By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 13 min read
Short answer
The 15 questions worth asking an event production company vendor cover four things: who owns the work, what the price actually includes, what goes in writing before you pay, and who is in the hall during build-up. Judge the replies by shape rather than content — a name, a date, a document or a number is an answer, and anything that merely reassures you is not.
Key takeaways
- Tie each payment milestone to a deliverable you can inspect, and keep a balance payable after handover.
- Ask what the vendor would change about your brief. A supplier with no opinion is not reading it.
- Get the project manager's name, the crew size and the build-up shift hours in writing.
- Ask who physically does the work. Every other answer depends on it.
- Grade answers on specificity: a name, a date, a document or a number beats any amount of reassurance.
- Ask what the quote excludes, never whether everything is included — the second question always gets a yes.
Reading the answer, not just asking the question
A list of questions is easy to find and nearly useless on its own, because every vendor has a comfortable answer ready for each one. What separates a real supplier from a confident one is the texture of the reply: whether it contains something you could check later.
So each question below comes with what a good answer sounds like and what a weak one reveals. The pattern is consistent across all 15: a strong event production company partner answers with a name, a date, a document or a number, while a weak one answers with a reassurance. "We have done hundreds of these" is a reassurance. A supervisor's name, a workshop address and a day you can come and look is an answer.
Sequence matters more than it looks. Ask about price before the brief is settled and you get a figure the vendor is then committed to defending; ask about build-up after you have signed and you get an answer shaped by what is now convenient. The stages below put each question where its answer is still honest.
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.
All of them are really one question asked from several directions: does this firm control the thing it is selling? This guide is written for event managers, corporate communication teams and agencies running conferences, launches, dealer meets and public shows, and most of them find out the answer during build-up week. You can find it out in a twenty-minute call, which is the whole argument for asking these first.
01
1. What were the largest and the smallest stands you delivered last season?
A good answer is two areas and two shows, and it brackets your own stand somewhere in between. A bad answer is a range so wide it must be aspirational. Capability is size-specific: a firm that turns out neat small system booths may never have engineered a structure, and a pavilion specialist will price your small stand like a pavilion.
02
2. 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.
03
3. Which parts of this scope do you buy in, and from whom?
A good answer names them without being pushed — nobody owns everything, and print, AV, furniture and freight are routinely bought. What you are listening for is whether the person knows their own supply chain. A bad answer treats the question as an accusation, which usually means more of the scope is bought in than they want to discuss.
04
4. 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.
Second stage — making the numbers comparable (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.
The cost drivers for event production company are not a secret — they are the list below. Quoted per production; agency rates available. A vendor who can rank those drivers for your specific brief is pricing the job. One who cannot is pricing a guess and hoping the variations cover the difference later.
- Show duration and number of event days
- Equipment size and specification (screen size, projector brightness or drone count)
- Content creation and programming time
- Rigging, power backup and technician crew size
- Permissions, venue rules and rehearsal time
01
5. 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.
02
6. How many light fittings, and where exactly?
A good answer is a count and a set of positions — spots on the brand wall, track over the product, a backlit panel at the entrance. A bad answer is "lighting included". Hall lighting is designed for the aisles rather than for your stand, which makes the lighting count the line most responsible for whether the stand reads as funded or forgotten.
03
7. Will you itemise the quote, and will you write down what it excludes?
A good answer is yes to both, with the exclusion list as a separate signed page. A bad answer is a lump sum defended as "simpler for you", or an itemised quote with no exclusions at all — which is not transparency, it is an unanswered question. The exclusion page is the single most useful document in the process and the one you have to ask for by name.
04
8. 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.
Third stage — turning a conversation into a contract (questions 9 to 12)
These turn a conversation into a contract. Each one closes a gap that otherwise gets discovered on the floor, when the only options left are expensive. Ask them before the advance leaves your account, because afterwards you are negotiating from a weaker position with a shorter clock.
Nothing in this stage touches aesthetics or cost. It is entirely paperwork: what gets signed, when, and by whom. Those are the variables that separate a stand built to the agreement from a stand built to whatever was remembered.
01
9. 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.
02
10. 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.
03
11. 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.
04
12. How are changes priced, and who is allowed to authorise one?
A good answer is a written variation, priced before it is executed, authorised by one named person on each side. A bad answer is "we'll adjust at the end". Verbal agreements made on the floor during build-up are the largest single source of post-show invoices nobody remembers approving, and one paragraph in the contract prevents all of them.
Stage 4 — before build-up (questions 13 to 15)
Ask these once the stand is built and the risk has shifted from the workshop to the loading bay. Few vendors are braced for them, because most buyers stop asking questions after signing — which makes this the stage where the replies are least rehearsed.
The outcome you paid for is an experience strong enough that guests film and share it, with a clear brand moment and a call to action timed in the show — and it is won or lost in the last twenty-four hours before doors open. That is the window these questions are about.
01
13. What are you bringing as spares?
A good answer is a short, specific list: laminate offcuts, spare lamps, a reprint of the main graphic, basic tools. A bad answer is that spares will not be needed. Transport damage is routine rather than exceptional, and a crew that travels with the fix turns a two-hour problem into a ten-minute one.
02
14. 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.
03
15. What do you need from me, and by when?
A good answer is a dated list: artwork at final size, product dimensions, staff numbers, any samples to be displayed. A bad answer is "nothing, we'll handle it". Most build-up delays trace back to an input that arrived late, and a supplier who has not asked for yours has not planned backwards from the date.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
The answers most likely to mislead you
Here are the ones where a plausible answer most often turns out to be empty. Every row applies the same test — is there anything in this reply you could check next week? Have it in front of you while you talk, not after.
| The question | What a real answer contains | What should make you pause |
|---|---|---|
| What do you need from me | A dated list of inputs | Nothing, we'll handle it |
| 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 |
| How many lights | A count and a position for each one | Lighting included |
| What if something fails mid-show | Spares on site and a named person in the building | Nothing has ever failed |
| 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 materials are quoted | Board thickness, finish and fire treatment, named | Premium quality, with no specification |
| 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 |
Notice the pattern: real answers are brief and checkable, evasive ones are long and warm. When a simple question produces a paragraph, the paragraph is standing in for a fact.
What can your area actually hold?
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 event production company vendor who has thought about the show can answer it; one who has only priced the joinery cannot.
Storage takes 10% of the area up to 18 sq.m and 15% above it. A meeting corner takes 5% by default, or 20% when booking meetings is the actual purpose of the show. Display is whatever remains. Divide display area by 2.5 and you have how many visitors fit at once; divide total area by 9 for how many staff the stand needs on duty.
Why it matters: footfall expectations and stand capacity are usually set by different people who never compare notes. If your campaign is built around a volume of visitors the stand cannot physically hold, the constraint is the stand, not the marketing — and that is a conversation to have at briefing stage, not on day one.
| 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 |
| 100 sq.m | 80 sq.m | 15 sq.m | 12 | 32 | 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.
When the answer is the decision
Some replies are not warning signs to weigh up — they are conclusions. The first group below are the failure modes specific to event production company; 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.
- Under-specified equipment that looks dull in a bright hall
- No rehearsal or technical run before doors open
- Missing backup power or spare units
- Content not built for the actual screen or surface size
- Every question fielded by the salesperson and none by anyone who builds
- No answer at all on dismantle, clearing or storage
- Reference images that cannot be tied to a show, a size or a year
- A refusal to name the workshop or studio, or a visit that is always possible next month
- A material specification that says premium and names nothing
- A discount offered the moment you hesitate, with nothing removed from the scope
- A delivery week offered in place of a dated production schedule
Specifics are short. Reassurance needs paragraphs.
What to do with the answers
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.
Then invert the exercise. Start from what the show has to deliver and ask whether these answers add up to it. A vendor can pass every question and still have no view on your outcome; that is a competent contractor rather than a partner, and worth knowing which you have hired.
- Who submits the organiser paperwork, and the deadline
- The show-day backup plan and who is on the floor
- The dismantle plan, and where reusable elements are stored
- The project manager's name and mobile number
- What the quote excludes, in writing and signed
- The build-up arrival slot, crew size and shift hours
- The payment milestones and the deliverable behind each one
The next step
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.
We are happy to be interviewed this way — written answers, every question. Design free with a confirmed fabrication order, production in our own workshops, organiser submissions handled, and one named project manager accountable from brief through dismantle.
Frequently asked questions
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.
Should I ask about things that could go wrong?+
Yes, and the quality of the answer matters more than the content. A vendor who describes the slack in their schedule, the spares they carry and who they would call has thought about failure. One who says nothing has ever gone wrong has not.
What should I ask an event production company vendor about pricing?+
Quoted per production; agency rates available. Beyond the figure, ask what drives it, what would make it cheaper, which lines are excluded, and what the pre-tax total is. A vendor who can rank the drivers for your brief has priced the job rather than guessed at it.
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.
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.
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.
What if a vendor refuses to itemise the quote?+
Treat the refusal as the answer. Without line items you cannot compare two quotes, remove scope you do not need, or tell the difference between a cheaper vendor and a smaller scope.
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.
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