Standroom
Custom exhibition stands, drawn for your plot and built to the hall manual
A custom stand starts with a plot number, an organiser's manual and an idea of what you want people to do when they reach you. We draw it, show it to you as a realistic render, then make it on our own floor and install it. You deal with the same people the whole way through.
Start from the plot
The position you have booked changes the brief before anything is drawn. An island stand is open on all four sides and has to work from every aisle. A peninsula backs onto a neighbour and is open on three. A corner plot gets two open sides and a lot of passing traffic, and usually one wall that has to carry the brand on its own.
Space-only means an empty rectangle of hall floor and nothing else. Everything on it is yours to build, which is why space-only stands want the longest run-in. If you are on shell scheme, the organiser's walls and fascia are already there and the job is different, but the thinking about what a visitor sees from the aisle is the same.
See it before it is made
The hardest part of commissioning a stand is agreeing to spend a large sum on something you cannot yet see. So the first thing you get is a render of your stand standing in its plot, lit, with your graphics on it. It is made from our own drawings, so what you approve is what gets built.
Changes at this stage are cheap. Moving a counter, swapping a wall for a screen or dropping a bulkhead takes days on a drawing. The same change once timber is cut costs real money and eats into the build.
The hall rules, early
Picture build-up morning. Your crew has the back wall half up when the floor manager walks over with the manual open at the height rules. The wall is forty centimetres over, and it is coming down. It is always avoidable, because every limit was written down weeks before.
The numbers vary by venue and by show, so the manual for your show is the one that counts. As a rough guide, Olympia London usually caps space-only stands at four metres including the platform. At the NEC most shows set three to four metres, and anything above four needs structural drawings and calculations signed off before build. ExCeL's main halls usually allow six metres, with more only after full engineering sign-off.
A double-deck stand is its own category. It needs an independent structural engineer's calculations and a Certificate of Structural Adequacy before the organiser issues a Certificate to Build, and that approval usually adds two to three weeks. We check all of this before you fall for a design the hall will refuse.
Time and money
A mid-sized custom stand normally takes ten to fourteen weeks from brief to show, with roughly the first third spent on design and approvals. Large or two-storey stands need longer. Less time is possible, but the choices narrow.
Your budget has two halves that are easy to blur. Space rental goes to the organiser. The stand goes to your builder. A good deal of any show budget has gone on space, travel, staff and logistics before a single visitor reaches you, which is why the stand money has to work hard. Graphics, lighting, electrics and rigging are where quotes tend to grow after the headline number, so we price them inside the stand from the start. The number you take to your finance team is then the number you pay.
About custom exhibition stands
How early should a custom stand for a space-only plot be briefed?
Around twelve weeks before the show is a sensible minimum for a space-only custom stand, and ten to fourteen weeks is normal for a mid-sized build. That leaves time for design, the organiser's approvals and making without rushing any of them. Two-storey stands need longer because structural approval alone can add two to three weeks.
Can a custom exhibition stand be taller than the standard height limit?
Sometimes. Many halls allow extra height in set areas or after approval, but anything above the standard limit usually needs structural drawings and calculations signed off before build. The organiser's manual for your show is the rule that counts, so we read it before drawing anything tall.
Who writes the risk assessment for a custom stand build?
When a contractor builds your stand, the contractor owns the risk assessment and method statement for build-up and breakdown, usually submitted through the show's online portal. You stay responsible for safety on the open days. We write and submit the RAMS for the work we do.
Send us the organiser's manual and your plot number.
A floor plan with the plot marked helps too. The reply comes from someone who has read the manual before answering.
info@stillroomcreative.com