
- Deleting fields that do not apply, so the supplier cannot tell "no" from "forgotten"
- A different, improved brief sent to each supplier, destroying comparability
- Asking for a "best price" instead of an itemised quote against a fixed scope
- Dates missing, so the schedule and any rush cost are both unknown
- Reference images with no explanation of what you liked in them
- Product weights and power requirements left out, so plinths get rebuilt on site
- Three goals of equal weight, which means the result has to compromise all three
- 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
- Describing a look instead of a job — adjectives in place of audience actions
What happens when you send it
Paste your filled brief into our enquiry form, or email it with your brand files and reference images attached. A complete brief comes back as a concept and an itemised quote, usually within 48 hours; an incomplete one comes back as questions, which costs you both a day.
Included in custom builds. What comes as standard: free design with a confirmed fabrication order, in-house production rather than a sub-contractor chain, the organiser paperwork prepared and filed for you, and a single accountable project manager from brief to dismantle.
- Energy-efficient LED fixtures
- RGB accent lighting
- Product spot lighting
- Backlit fabric and acrylic
Frequently asked questions
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 36 sq.m?+
The example here comes to ₹6,30,000 before GST at 36 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.
Does this template work for exhibition lighting as well as for a plain stall?+
The core is the same; the additions differ. An exhibition lighting brief needs a handful of further lines that change the quote materially, and they are listed on this page. They sound technical but each is a yes, a no or a number.
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.
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