By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 13 min read
Short answer
The 15 questions worth asking a modular exhibition stalls 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
- Ask what the quote excludes, never whether everything is included — the second question always gets a yes.
- Insist on approving dimensioned drawings rather than a render before fabrication starts.
- Put the same questions to three vendors and write the answers in three columns. The gaps do the work for you.
- Ask what the vendor would change about your brief. A supplier with no opinion is not reading it.
- Tie each payment milestone to a deliverable you can inspect, and keep a balance payable after handover.
- Grade answers on specificity: a name, a date, a document or a number beats any amount of reassurance.
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.
That is why each question carries two notes: the answer that should settle it, and the answer that should worry you. The underlying test never changes. Specifics can be checked; reassurance cannot, and a modular exhibition stalls vendor who offers only the second has told you something useful anyway.
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.
First stage — is this firm worth briefing? (questions 1 to 4)
These decide who is worth briefing at all. Ask them on a call, before any design or pricing conversation, because they are about the firm rather than about your project — and because the answers are much harder to tailor when the vendor does not yet know what you want to hear.
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 exhibitors, procurement teams and agencies who need a stall built on time, to drawing, and safely at the venue, 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. 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.
02
2. Can I visit the workshop or studio this week?
A good answer is a day and an address. A bad answer is any version of "later" — nearer the show, after the order, once the design is approved. The request is routine for anyone buying something fabricated, so reluctance to host it is itself the finding, and you get that finding before spending a rupee.
03
3. 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.
04
4. 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.
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 modular exhibition stalls are not a secret — they are the list below. Lower cost per show from the second event onward. 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.
- Stall area in square metres and number of open sides
- Finish level (laminate, paint, veneer, acrylic, metal)
- Height, hanging structures and double-decker elements
- LED walls, lighting and raised flooring
- Distance from the workshop to the venue and build-up hours
01
5. Is GST included, and what is the pre-tax total?
A good answer gives both figures without being chased, because that is the only way two quotes can be compared on the same basis. A bad answer is ambiguity, or a total that quietly changes basis between the proposal and the invoice. Ask also which organiser or venue charges will be billed through the vendor rather than directly to you.
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. If I remove something from this quote, what does the total become?
A good answer is a revised figure within a day, because the quote was assembled from line items in the first place. A bad answer is a vague "we'll adjust" or a total that barely moves — the first means there were no line items, the second means the removed item was never honestly costed.
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.
Before you sign: 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.
Note that none of these is about design or price. They are about documents, dates and authority — the three things that determine whether a stand gets built as agreed or as improvised.
01
9. 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.
02
10. 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.
03
11. What happens if you are late?
A good answer is uncomfortable but specific: here is the slack in the schedule, here is who we call, here is what we would do. A bad answer is that it has never happened. You are not really looking for a penalty clause — you are looking for evidence that somebody has thought about the failure case before being inside it.
04
12. What drawings will I approve, and by when, before anything is cut?
A good answer names dimensioned plans and elevations with finishes and lighting positions marked, and gives you a date for sign-off. A bad answer is "you've approved the render". A render is an impression; a drawing is an instruction. If what you signed has no dimensions on it, "this is not what we approved" is an argument you cannot win.
Stage 4 — before build-up (questions 13 to 15)
Save these for the fortnight before the show. By then production is finished and everything that can still go wrong is logistical. It is also the stage buyers most often skip, which is precisely why asking gets you an unpolished answer.
Remember what you are buying: 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. None of that survives a build-up that runs late, so these questions are really about the only hours in the project that cannot be recovered.
01
13. 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.
02
14. What is the build-up plan — arrival slot, crew size and working hours?
A good answer is a time, a number of people, a shift pattern, and the hour by which the stand will be finished and cleaned before doors open. A bad answer is "we'll be there from day one". Build-up windows are short and shared with every other exhibitor in the hall, so a vendor without a scheduled slot is planning to queue for the loading bay.
03
15. Who dismantles and clears the stand, and what happens to the reusable elements?
A good answer is the same crew, inside the organiser's dismantle window, with the reusable frames and graphics named and a storage arrangement stated. A bad answer is silence, because dismantle was never priced. This is where deposits are forfeited, penalties are charged, and assets you paid to fabricate quietly go to landfill.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
The answers most likely to mislead you
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.
| The question | What a real answer contains | What should make you pause |
|---|---|---|
| What materials are quoted | Board thickness, finish and fire treatment, named | Premium quality, with no specification |
| What will I approve before cutting | Dimensioned plans and elevations, by a stated date | The render you have already been shown |
| What are the payment milestones | Each instalment tied to something you can inspect | A schedule of dates, with most of it up front |
| What is excluded | A written exclusion page attached to the quote | The phrase all-inclusive, with no list behind it |
| What do you need from me | A dated list of inputs | Nothing, we'll handle it |
| Who submits to the organiser | The documents, the person and the deadline | The organiser will let you know |
| What would make it cheaper | A scope trade — simpler finish, fewer panels, a reused frame | A flat discount with no change to the scope |
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?
A final question, and the most revealing of the lot: what will my area actually hold? It takes a modular exhibition stalls vendor about ten seconds to work out, which means an evasive answer is not a limitation of the question.
Work it through once and you can check any vendor's answer. Storage: 10% up to 18 sq.m, 15% above. Meetings: 5%, or 20% if that is why you are exhibiting. Display takes the balance, holds one visitor per 2.5 sq.m, and the stand needs one staff member per 9 sq.m of total area.
The reason to ask is that nobody else will. Marketing sets a footfall target, procurement books the area, and the two numbers are rarely held up against each other until the aisle is blocked. Finding the mismatch while the brief is open costs nothing.
| Size booked | Usable display | Storage taken | Staff | Visitors it holds | Lead time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 sq.m | 7.6 sq.m | 0.9 sq.m | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 24 sq.m | 19.2 sq.m | 3.6 sq.m | 3 | 7 | 4 |
| 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 |
Same arithmetic as the stall planner: staffing is area ÷ 9 with a floor of 2, and the lead time runs 3 weeks base, +1 from 24 sq.m, +2 from 54 sq.m, +2 for premium finishes and +2 for a second storey.
Answers that should end the conversation
Not everything here needs weighing against the price. The first group holds the failures peculiar to modular exhibition stalls, the ones you cannot recover from in a hall; the second holds the behaviours that reliably precede them.
- Sub-contracted builds with no quality control
- Non fire-retardant materials rejected at the venue
- Late arrival on site that eats into build-up time
- Hidden extras for electrical, carpet or dismantling
- 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
- Fabrication offered without drawings for you to approve first
- A discount offered the moment you hesitate, with nothing removed from the scope
- 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
- A material specification that says premium and names nothing
Specifics are short. Reassurance needs paragraphs.
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.
Then read the set backwards, from the outcome to the answers. You are not buying a stand; you are buying a result at a show, and the questions only matter in so far as they predict it. A vendor who answers everything well and cannot discuss what the show has to achieve is a builder rather than a partner — useful, but you will have to supply the thinking yourself.
- The build-up arrival slot, crew size and shift hours
- What the vendor needs from you, and by when
- The project manager's name and mobile number
- The payment milestones and the deliverable behind each one
- Who submits the organiser paperwork, and the deadline
- The dismantle plan, and where reusable elements are stored
- What the quote excludes, in writing and signed
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.
We answer all of them in writing. Design is free with every confirmed fabrication order, fabrication happens in our own workshops, we prepare the organiser drawings and the approvals, and one project manager stays on the job from brief through dismantle.
Frequently asked questions
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.
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.
When should I ask about build-up?+
A week or two before the show, once production is finished. Ask for the arrival slot, the crew size, the shift hours and the hour the stand will be finished and cleaned — not the hour build-up closes.
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.
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 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.
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.
Should the answers be in writing?+
Yes. Scope, inclusions, exclusions, drawing dates, milestones and the named site contact all belong in the quote or the contract. A verbal answer is a recollection, not a commitment.
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