By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 9 min read
Short answer
Product launch sets works in ten stages, and only four of them need you: you give the brief, you send consolidated feedback, you approve in writing, and you supply print-ready files. Everything else — concept, drawings, the organiser approval pack, production, quality control, freight, installation, show cover and dismantle — sits with the supplier. A 36 sq.m standard-finish build is 4 weeks from first call to doors, with the workshop owning 11 of the 28 days.
Key takeaways
- Ten stages, of which only four need you: the brief, consolidated feedback, written approval and final files.
- 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.
- Dismantle is part of the job, not an afterthought. Clearing the stand inside the organiser's window is what protects your deposit.
- The workshop owns 11 of the 28 days on a 36 sq.m build. The rest is decisions, drawings, approvals, freight and installation.
- 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.
The shape of a product launch sets project, on one screen
Dramatic product reveals with kinetic stages, LED walls and lighting for press and dealer launches.
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. Event managers, corporate communication teams and agencies running conferences, launches, dealer meets and public shows — 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 | Answer eight questions and attach two or three reference images | Day 0 |
| 2. Concept | Draw the plan and show you the stand at eye level from the main aisle | Review it — and bring the people who will have opinions later | 2 days |
| 3. Revisions | Work through two rounds of changes on plan, finish, graphics and lighting | Resolve internal disagreements first, then send a single consolidated reply | 4 days |
| 4. Design freeze and quote | Freeze the drawing set, issue the materials schedule and an itemised quote | Approve in writing and raise the purchase order | 2 days |
| 5. Organiser submission | File the full approval pack with the organiser against the manual's deadlines | Forward the organiser's manual and your portal credentials | 3 days |
| 6. Production | Run the cutting list, finishing, printing and electricals through the workshop | Deliver artwork and content, and freeze your own change requests | 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 | Install to drawing, test power and lighting, clean, then walk you through the stand | Be reachable, and come and stand on it before doors open | 2 days |
| 9. Show days | Handle touch-ups, failed lamps, swapped panels and repositioned counters | Work the plan, and report problems in the morning rather than at closing time | 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 |
Timings are the days each stage owns on the critical path of a 36 sq.m standard-finish build. Lead time scales with area and finish: 3 weeks base, +1 from 24 sq.m, +2 from 54 sq.m, +2 for a premium finish and +2 for a double-decker.
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
Here is what each stage feels like from your side of the table, including the questions you will be asked and the ones worth asking back. The order matters more than the duration: every stage below is gated on the one before it being finished, not started.
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.
01
1. The brief — a short call that decides everything after it
First contact is a conversation, not a form. The questions are always the same — which show, which city, which dates, how many square metres, how many sides open, what the height limit is, roughly what you intend to spend, and what a successful visit looks like — and the answers come back to you in writing before anything is drawn. Treat the gaps honestly: an unanswered question costs a sentence, an invented answer costs a redesign. Delay at this point is the only delay in the whole sequence that costs you nothing at all.
02
2. The concept — judge the plan before the picture
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? An experience strong enough that guests film and share it, with a clear brand moment and a call to action timed in the show 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 — consolidate, then send once
The number of revision rounds matters far less than how the comments arrive. Five stakeholders commenting in sequence will generate three rounds out of two, because each one reacts to a drawing the last one changed. One owner, one consolidated reply per round, and a decision about which conflicting comment wins before it reaches us — that is the whole technique. Say what is wrong, not what you would prefer; a sightline blocked by a counter can be fixed, an instruction to be more premium cannot. 4 days is the allowance.
04
4. Design freeze and the itemised quote
Freeze produces three documents: the drawings a workshop can cut from, a schedule naming every material and finish, and a quote with every element on its own line. Read the quote next to the drawings, not next to the visual. Then ask the five questions that decide whether you are comparing like with like — is transport in, both ways; is the installation crew in; is dismantle and clearance in; are electrical fittings in; is GST in. Written approval and a purchase order release production and hold the crew; until they arrive, nothing is reserved.
05
5. Organiser submission and approvals
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 point of no return on changes
Once the drawings are released, the job becomes a sequence of physical operations with fixed durations — cutting, assembly, finishing, curing, printing, trial fitting — and that is why 11 days is a figure rather than an estimate. The discipline this asks of you is simply to stop changing things. A panel already cut and finished cannot absorb a layout revision, and a printed graphic cannot absorb a new headline. Supply final artwork and content at the start of the window; everything else in this stage happens without you.
07
7. Packing, spares and the road
Before anything is loaded, the stand is stood up in the workshop: panels numbered, graphics trial-fitted, circuits loaded and tested, lamps aimed, finishes inspected against the schedule. Problems get found here, where there is time and a paint booth, rather than on a hall floor with four hours of build-up left. Spares travel with the crew — laminate offcuts, a duplicate graphic panel, extra lamps and drivers. Then it is loaded against a packing list and dispatched, allowing 2 days in transit for an inter-city move. We need your site contact, the organiser's delivery slot, and a decision on where products will be stored.
08
8. Build-up, testing and handover
Installation happens in hours the venue dictates, which is why the dry build matters so much: a crew that already knows the object can finish inside the window. Expect the stand to be tested rather than simply assembled — load on every circuit, every lamp aimed, every screen and cue run through. Then come and stand on it. Ten minutes in person beats an hour on the phone, and having a decision-maker reachable through build-up is the difference between a judgement call going your way and it defaulting to whatever the drawing says.
09
9. Show days — what we do while you work the stand
A supervisor stays reachable through show hours for the things that genuinely happen: a lamp fails, a graphic panel gets scuffed, a counter needs moving because the queue is forming on the wrong side, the hall's power trips. Tell us early in the day rather than at closing time. This is also where your own preparation decides the result, because the stand can create an opportunity and only a person can convert it. Brief your team on how to qualify a visitor inside the first thirty seconds — that one habit does more for the outcome than any element of the build.
10
10. Strike, clearance and the storage inventory
The last stage is the one nobody plans and everybody pays for. Clearance happens inside a window the organiser sets and charges against, which means the strike sequence is decided in advance rather than improvised at closing time. Take your products, samples and valuables off the stand first. Then ask for a written list of what has gone into storage, in what condition, and what it can be reconfigured into — without that document, reusable assets become untraceable within two shows and you quietly buy them again next year.
What the supplier genuinely cannot start without
None of these items is hard to find. They are simply scattered: brand files in one department, the organiser's paperwork in another, product weights with the people who ship them, and the budget with someone who has not been told the brief is going out this week. Collecting them in one sitting is the single highest-return hour in the whole project.
For product launch sets specifically, the items below are what a supplier genuinely cannot work without. Everything else can be decided later, and much of it is better decided later, once there is a drawing to react to.
- The venue or hall plan with available power load and rigging points marked
- Final content, video and presentation files in the format and aspect ratio agreed
- The organiser's limits on sound level, rigging, working hours and curfew
- The presenter or demo lead, available for one technical rehearsal before doors
- The run order, and who is authorised to call changes on the day
- Any permissions the venue or local authority requires, and who is applying for them
| What you supply | Due by | What stalls without it |
|---|---|---|
| Event, city, dates, area, open sides and height limit | The brief | Everything. These are the numbers the design is a solution to |
| Your goal, in one sentence with a number in it | The brief | The plan optimises for looking finished rather than for working |
| Products, with weights and power requirements | The brief | Counters and circuits are specified blind, then reworked during build-up |
| 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 | Printing is pushed last and graphics are the most visible element |
| Final content, video and presentation files | Start of production | There is no time to bench-test the system as a whole before dispatch |
| Height, rigging and material restrictions from the manual | Before design freeze | The drawing is rejected and the fallback is a plainer stand |
| A reachable decision-maker during build-up | Build-up | Every judgement call defaults to the drawing, which is usually right and occasionally not |
| Products, stock and samples on site | Handover | A complete stand opens with nothing on it to look at |
Nothing on this list is optional. Everything on it is quick, if you collect it in one sitting rather than one email at a time.
Approve the drawing, not the picture
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.
Spend the time on the finish schedule rather than on the render. Named codes for laminate, paint, fabric and acrylic are what make "as approved" a verifiable claim, and they cost nothing to ask for at this stage.
- The equipment schedule — screen pitch and size, fixture count, projector lumens, drone count
- The rigging and power plan, which the venue has to accept before load-in
- The content list, with durations, aspect ratios and the order they play in
- The run-of-show, including who calls each cue and when the rehearsal happens
- The strike schedule, because clearing the rig is charged if it overruns
The calendar, broken down honestly
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.
The figures below sum to 4 weeks exactly, which is what the planner gives for 36 sq.m. These are the days each stage owns when nothing overlaps. In practice the organiser submission runs alongside production wherever the show's deadlines allow, and that overlap is your entire buffer — spend it on a late sign-off and it is gone.
| Brief call to first concept and visual | ₹2 days |
|---|---|
| Two rounds of consolidated changes | ₹4 days |
| Freeze: production drawings, finish schedule, line-by-line price | ₹2 days |
| Organiser drawings prepared, submitted and cleared | ₹3 days |
| Cutting, assembly, finishing, curing and print | ₹11 days |
| Pre-assembly, electrical test and dispatch | ₹2 days |
| Freight into the organiser's inward slot | ₹2 days |
| Installation, testing, clean and walkthrough | ₹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.
Does the stall fit the plan? Check before you design it
One part of the process nobody expects is the arithmetic. Before the design stage ends, it is worth checking that the stall you have booked can hold the number of people you are planning for. Storage takes 10% of the area up to 18 sq.m and 15% above it, a meeting corner takes 5% unless hosting meetings is an actual goal — in which case it takes 20% — and display gets the remainder.
The numbers to run are simple. Display ÷ 2.5 gives the visitors who can physically stand in the stand at once — 11 at 36 sq.m — and area ÷ 9 gives the staff on duty, 4 at that size. The useful outcome of this check is negative: it tells you when the stall, not the stand design, is the limiting factor, at the one moment when taking more space is still possible.
| Area booked | Usable display | Storage taken | Staff needed | Visitors at a time | Build weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 sq.m | 7.6 sq.m | 0.9 sq.m | 2 | 3 | 3 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 |
| 24 sq.m | 19.2 sq.m | 3.6 sq.m | 3 | 7 | 4 weeks |
| 36 sq.m | 28.8 sq.m | 5.4 sq.m | 4 | 11 | 4 weeks |
| 100 sq.m | 80 sq.m | 15 sq.m | 12 | 32 | 5 weeks |
Same arithmetic as our stall planner. Staff = area ÷ 9, minimum 2. Visitors = display ÷ 2.5, minimum 3. Lead time excludes the premium and double-decker additions.
What to do when you have already lost a week
Almost nobody hits every date, and that is fine: the plan is built to take a few days of slippage. What it cannot take is slippage in the wrong place. The first half of the sequence will absorb delay almost invisibly; the second half converts it straight into cost or into a plainer stand.
What follows is the conversation suppliers usually have internally rather than with the client. Knowing it in advance turns a panic into a trade-off, which is the difference between paying for a night shift and opening with something simpler than you approved.
| What slips | What it pushes | What you can still save |
|---|---|---|
| Feedback on the concept | Every stage after it, day for day | Cut to one revision round and freeze earlier |
| Design freeze and purchase order | Organiser submission and material ordering | Release the build and hold artwork decisions back briefly |
| Organiser submission | Approval, which has a published deadline | Submit a simpler, compliant version and build to that |
| Final AV or content files | Bench-testing the system as a whole | Test on site before doors instead, and carry a spare of anything critical |
| The freight slot | Build-up, which starts without the stand in the hall | Split the load so the structure arrives first |
| 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 | Pay the overrun, or have staff remove valuables while the crew strikes |
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.
A day lost before design freeze is a day you can still spend. A day lost after it comes out of finishing, quality control or build-up.
The three failures worth designing around
Almost nothing that goes badly wrong is aesthetic. Under-specified equipment that looks dull in a bright hall is the first and most expensive, and it is not detectable in a quote. The only way to test for it is to ask where the work physically happens and who answers for the quality when it does.
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 is a schedule with no owner. Ten stages, four of them yours, with nobody tracking the handovers between them, is how a comfortable 4-week build becomes a night shift. Ask for a named project manager and a dated schedule at quote stage rather than after the order.
- Missing backup power or spare units
- No rehearsal or technical run before doors open
- Under-specified equipment that looks dull in a bright hall
- Content not built for the actual screen or surface size
Start a product launch sets 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 launch. What comes as standard: free design with a confirmed fabrication order, in-house production rather than a sub-contractor chain, organiser submissions prepared and filed for you, and a single named manager accountable from the first call to the last panel leaving the hall.
- Press and photo zones
- LED and projection
- Reveal mechanisms
- Show-calling support
Frequently asked questions
How long does a product launch sets project take from brief to handover?+
The formula is 3 weeks base, plus 1 from 24 sq.m, plus 2 from 54 sq.m, plus 2 for a premium finish and 2 for a second storey. So 4 weeks at 36 sq.m and up to 9 weeks for a large premium double-decker. Work backwards from build-up rather than forwards from today.
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?+
Your supplier should, and it should be in the scope rather than an extra. The pack is drawings, overall dimensions and height, load calculations for anything raised or suspended, the electrical load, and certification that the panel materials are fire-retardant. Send the exhibitor manual across with the brief, because its rules decide what can be drawn at all.
Is dismantle included, and what comes back to me?+
Dismantle and clearing the stand inside the organiser's window are part of the scope — confirm that in the quote, because it is one of the lines most often left out. Reusable elements such as modular frames, lighting, furniture and fabric graphics go back to storage. Ask for that inventory in writing; it is what makes the next show cheaper.
Can you work to a shorter timeline than this?+
Sometimes, and always by trading something explicit. The four levers are fewer revision rounds, a simpler structure, finishes with no curing time, and paid out-of-hours labour at the venue. What cannot be done is compressing the workshop, the organiser's approval or the build-up window, so a date that depends on any of those is a date that will move.
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. Under-specified equipment that looks dull in a bright hall 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.
Product Launch Sets near you
Our crews deliver product launch sets in every major Indian city.