By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 13 min read
Short answer
The 15 questions worth asking an octanorm & system 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
- Put the same questions to three vendors and write the answers in three columns. The gaps do the work for you.
- Get the project manager's name, the crew size and the build-up shift hours in writing.
- Tie each payment milestone to a deliverable you can inspect, and keep a balance payable after handover.
- Ask what your area can physically hold — at 36 sq.m the honest answer is about 11 visitors and 4 staff.
- Ask what the vendor would change about your brief. A supplier with no opinion is not reading it.
- Grade answers on specificity: a name, a date, a document or a number beats any amount of reassurance.
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.
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 an octanorm & system stalls vendor who offers only the second has told you something useful anyway.
Keep to the order. Each stage asks things that are still answerable truthfully at that point: capability before you shortlist, scope while the quote is being built, documents before money moves, logistics once the build is done. Out of sequence, the same questions produce politer and less useful replies.
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 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. 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.
02
2. Have you worked at my venue, and what are its rules on height, rigging and fire rating?
A good answer is specific about the hall — the height limit, whether rigging is allowed, what fire certification the organiser demands, and when drawings have to be submitted. A bad answer is "we work at every venue in India". Breadth is not the claim you need; one correct hall rule tells you more than a list of twenty cities.
03
3. 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.
04
4. 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.
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 octanorm & system stalls pricing is mysterious; the drivers are listed below. Economical packages for 9–18 sq.m booths. 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.
- 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. 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.
02
6. 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.
03
7. 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.
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.
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. 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.
02
10. 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.
03
11. 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.
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.
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 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 — 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 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 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.
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.
A quick reference for the call
The table below compresses the questions where the answer most often misleads. Each row is the same test: does the reply contain a verifiable specific, or does it contain comfort? Keep it open on the call rather than reading it afterwards.
| What you ask | A good answer sounds like | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| What is excluded | A written exclusion page attached to the quote | The phrase all-inclusive, with no list behind it |
| 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 if something fails mid-show | Spares on site and a named person in the building | Nothing has ever failed |
| What will I approve before cutting | Dimensioned plans and elevations, by a stated date | The render you have already been shown |
| What would make it cheaper | A scope trade — simpler finish, fewer panels, a reused frame | A flat discount with no change to the scope |
| 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 |
| Who submits to the organiser | The documents, the person and the deadline | The organiser will let you know |
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.
What can your area actually hold?
A final question, and the most revealing of the lot: what will my area actually hold? It takes an octanorm & system stalls vendor about ten seconds to work out, which means an evasive answer is not a limitation of the question.
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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 72 sq.m | 57.6 sq.m | 10.8 sq.m | 8 | 23 | 5 |
| 100 sq.m | 80 sq.m | 15 sq.m | 12 | 32 | 5 |
Figures follow the published ratios — one staff member per 9 sq.m (minimum 2) and one visitor per 2.5 sq.m of display. Build weeks exclude your own approval time.
Answers that should end the conversation
Not everything here needs weighing against the price. The first group holds the failures peculiar to octanorm & system 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
- Reference images that cannot be tied to a show, a size or a year
- An advance requested before any scope document exists
- A discount offered the moment you hesitate, with nothing removed from the scope
- Every question fielded by the salesperson and none by anyone who builds
- Fabrication offered without drawings for you to approve first
- A deadline on your decision that belongs to their cash flow rather than your show
- A refusal to name the workshop or studio, or a visit that is always possible next month
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.
- The date on which you will approve dimensioned drawings
- What the quote excludes, in writing and signed
- Who submits the organiser paperwork, and the deadline
- The dismantle plan, and where reusable elements are stored
- The build-up arrival slot, crew size and shift hours
- What the vendor needs from you, and by when
- The show-day backup plan and who is on the floor
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.
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
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.
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 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.
What should I ask an octanorm & system stalls vendor about pricing?+
Economical packages for 9–18 sq.m booths. 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 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.
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.
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.
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