By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 13 min read
Short answer
Ask a corporate event management vendor where the work is produced and who supervises it, which lines the quote excludes, what drawings you sign before cutting starts, who lodges the organiser paperwork and by when, what each payment milestone releases against, who is on the floor during show hours, and what happens to the stand after the show. Then grade the answers on specificity, because that is what predicts delivery.
Key takeaways
- Ask who physically does the work. Every other answer depends on it.
- Ask what the quote excludes, never whether everything is included — the second question always gets a yes.
- Get the project manager's name, the crew size and the build-up shift hours in writing.
- Ask what the vendor would change about your brief. A supplier with no opinion is not reading it.
- Put the same questions to three vendors and write the answers in three columns. The gaps do the work for you.
- Tie each payment milestone to a deliverable you can inspect, and keep a balance payable after handover.
How to use these 15 questions
The hard part was never the questions. Any vendor will tell you the work is in-house, the price is all-inclusive and their team will be there. What you need is a way of hearing the difference between a sentence that commits to something and a sentence that merely sounds right.
Every question is therefore paired with its diagnosis. One test runs through all 15 of them — does the reply contain something verifiable? A strong corporate event management vendor produces a name, a date, a document or a figure. A weak one produces confidence, which is not the same thing and cannot be checked.
Work through the stages in order. Questions asked at the wrong moment get the wrong answers — pricing questions before the brief is understood produce a number the vendor has to defend rather than revise, and build-up questions asked after signing produce whatever is convenient rather than whatever was planned.
Before you shortlist: questions 1 to 4
Use this stage to cut a long list down to three. Everything here is about the company rather than your stand, which is exactly why it works early: before a brief exists, there is nothing for the answers to be shaped around.
Underneath, they all probe the same thing — whether the firm owns the work or brokers it. Written for large exhibitors, government bodies, export councils and multinationals who want a single accountable partner for the whole participation, this guide exists because that answer usually surfaces during build-up week, when it is far too late to act on.
01
1. Can I see photographs of finished projects at my size, from a show you can name?
A good answer brings on-site photographs with the show, the city, the stall area and the year attached, including shots of the stand occupied by staff and visitors rather than empty at handover. A bad answer is renders only. A render proves somebody can design; only a photograph proves somebody can build, and the gap between the two is where most disappointment lives.
02
2. Who physically does this work — your own team, or a sub-contractor?
A good answer is honest about the split, because every firm buys something in: print, AV hire, furniture, freight. You want to hear which trades are owned and which are bought, followed by an address. A bad answer is either a vague "we have a partner network" or a flat claim that everything is in-house with no site you can visit — the second is usually the same as the first, with less candour.
03
3. How many jobs are in your production queue for my show week?
A good answer is a number, ideally with an unprompted note about which of them is largest — it tells you whether your stand is the priority or the filler. A bad answer is "don't worry, we'll manage", which is what a firm says when the queue is not theirs to see, or when they already know the answer is uncomfortable.
04
4. Who will be my single point of contact, from brief through dismantle?
A good answer is a name, a role and a mobile number, plus confirmation that the same person is physically on site during build-up and show days. A bad answer is "our team" or "our coordination desk". Shared accountability is no accountability, and a contact who changes at handover means nobody carries the history of your decisions onto the floor.
At quoting stage: questions 5 to 8
With a shortlist briefed, the job changes: you are no longer assessing firms, you are making quotes mean the same thing. Buyers skip this stage because it feels like haggling. It is the opposite — a vendor with an itemised scope is protected from scope creep just as much as you are.
Nothing about corporate event management pricing is mysterious; the drivers are listed below. Quoted per event; packages for recurring annual events. What you are testing is whether the vendor can put them in order for your brief specifically. If they cannot, the quote is an estimate wearing a number's clothes.
- Total area and number of co-exhibitors
- Scope (design, build, AV, furniture, logistics, manpower, hospitality)
- Number of cities or shows in the programme
- Approval layers with organisers, embassies or departments
01
5. What is driving this price, and what would make it cheaper?
A good answer names the real drivers for your brief and then offers a trade: less custom joinery, a simpler finish, a reused frame, fewer graphic panels. A bad answer is a flat discount with no change to the scope. A number that drops on request without anything being removed means the first figure was padded, or the next one is thinner than it looks.
02
6. Are transport both ways, installation, electrical fittings and dismantle inside this figure?
A good answer goes line by line, yes or no, without hedging. A bad answer is a general "yes, everything's included" — which is the reply this question always draws, and the reason to put it as four separate questions. These are the four scopes most often missing, none of them is optional, and all of them get bought at show-week rates when they surface late.
03
7. What materials and finishes are you quoting, exactly?
A good answer names board thickness, the laminate or paint finish, and the fire treatment. A bad answer is "premium quality" or "imported finish". Specification is what the organiser's safety check examines, and it is also the only way to tell whether a cheaper quote reflects a better rate or a thinner board.
04
8. What would you change about this brief if it were your budget?
A good answer is an opinion: spend more on lighting, less on joinery, move the storage, drop the second message. A bad answer is "it's perfect as it is". A supplier with no view is either not reading the brief or not willing to risk the order by disagreeing, and neither of those helps you on the floor.
Stage 3 — before you sign (questions 9 to 12)
Everything here is about converting agreement into documents. Each question seals a gap that would otherwise open during build-up, when every remaining option costs money. The timing is the point: ask before the advance goes out, not after.
Design and price are already settled by now. What remains is authority and evidence — who may approve what, and what exists on paper when it matters. Unglamorous, and the reason most disputes never happen.
01
9. Can I see the production schedule, with dates on it?
A good answer is a schedule with drawing release, print, joinery, dry build, dispatch and installation on separate dates. A bad answer is a delivery week. The intermediate dates are the whole value: they are what let you notice a slip while it is still a week early rather than on build-up morning.
02
10. Who prepares and submits the organiser paperwork, and by what date?
A good answer lists the actual documents — stand drawings, electrical load, material certificates — names who lodges them, and states the organiser's deadline from memory. A bad answer is "the organiser will tell you what they need", which pushes a hard deadline onto the party least equipped to meet it. A rejected submission costs build-up days nobody has spare.
03
11. What are the payment milestones, and what does each one release against?
A good answer attaches every instalment to something inspectable: a signed scope, approved drawings, the submission acknowledgement, a workshop dry build, handover of a working stand. A bad answer is a schedule of bare dates, or most of the money up front. Keep a meaningful balance payable after handover — it is what keeps a crew on the stand on show morning.
04
12. What insurance and site documentation do you carry?
A good answer arrives immediately, because any firm working regularly in exhibition halls keeps it to hand. A bad answer is a promise to check and come back. It is a dull question with a revealing answer — it separates contractors who work in venues every month from those about to find out what a venue requires.
Before build-up: questions 13 to 15
The last of them are asked a week or two before the show, when the build is done and the risk moves from production to logistics. Vendors expect design and pricing questions; far fewer expect to be asked for a build-up plan, which is exactly why the answers here are so informative.
What the show finally has to deliver is a participation plan where every touchpoint, from the pavilion entrance to the VIP lounge, is designed to move visitors toward a meeting. These questions test whether anyone has planned for the hours in which that actually happens, because a stand still being assembled at ten in the morning on day one delivers none of it.
01
13. Who is on the floor during show days, and how fast can they reach my stand?
A good answer is a name, a location and a response time. A bad answer is a central number. Show-day problems tend to be small and urgent — a blown lamp, a loose panel, a screen that will not wake — and they only stay small if somebody is already in the building.
02
14. What is the backup if something fails during show hours?
A good answer is concrete: spares carried to site, a technician reachable within minutes, a named person on the floor through show hours, and a replacement path for anything that would stop the stand working. A bad answer is "nothing has ever failed". Lamps fail, laminate chips, screens drop signal and power trips — the only question is whether somebody planned for it.
03
15. When will the stand be finished, as distinct from when build-up ends?
A good answer is an hour, comfortably ahead of doors opening, with cleaning scheduled after it. A bad answer uses the organiser's deadline as the plan. Finishing at the deadline leaves nothing for the snag list, and every stand has a snag list.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
A quick reference for the call
Some answers sound fine and mean nothing. The rows below are those cases side by side with what a real answer looks like. It works best as a call sheet; reading it afterwards is reading it too late.
| Ask this | Good reply | Bad reply |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | An address, a supervisor's name and a date you can visit | A partner network, or a visit that is always better scheduled later |
| Can I see finished work | Photographs from a named show, with the stall area and the year | Renders only, or images with nothing attached to them |
| What would make it cheaper | A scope trade — simpler finish, fewer panels, a reused frame | A flat discount with no change to the scope |
| What do you need from me | A dated list of inputs | Nothing, we'll handle it |
| How many lights | A count and a position for each one | Lighting included |
| Who is on site at build-up | A name, a crew size and the shift hours | Our team will be there |
| What happens after the show | Dismantle inside the organiser's window, elements into storage | No answer, because dismantle was never priced |
None of the warning signs is a lie. They are all true statements that cannot be verified, which is exactly what makes them worth noticing.
The capacity question worth adding
Add one question to the 15 above, because it sorts designers from order-takers faster than anything else: how many people fit in my stand at once? A corporate event management vendor who has thought about the show can answer it; one who has only priced the joinery cannot.
The sums are these: 10% of the area to storage up to 18 sq.m and 15% beyond it, 5% to a meeting corner — 20% if meetings are the point of attending — and the rest to display. Display divided by 2.5 gives simultaneous visitors; total area divided by 9 gives staff on duty.
This is where a lot of disappointment comes from. A stand that cannot hold the traffic the campaign promises will look like a marketing failure on the day, when it was actually a sizing decision made months earlier by someone looking at a different spreadsheet.
| Stall area | Display | Storage | Staff on duty | Visitors at once | Build weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 sq.m | 10.2 sq.m | 1.2 sq.m | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| 18 sq.m | 15.3 sq.m | 1.8 sq.m | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| 36 sq.m | 28.8 sq.m | 5.4 sq.m | 4 | 11 | 4 |
| 54 sq.m | 43.2 sq.m | 8.1 sq.m | 6 | 17 | 5 |
| 72 sq.m | 57.6 sq.m | 10.8 sq.m | 8 | 23 | 5 |
Staff = area ÷ 9, minimum 2. Build weeks are 3 as a base, plus 1 from 24 sq.m and plus 2 from 54 sq.m, with a further 2 weeks for a premium finish and 2 for a double-decker.
Answers that should end the conversation
Some replies are not warning signs to weigh up — they are conclusions. The first group below are the failure modes specific to corporate event management; if a vendor's answers point at any of them, you have learned what you needed to learn and the next call is to the second name on your list.
- Too many vendors with no single point of accountability
- Inconsistent branding across co-exhibitor booths
- Budget overruns from scope that was never itemised
- Delayed approvals that compress build-up time
- A refusal to name the workshop or studio, or a visit that is always possible next month
- No one able to say who will be standing on your stand on build-up morning
- Every question fielded by the salesperson and none by anyone who builds
- An advance requested before any scope document exists
- A delivery week offered in place of a dated production schedule
- A deadline on your decision that belongs to their cash flow rather than your show
- Fabrication offered without drawings for you to approve first
Ask what is not included. The answer to "is everything included?" is always yes.
Turning replies into a decision
Write the answers down as you receive them, in the same order, for every vendor. Three columns on one page does more for the decision than any amount of discussion, because a missing answer looks exactly like a missing answer once it sits next to two filled cells.
Finally, judge the whole set rather than the individual replies. The stand is a means to a result, and a supplier who is flawless on logistics but blank on what the show is for will build exactly what you specify — including your mistakes.
- What the quote excludes, in writing and signed
- The date on which you will approve dimensioned drawings
- What the vendor needs from you, and by when
- The project manager's name and mobile number
- Who does the work, and the address where it happens
- Who submits the organiser paperwork, and the deadline
- The build-up arrival slot, crew size and shift hours
Ask all three at once
One email, three recipients, same day — brief plus questions. Include the show, the city, the dates, the area, the open sides, your budget band and two or three images with a note on each. What comes back tells you as much about the firm as about the stand.
Put the list to us and you will get written answers to all of it. Our own workshops, free design with a confirmed fabrication order, organiser drawings and approvals prepared for you, and a single project manager from the first brief to the last panel out of the hall.
Frequently asked questions
What should I ask about dismantle?+
Who does it, whether it happens inside the organiser's window, what is cleared, and where the reusable frames and graphics are stored afterwards. Unpriced dismantle is where deposits and penalties surface.
What is the best question to catch a sub-contracted build?+
"Can I visit the workshop this week?" A firm that owns production answers with an address and a day. Anything that defers the visit — after the order, nearer the show, once design is approved — is the answer by another route.
What should I ask about the venue's rules?+
Ask for the height limit, whether rigging is permitted, the fire certification the organiser requires, and the date drawings must be submitted. Specific knowledge of one hall beats a claim to work in every city.
How do I know if my stand is the right size?+
Ask the vendor what it can hold. At 36 sq.m the arithmetic gives about 28.8 sq.m of display, room for roughly 11 visitors at a time and 4 staff on duty. If your footfall expectation is far above that, the constraint is the stand rather than the campaign.
Is it reasonable to ask to visit the workshop?+
Entirely. It is a routine request for anyone buying a fabricated product, and the reaction to the question is informative even before the visit happens.
How long should this take?+
About a thirty-minute call for the first stage, then one document request each at quoting and signing. Set against a build that needs 3 weeks or more, it is the cheapest hour in the whole project.
Which question matters most?+
Who physically does the work. It decides who controls quality and who controls the date, and every other answer — pricing, drawings, site crew, backup plans — depends on it.
How many vendors should I put these questions to?+
Three, with the same brief. Two gives you nothing to calibrate an outlier answer against, and five is more work than the comparison repays.
Corporate Event Management near you
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