By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 9 min read
Short answer
From first enquiry to an empty hall, a double-decker stalls project has ten stages: brief, concept, two revision rounds, design freeze with an itemised quote, organiser submission, production, dry build and dispatch, build-up and handover, show-day support, then strike and clearance. Lead time follows a formula — 3 weeks base, +1 from 24 sq.m, +2 from 54 sq.m, +2 for a premium finish, +2 for a double-decker — so you can check a promised date against arithmetic.
Key takeaways
- Lead time is 3 weeks for a stall under 24 sq.m, 4 weeks from 24 sq.m and 5 weeks from 54 sq.m, plus 2 weeks for a premium finish and 2 more for a double-decker.
- Your approval is on the drawing set and the materials schedule, not on the render. The render is the sales tool; the drawing is what anyone can be held to.
- Consolidate every stakeholder's comments into one reply per round. Serial feedback from five people is the commonest cause of a compressed build.
- Send the exhibitor manual with the brief rather than after the design — its rules decide what is drawable in the first place.
- Artwork is urgent, not important-later. Printing runs last in production, so late files land on the most visible part of the stand.
- Ask for a written storage inventory after the show. It is the document that makes the second edition cost a fraction of the first.
From enquiry to empty hall: the whole sequence
Structurally certified two-storey stands with private meeting rooms upstairs and open display below.
Most first-time exhibitors assume the hard part is the design. It is not. The hard part is a sequence of handovers between you, the supplier, the organiser and the venue, each with a date attached, any one of which can push the others. Exhibitors, procurement teams and agencies who need a stall built on time, to drawing, and safely at the venue — and the ones who find it straightforward are simply the ones who know which four decisions are theirs and when each is due.
The table below is the whole project on one screen. Read the third column first, because that is your part, and almost everything in the second column is downstream of something in the third. Timings are for a 36 sq.m standard-finish job, which the planner puts at 4 weeks — scale them up for a larger or premium build and down for a small system stall.
| Stage | What we do | What you do | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Brief | Take the brief on a call, then write it back to you as a written scope so nothing is ambiguous | Give us the show, the space, the deadline, the goal and a budget range | Day 0 |
| 2. Concept | Draw the plan and show you the stand at eye level from the main aisle | Read the plan before the picture, and check it against the one thing you came to do | 2 days |
| 3. Revisions | Work through two rounds of changes on plan, finish, graphics and lighting | Nominate one owner for the file and send one set of comments, not five | 4 days |
| 4. Design freeze and quote | Convert the approved design into drawings, a finish schedule and an itemised figure | Check the quote against the drawings, approve in writing, raise the order | 2 days |
| 5. Organiser submission | Prepare and submit drawings, structural and electrical loads, and material certificates | Send the allotment paperwork and anything the organiser has emailed you | 3 days |
| 6. Production | Run the cutting list, finishing, printing and electricals through the workshop | Send final files at the start of the window, not the end | 11 days |
| 7. Pre-assembly and dispatch | Stand it up complete, test it under load, number everything and dispatch | Give us a name and number at the venue, and a plan for your products | 2 days, then 2 in transit |
| 8. Build-up and handover | Assemble, aim the lighting, run the AV end to end, clean and demonstrate the stand to you | Attend the handover, and keep someone contactable during build-up hours | 2 days |
| 9. Show days | Supervisor on call for running repairs, lamp changes, graphics touch-ups and consumables | Staff the stand, and tell us early if anything on it needs to change | Show duration |
| 10. Dismantle | Strike, clear the site on time, and send you a written storage inventory | Take everything of yours off the stand before panels start coming down | Same night, usually |
Durations are critical-path days for 36 sq.m at standard finish, and they come from the same formula as the stall planner — 3 weeks base, one more week from 24 sq.m, two more from 54 sq.m, two for a premium finish, two for a second storey. Show days and dismantle sit after doors open and are not part of the lead time.
Only four stages need you, and all four are at the front. Most of what goes wrong later is something that did not happen there.
The ten stages, from your side of the table
What follows is the same ten stages described from the exhibitor's chair rather than the supplier's — what lands in your inbox, what decision it wants from you, and what happens next. Note that these are strictly sequential. A stage that is "nearly finished" has not released the next one.
The useful detail in each stage is the cost of delay, not the duration. Some stages will quietly swallow a week; others convert a single lost day into a night shift you pay for. The difference is not obvious from the outside, which is why it is spelled out here.
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1. The brief — twenty minutes, written down
We ask for the show, the city, the dates, your area, the number of open sides, the height limit, your budget band and the single action you want a visitor to take — then we write it back to you as a scope document. That write-back is the point of the call, because a brief that exists only in someone's memory produces a concept nobody can be held to. Where an answer is genuinely unknown, say so and it gets marked open rather than assumed. The common failure is describing a look instead of a job. Be late here and nothing downstream has started yet, which makes this the cheapest day in the project to lose.
02
2. The concept — circulation first, finish later
Expect a layout, elevations and a visual from the aisle — the view a visitor actually has, not an impossible corner angle — inside 2 days. The test to apply is behavioural: does the plan make the one thing you came to do easy? A stall layout with a clear entry, a working demo counter, storage that keeps the floor clean, and a closed meeting area for serious buyers is the brief this concept is answering, and a design that photographs well while failing that test is the most expensive kind of success. Changes cost nothing at this stage and a great deal three weeks later, so this is the moment to be difficult.
03
3. Revisions — two rounds, one voice
This is the stage where projects are lost, and it is entirely procedural. Changes to layout, graphics, finish and lighting are all still free, so the constraint is not our willingness to redraw — it is your approval chain. Collect every stakeholder's comments into a single document, resolve the contradictions internally, and send one reply. Vague feedback produces a second vague drawing and burns a round: name the element, name the problem, and leave the solution to the designer. Overrun the 4 days and the time comes out of production later.
04
4. Sign-off — the point where the drawing becomes the contract
Sign-off is where intent becomes obligation, so it is worth slowing down for an afternoon. What you are approving is the drawing set and the materials schedule — the render is the sales tool, the drawing is the thing anyone can later be held to. The quote should be itemised to the point where you could delete a line and know exactly what you had given up. Confirm in writing, raise the order, and note that the 2 days booked for this stage assume your approvers are available, which is a question worth asking them in advance.
05
5. Approvals — the stage with someone else's deadline
Approvals run on the organiser's calendar, not yours. The submission pack is drawings, dimensions and height, structural calculations where anything is raised, hung or stacked, the electrical load your position will draw, and fire-retardancy certification for the materials — plus an engineer's sign-off for a double-decker. Send us the manual with the brief rather than after the design, because the rules in it decide what is drawable. Wherever the show allows it, submission runs alongside production, and that overlap is the only genuine buffer the schedule has.
06
6. Production — the stage with no slack in it
Approved drawings become a cutting list, a print schedule and an order for every bought-in element, all raised on the same day, because a single late delivery is what turns a comfortable build into a night shift. 11 days is realistic for a 36 sq.m build at standard finish. This is where changes stop being free: a layout change means re-cutting panels that are already finished, and a graphic change means reprinting. What we need from you is print-ready artwork and final content at the start of this window rather than the end, because printing runs last and graphics are the most visible thing on the stand.
07
7. Packing, spares and the road
The dry build is the most valuable 2 days in the schedule and the easiest for a supplier to skip. Standing the stand up complete, in a workshop, with the materials schedule in hand, is how a mis-cut panel or a graphic sized to the wrong frame becomes a morning's work instead of a crisis. It ends with numbered panels, a packing list, a box of spares and a loaded truck. From your side all that is needed is a contact who will answer a phone at the venue and a plan for where your products live before they go on display.
08
8. Build-up, testing and handover
Build-up is shared with every other exhibitor in the hall and their forklifts, so it is a question of sequence rather than effort: floor, structure, graphics, electricals, AV, furniture, clean. Lighting is aimed at the product rather than at the floor, circuits are tested under load, and anything with a cue is run end to end before anyone goes home. The handover is a walkthrough on the stand, not a note — and it is the moment to say "that counter is on the wrong side" while a crew is still in the building and the tools are still out.
09
9. Show days — what we do while you work the stand
Show-day support is deliberately unglamorous — consumables, touch-ups, a spare lamp, a graphic panel swapped out, a demo counter repositioned between sessions. Report things as they happen; a scuff fixed at 10 a.m. is invisible, the same scuff at 5 p.m. has been seen by everyone who walked the aisle. Meanwhile the outcome depends on the briefing you gave your own team, because a stand creates opportunities and people convert them. A visitor's impression is settled in the first thirty seconds, which makes it a staffing question rather than a design one.
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10. Dismantle, and what comes back to you
Organisers give a dismantle window and charge for overrunning it, so strike is planned as carefully as the build. Your job is to clear products, samples, laptops and literature before the crew starts, because once panels begin coming down a busy hall is the easiest place to lose a demonstration unit. Reusable elements go back to storage rather than to landfill: modular frames, lighting, furniture, and fabric graphics that reprint for the next edition. Ask for that inventory in writing. It is the document that makes your second show cost a fraction of your first, and it is the step most often skipped.
What the supplier genuinely cannot start without
The list below looks administrative and is actually the schedule. Every delay at the front of an exhibition project traces back to one of these items sitting in somebody's inbox, because each of them belongs to a different part of your organisation. Gather them before the first call rather than during the first fortnight.
What a double-decker stalls supplier actually needs up front is short, and it is below. The rest of the brief can be answered with "advise us", which is a useful instruction. Silence is not.
- The organiser's stand plan showing area, open sides, height limit and neighbours
- The approved design, or the brief for one if design is part of the scope
- Print-ready logos and graphics at final size, in vector or high-resolution form
- Any organiser restriction on height, rigging, flooring, platform depth or materials
- A named person who will be reachable and able to decide during build-up
- Whether elements need to come back for a later show, and who stores them
| What you supply | Due by | What stalls without it |
|---|---|---|
| Event, city, dates, area, open sides and height limit | The brief | Nothing can be drawn — area and open sides define the design problem |
| Your goal, in one sentence with a number in it | The brief | The layout gets designed for appearance instead of outcome |
| Budget band | The brief | You get a concept that cannot be built for the money, and lose a week |
| Products, with weights and power requirements | The brief | Plinths and sockets get sized by assumption, and corrected on site |
| Consolidated feedback | Each revision round | Each round answers the previous commenter instead of the design |
| Written approval and purchase order | Design freeze | Nothing is reserved — not the materials, not the slot, not the crew |
| Allotment letter, exhibitor manual and portal login | Design freeze | Organiser submission cannot be filed before its deadline |
| Print-ready artwork at final size | Start of production | Print slides to the end of the window, where there is no recovery time |
| Site contact and delivery slot | Dispatch | The truck waits at the gate and loses its build-up slot |
| A reachable decision-maker during build-up | Build-up | Small decisions get made without you and stay made |
Each row is a dependency, not a preference. The due-by column is the one to diarise, because every item on it gates something that cannot start early.
What you are actually signing off
There is a difference between what you like and what you have agreed, and it is worth being pedantic about for one afternoon. The visual communicates intent. The dimensioned drawings, the materials schedule, the lighting layout and the load calculation are the documents that get cut, painted, printed, wired and inspected — and they are the ones to read line by line.
The schedule is where to be sceptical. A finish described in adjectives can be delivered in a dozen ways, all of them defensible; a finish described by code can only be delivered one way. Most disappointment after a build traces to that single distinction rather than to anyone cutting corners.
- The dimensioned drawing set the workshop cuts from, not the render
- The materials and finish schedule, including which faces are laminate and which are painted
- Print-ready artwork at final size, with bleed and a named colour reference
- The itemised quote, including transport, installation, dismantle and taxes
- The storage and lockable-unit plan, because this is what keeps the floor clean
How the weeks actually get spent
The breakdown matters because it shows where the slack is. Production, approvals, freight and installation together are fixed; the front 8 days of concept, feedback and freeze are not. Exhibitors who think of the lead time as "the build" tend to spend the elastic part first and then ask for the inelastic part to be shortened.
Added up, this is 28 days — the planner's 4 weeks for 36 sq.m. The arithmetic assumes no overlap. Real projects overlap the organiser submission with production when the show allows it, which creates a few days of slack; treat those days as insurance rather than as time you already have.
| First call, written scope, and the opening layout | ₹2 days |
|---|---|
| Two rounds of consolidated changes | ₹4 days |
| Design freeze, materials schedule and itemised quote | ₹2 days |
| Organiser drawings prepared, submitted and cleared | ₹3 days |
| Workshop production, finishing and printing | ₹11 days |
| Dry build, load test, numbering and load-out | ₹2 days |
| Freight into the organiser's inward slot | ₹2 days |
| Build-up, testing, cleaning and handover | ₹2 days |
| Calendar days from brief to doors open | ₹28 days |
28 days is 4 weeks, which is the planner's figure for 36 sq.m: 3 weeks base plus 1 from 24 sq.m. Add 2 weeks for a premium finish and 2 for a double-decker, and allow longer again if the show is in another city or the organiser's submission deadline falls early.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
What the stand has to physically do, and whether it can
Before anyone draws anything, it is worth asking whether the space can do the job at all. The planner's split is fixed: 10% storage up to 18 sq.m, 15% above it, 5% for a meeting corner — 20% when meetings are a real goal rather than a nice idea — and the remainder for display.
Two divisions give you the whole picture: display area ÷ 2.5 is how many visitors can be inside at one time, and total area ÷ 9 is how many staff you need on duty. A 36 sq.m stand works out at 28.8 sq.m of display, 11 visitors and 4 staff. Compare that against the footfall in your plan; if the plan is bigger, no design will rescue it.
| Area booked | Usable display | Storage taken | Staff needed | Visitors at a time | Build weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 sq.m | 10.2 sq.m | 1.2 sq.m | 2 | 4 | 3 weeks |
| 18 sq.m | 15.3 sq.m | 1.8 sq.m | 2 | 6 | 3 weeks |
| 36 sq.m | 28.8 sq.m | 5.4 sq.m | 4 | 11 | 4 weeks |
| 54 sq.m | 43.2 sq.m | 8.1 sq.m | 6 | 17 | 5 weeks |
| 72 sq.m | 57.6 sq.m | 10.8 sq.m | 8 | 23 | 5 weeks |
| 100 sq.m | 80 sq.m | 15 sq.m | 12 | 32 | 5 weeks |
These are the planner's own figures, not estimates: storage by ratio, staff at one per 9 sq.m with a floor of two, visitors at one per 2.5 sq.m of display. The lead-time column is before any premium-finish or second-storey addition.
What to do when you have already lost a week
Being late is normal. Nearly every project loses a few days somewhere, and a good schedule is one that can absorb them. What decides the outcome is where the days are lost, because the schedule is not uniformly elastic — the front is soft and the back is concrete.
This is the recovery table. It is worth reading at the start of a project rather than in the middle of one, because most of the rescues listed only work if they are chosen a few days early instead of discovered on build-up morning.
| What slips | What it pushes | What you can still save |
|---|---|---|
| The brief | Nothing yet | All of it. Nothing downstream has started |
| Internal agreement between stakeholders | The revision rounds | Give one person the final word in writing |
| Organiser submission | Approval, which has a published deadline | Submit a simpler, compliant version and build to that |
| Print-ready artwork | Printing, which runs last in production | Print fewer, larger panels; leave secondary graphics for site application |
| Final AV or content files | Bench-testing the system as a whole | Move the full run to the venue and add redundancy |
| Your own staff briefing | Nothing physical — but the result | Brief on the stand at handover, with the layout in front of you |
| Products arriving on site | Nothing we control | Nothing — the stand will be finished and empty at opening |
| Clearing the stand at dismantle | The organiser's window, which is charged | Accept the charge and keep the crew working through it |
Every rescue in the last column has to be chosen deliberately, and most of them stop being available within a day or two of the slip.
There is no way to compress a cure cycle, an organiser's inbox or a hall's opening hours. Everything else is negotiable.
Where double-decker stalls projects go wrong, and the fix
What derails projects is rarely the design. Sub-contracted builds with no quality control heads the list, and it is invisible until build-up. Ask the unglamorous questions early: which trades are in-house, which are bought in, and who is accountable when a bought-in element arrives wrong.
Then there is the comparison problem. Unless both quotes name the finish, the number of light fittings, the flooring and the dismantle, you are not comparing suppliers — you are comparing assumptions. Itemisation is the only fix, and it has to be asked for before the prices arrive.
The third failure is ownership. Ten stages with four different parties involved and no single person watching the handovers is how a 4-week schedule ends up compressed into a weekend. The remedy is contractual, not personal: a named project manager and a dated schedule, agreed before the order rather than after it.
- Late arrival on site that eats into build-up time
- Non fire-retardant materials rejected at the venue
- Sub-contracted builds with no quality control
- Hidden extras for electrical, carpet or dismantling
Start a double-decker stalls project
Send the event name, city, dates, stall area, number of open sides and two or three reference images. That is enough for a concept and an itemised quote, usually within 48 hours, and it is also enough for us to tell you honestly whether the timeline you have left is workable.
Quoted per project; ideal for 72 sq.m and above. 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 the first call through to clearing the stand.
- Structural engineer sign-off
- Safe staircases and railings
- Glass meeting rooms upstairs
- Organiser approval handling
Frequently asked questions
What exactly do I need to provide?+
Four things at the brief, and three later: the space and the dates, your goal with a number attached, brand files you own the rights to, and a budget range — then the organiser's manual at freeze, print-ready artwork at the start of production, and a reachable decision-maker during build-up. None of it is difficult. It is simply spread across several people in your own organisation.
What am I signing off on, the render or the drawing?+
The drawing set and the materials schedule. The render shows intent; the dimensioned drawings and the named laminate, paint and graphic substrate codes are what the workshop builds from and what anyone can be held to. Approve both on the same day.
What happens if I am late approving the design?+
Everything downstream moves by the same number of days, because production, organiser approval and build-up cannot be compressed. You can usually recover by freezing the structure while keeping graphics open for a couple more days, but you lose the overlap between submission and production that was your buffer.
Who handles the organiser drawings and approvals?+
We do — stand drawings, dimensions and height, structural and electrical loads, fire-retardancy certificates, and a structural engineer's sign-off where a raised or hanging element needs one. We need the allotment letter, the exhibitor manual and any organiser portal login from you.
Is someone on site during the show?+
Yes. A supervisor stays reachable through show hours for lamp failures, scuffed graphics, counters that need moving and hall power issues. Report problems early in the day rather than at closing time.
Can you work to a shorter timeline than this?+
Often, but not by shortening production. Compressed timelines are absorbed by cutting revision rounds, simplifying the structure, choosing finishes that do not need a cure cycle, and paying for night-shift build-up. Share your dates first and we will tell you what is achievable rather than promise and improvise.
What does the first double-decker stalls conversation cover?+
Enough to draw against: the show and city, the build-up and show dates, your area and the number of open sides, the organiser's height limit, a budget range, and the single action the double-decker stalls scope has to produce. Anything genuinely undecided is recorded as open rather than guessed at.
What goes wrong most often, and whose fault is it?+
Scope that was never written down, and serial stakeholder feedback. Neither is anyone's fault exactly — they are both failures of process. Sub-contracted builds with no quality control is the third, and it is a procurement question: ask who physically does the work, in whose workshop, with which crew, before you compare prices.
How much of my own time will this take?+
Four of the ten stages need you, and all four sit at the front. Budget roughly a morning in total for brief, feedback and sign-off, plus whatever your internal approval chain adds, plus the handover at the venue. Everything after design freeze happens without you, provided the artwork arrived on time.
Double-Decker Stalls near you
Our crews deliver double-decker stalls in every major Indian city.