By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 9 min read
Short answer
To brief turnkey messe solutions accurately, answer thirteen questions on one page — the space, the dates, the goal with a figure attached, the audience, the contents, the must-have zones, the finish level, the brand files, the budget range and the approval chain — and send the identical text to every supplier. That is what makes two quotes comparable; a blank field is a gap the supplier must price, and they will price it safely rather than cheaply.
Key takeaways
- One page is enough. A dozen fields, a budget range and three reference images beat a five-page document with no numbers in it.
- Send the identical brief to every supplier. Quotes are only comparable if they answer the same question.
- Share the budget as a range. A supplier who does not know the band will either over-design and lose your week, or under-design and lose the show.
- Every blank field becomes an assumption, and every assumption is priced for the worst case. That is the whole argument for filling it in.
- Area and open sides do more to the price than any design decision. 18 sq.m with two open sides and 18 sq.m inline are not the same job.
- Write "advise us" rather than deleting a field. A supplier cannot tell a deliberate no from an oversight, and prices the safer reading.
The quote is a statement about your brief
Most exhibitors believe a quote is a statement about a supplier. It is mostly a statement about a brief. Given the dimensions, the dates, the specification and the outcome, any competent supplier arrives at a similar number; given "we need something impressive for the event next month", three will return three unrelated figures, and the gap between them is not skill — it is the different assumptions each one made to fill your gaps.
This is why briefing well is a commercial skill rather than a creative one. Large exhibitors, government bodies, export councils and multinationals who want a single accountable partner for the whole participation are the people it costs most, because they are the ones who have to defend a comparison internally. On turnkey messe solutions the figures move with total area and number of co-exhibitors, scope (design, build, AV, furniture, logistics, manpower, hospitality) and number of cities or shows in the programme — none of which a supplier can know unless you write it down.
The other return is calendar time, and it is larger than people expect. Complete brief: concept and itemised quote in about two days. Incomplete brief: a question, a two-day wait for your reply, another question, and a drawing in the second week — from a lead time that is only 3 weeks at this size. Twenty minutes of writing buys back most of a week.
Three quotes 40% apart usually means three different jobs were priced, not that one supplier is expensive.
Every field, why it is asked, and a filled example
This table is the template. The left column is what to write; the middle column is the reason a supplier asks, so you can judge for yourself whether an answer is good enough; the right column is a worked answer from a complete brief — diagnostics and medical devices company, selling to hospitals and pathology labs, working with 18 sq.m (6 × 3 m).
Read the middle column carefully. Every one of those reasons connects to a decision somebody has to make within the next few days, which is why vague answers do not simply produce vague results — they produce delayed ones.
| Field | Why it is asked | Example answer |
|---|---|---|
| Company, brand and what you sell | Decides tone: the same budget produces very different work for a technical audience and a consumer one | Diagnostics and medical devices company, selling to hospitals and pathology labs |
| Event name, city, venue and hall | Determines freight, crew availability and the rules the design has to satisfy | Three-day B2B industry show; hall and stall number as per the allotment letter |
| Build-up, show and dismantle dates | Every other date in the project is calculated backwards from this one | Build-up two days before; show three days; dismantle the final night |
| Who you want to reach | Sets how open or how focused the whole thing has to be, and from how far away it must read | Hospital procurement, lab heads and consulting pathologists; appointment-led |
| Products or messages to feature | Fixes the hero position and everything that has to support it — loading, power, cues, sightlines | Two bench analysers, 90 kg each, and a touchscreen showing the reporting workflow |
| Brand assets and references | Print-ready files decide whether graphics can be produced at all; references tell the designer what you mean by words like "premium" | Logo in vector, brand guidelines, product photography; three reference images with a line on each |
| Budget range | Keeps the concept buildable. A range is enough and it is not a negotiating position | ₹3–4 lakh, excluding venue charges and GST |
| Stall area in sq.m | It sets the price, the staff count and the build weeks before any design decision is made | 18 sq.m (6 × 3 m) |
| Number of open sides | Each open side is another finished face, another lighting run and more staff — an island costs more per sq.m than an inline stand of the same area | One open side, inline |
| Height limit and rigging rules | Fixes whether a hanging banner, a brand tower or a second storey is even allowed, and whether the organiser needs structural calculations | 4 m maximum; no rigging from the hall roof permitted |
| Must-have zones | Storage, meetings, demo, pantry and a seating corner all consume area, and what is left over is your display | Two seated demo stations, a private discussion room, reception desk and secure store |
Keep every heading even where the answer is "none" or "advise us". A deleted line reads as an oversight, and an oversight gets priced defensively.
The blank version, ready to paste
Here is the blank form. Most lines are a word or a number. Fill it in once, send it unchanged to each supplier, and keep a copy, because it is also the document you will check the quote against at sign-off.
Do not describe the references, attach them — and annotate them. An unannotated image is ambiguous: the designer cannot tell whether you liked the shape, the lighting, the colour or the fact that it was busy in the photograph.
- Company / brand, and what you sell:
- Event name, city and venue:
- Primary goal, with a number attached:
- Secondary goal, if any:
- What is being shown, demonstrated or revealed:
- Elements you do not want:
- Brand assets attached (logo, guidelines, product photography):
- Reference images attached, with a line on what you liked about each:
- Budget range, and what it excludes:
- Who approves, and by when:
- How many suppliers you are briefing:
- Anything the venue or organiser restricts that we should know about:
- Stall / stand number, as allotted:
- Show dates and opening hours:
- Dismantle window:
- Stall area in sq.m, and dimensions if known:
- Number of open sides (1 inline, 2 corner, 3 three-side open, 4 island):
- Height limit, and whether rigging from the roof is allowed:
- Must-have zones (demo, meeting, storage, pantry, seating, reception):
What a usable brief actually reads like
A filled form is not automatically a good brief; the answers have to be usable. Here is the same information written out properly, in six short paragraphs, by the organisation in the example column above.
Notice how little of it is about appearance. Appearance is the one thing a supplier can propose; everything else has to come from you.
01
Context: the business and the buyer
We sell diagnostics instruments and the reporting software that runs them, to hospital procurement teams, laboratory heads and consulting pathologists. Almost all of our show conversations are pre-scheduled and they are long — twenty minutes or more — so the stall has to support seated, quiet discussion rather than aisle traffic. This is our fourth show and our second custom build.
02
The space, the dates and the rules
The space is 18 sq.m (6 × 3 m), one open side, inline, per the allotment paperwork. Height limit 4 m, no roof rigging. Build-up opens two days before doors; the show is three days; the stand has to be cleared the last night. Manual and portal login are ready to hand over.
03
The job the stall has to do
Primary goal: hold 25 scheduled meetings with laboratory heads over the show, and run the software workflow demonstration about 30 times. Secondary: be visible enough that a walk-in consultant can see what we do in three seconds from the aisle. The tension between those two is the design problem — we need a quiet interior and a legible exterior, and we would rather sacrifice open display area than acoustic separation.
04
Contents, weights and storage
Two bench analysers, 90 kg each, and a touchscreen showing the reporting workflow. Literature for about 400 visitors, bags and jackets for 2 staff, and a small lockable store, because we do not want stock on the display floor. Two seated demo stations, a private discussion room, reception desk and secure store. Nothing above 4 m, and we would rather not have a raised platform if it means a step our visitors have to cross.
05
The money
Budget: ₹3–4 lakh, covering the stand only — space rent is settled with the organiser and GST is extra. If the figure comes back high we would sooner cut structure than cut lighting. Please also flag what is reusable, since there is another show on the calendar inside twelve months.
06
Who approves, and how fast
Approval runs through our marketing head and then a compliance review, because any clinical claim on the graphics has to be checked. Budget for seven working days of internal sign-off and keep the graphic copy editable until late. We are approaching three suppliers with this brief and will compare on itemised scope, not on the total.
From brief to itemised quote
With every field answered, the quote is arithmetic rather than conversation. Here is what the brief above produces at 18 sq.m: the structure at the bottom of the published ₹9,000–₹18,000 per sq.m band, then each additional scope on its own line. It comes out inside the ₹3–4 lakh band the brief stated — which is what a budget range is for.
What to take from this is the split, not the number. 48% is the build; the remaining 52% is graphics, lighting, flooring, furniture, freight and crew. Within a lump sum those six lines are invisible and interchangeable, so a brief that asks for itemisation is asking for the only thing that makes two quotes legible.
| Structure and joinery (18 sq.m × ₹9,000) | ₹1,62,000 |
|---|---|
| Graphics — tensioned fabric wall, product and fascia panels | ₹48,000 |
| Lighting — track, product spots and a backlit brand mark | ₹26,000 |
| Flooring, carpet and cable management | ₹21,000 |
| Furniture — reception counter, seating and a lockable store | ₹19,000 |
| Transport, both ways | ₹29,000 |
| Installation, crew, supervision and dismantle | ₹35,000 |
| Indicative total for the scope, before GST | ₹3,40,000 |
Illustrative. The structure sits at the bottom of the published ₹9,000–₹18,000 per sq.m band; space rent and GST are outside the figure entirely. Finish level, city, build-up hours and AV all move it, which is why the brief exists.
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The cost of a blank field
If you only read one part of this page, read this. Nothing in a quote can be left unpriced, so a blank field forces a decision: guess low and risk the job, or guess high and carry it in the price. Commercially, suppliers guess high. The blank field is therefore not neutral — it is a surcharge you chose without knowing it.
The invisibility is what makes it expensive. Assumptions are never itemised, so two quotes built on opposite guesses look like a straightforward price difference — and the one that guessed your way is indistinguishable from the one that is genuinely cheaper.
| Field left blank | What the supplier has to assume | What it does to the quote |
|---|---|---|
| Primary goal | A general-purpose approach | Work that presents well and achieves nothing in particular |
| Dates and times | A comfortable schedule | Night-shift and rush charges surface after the order rather than inside the price |
| Budget range | Mid-band, or the top of it | A wasted revision round in one direction or the other |
| Brand files | Artwork will be supplied later | The longest-lead item starts last, which is where shows are lost |
| Approvers and decision date | One reviewer, fast turnaround | Revision rounds run out, and the extra ones push production |
| Stall area | Nothing can be assumed | Either no figure, or a per-unit rate that hides the real number |
| Number of open sides | Usually the worst case — more finished faces | You pay for finished faces the position does not actually have |
| Product weights and power | Standard plinths and a domestic socket | On-site rework during build-up, at build-up prices |
| Must-have zones | Display only | Zones appear late and come straight out of the display you approved |
| Finish level | Mid-band laminate | The stand is built as specified, and the specification was a word |
None of these assumptions is a supplier behaving badly. Each is the only rational response to a gap. The fix is on your side of the table and takes twenty minutes.
You will never see "we assumed the worst case" on a quote. You will only see a number that looks expensive.
What a turnkey messe solutions brief needs beyond the basics
A turnkey messe solutions scope has its own variables, and leaving them out is what turns a reasonable quote into a vague one. The lines below are the ones that matter. None of them requires technical knowledge to answer — only a decision, or an admission that there is not one yet.
Where you have no view, say "advise us" — a supplier will happily recommend, and will price the recommendation. What they cannot do is price a blank.
- The full list of shows or events in the programme, with dates and cities
- Which elements are in scope — design, build, AV, furniture, flooring, logistics, manpower, hospitality
- Number of co-exhibitors or departments sharing the space, and who approves their branding
- Whether a single consolidated invoice is required, and in whose name
- Whether assets are stored between shows, and who pays for the storage
How briefs go wrong
A brief fails in predictable ways, and almost none of them are about effort — plenty of unusable briefs are five pages long. What distinguishes the usable ones is numbers and outcomes rather than description.
Top of the list is describing the look rather than the job. Adjectives do not constrain anything, which is why every supplier can agree to them and still produce something you did not want. Name the behaviour instead: what should someone do, and where should they be standing when they do it?
The other expensive habit is sending a slightly better brief to each successive supplier. The result is a set of quotes answering different questions, and a decision made on the quality of the presentation rather than the scope behind it.
- Asking for a "best price" instead of an itemised quote against a fixed scope
- Five pages of company background and no single sentence about the outcome
- A different, improved brief sent to each supplier, destroying comparability
- No area or open sides, which makes the quote arithmetic impossible
- Reference images with no explanation of what you liked in them
- Not sending the exhibitor manual, which contains the rules the design has to obey
- Deleting fields that do not apply, so the supplier cannot tell "no" from "forgotten"
- No named approver, so revision rounds expand until production is squeezed
- No budget range, which produces either an unaffordable concept or an under-designed one
- Three goals of equal weight, which means the result has to compromise all three
What happens when you send it
Paste your filled brief into our enquiry form, or email it with your brand files and reference images attached. A complete brief comes back as a concept and an itemised quote, usually within 48 hours; an incomplete one comes back as questions, which costs you both a day.
Package pricing per show. What comes as standard: free design with a confirmed fabrication order, in-house production rather than a sub-contractor chain, the organiser paperwork prepared and filed for you, and a single accountable project manager from brief to dismantle.
- Design, build, AV and furniture
- Logistics and storage
- Single point of contact
- Post-show reporting
Frequently asked questions
How long should the brief be?+
One page. Around twenty lines, most of them one-word or one-number answers, with brand files and three annotated reference images attached separately. Length is not depth — a five-page brief with no dimensions, dates or budget in it is less useful than four lines that have all three.
Should I send the same brief to every supplier?+
Send the identical text, word for word. The moment one supplier has extra detail, the quotes stop being comparable and you are choosing on presentation instead of scope. Add any new detail to all of them at once.
What if I do not know the answer to a field?+
Say so explicitly. "Advise us" is a useful instruction and will get you a recommendation; a missing line gets you an assumption, and assumptions are priced for the worst case. Keep every heading in the document even when the answer is "none".
Why does the number of open sides matter so much?+
Each open side is another finished face, another lighting run, another entry point to plan and more staff to cover. An island stall and an inline stall of the same area are different jobs, and the quote reflects that before any design decision is made.
What does a brief like this cost to deliver at 18 sq.m?+
Using the published ₹9,000–₹18,000 per sq.m band for the structure and separate lines for graphics, lighting, flooring, furniture, transport and crew, the worked example on this page totals ₹3,40,000 before GST. Space rent paid to the organiser is separate.
How quickly will I get a concept back?+
A complete brief usually returns a concept and an itemised quote within 48 hours. An incomplete one returns a clarification email instead, and that exchange typically adds two days at the front of a schedule that is rarely generous.
Do I need to specify finishes and materials in the brief?+
Not by name. State the finish level in words and let the supplier propose specific laminates, paints and substrates in the materials schedule. What matters is that the schedule exists and is named before you sign off, so the built stall cannot drift from the render.
What is the single most important field?+
The primary goal, with a number in it. Dimensions and dates are the fields a supplier cannot work without, but the goal is the field that decides whether the work is any good — reach and depth optimise differently, and the same budget spent on each produces unrecognisably different results.
Does this template work for turnkey messe solutions as well as for a plain stall?+
The core is the same; the additions differ. A turnkey messe solutions brief needs a handful of further lines that change the quote materially, and they are listed on this page. They sound technical but each is a yes, a no or a number.
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