The Exhibitionist. Steve Reeder

stand operations and opening lines, how will they know what they’re trying to achieve and how to engage with visitors. Equally, you may design a high-impact and engaging stand but if you don’t factor in any costs to transport or build it, how do you intend to get it from the warehouse to the show floor? Businesses don’t react well to surprises or uncertainty so in ensuring that you have all the elements factored into your budget you’re at least informed, even if it is a scary number. And it’s a much scarier number when no one is expecting it and it only reveals itself as part of the final evaluation.

      In starting to pull together an approximate budget, it’s helpful to start at a macro level and think about how much you might allocate to each of the key areas of budget. Here’s a guide that outlines an average breakdown at that level:

Element	% of budget
Buying space	30%
Stand design and build	25%
Additional services	10%
Staff and travel	20%
Promotional	10%
Miscellaneous	5%
Total	100%
Contingency	20%

      Buying space

      The next section will focus on the process of booking space and how you can add value to your budget in this area. On average the rates for booking space at UK events are around £300 per square metre and shell schemes around £350–£400 per square metre. For more detailed explanations of shell and space options jump ahead to the next section, but shell schemes often come with a number of additional features such as walls, lighting, power, etc., making them more expensive than just buying the physical space. If you’re considering investing in space only, the overall cost of delivering the whole show is often estimated at around three times the cost of the space. For example, investing in a 5m × 4m space at a rate of £300 per square metre = 20 × £300 = £6,000. Therefore, the budget expectation for delivering at this scale could be around £18,000, giving you a grand total of £21,600 including a contingency element.

      For shell schemes, the average spend is roughly double the cost of the space. For example, investing in a 3m × 3m shell at £375 per square metre = 9 × £375 = £3,375. Therefore, a total budget expectation for delivering at this scale could be around £8,100 including your contingency pot.

      Stand design and build

      Again, we will discuss some of the elements to consider when briefing an agency on developing your presence at the show, but from a budgeting perspective it is sensible to allocate around 25% of your funds for this. Even if you are investing in a shell scheme it’s important to invest in creating graphics boards and displays that reflect your brand personality professionally. We’ve seen A4 print outs stuck to dirty grey wall panels and they really don’t look impressive. This chunk of budget also mentions ‘Build’ as we’ve worked with clients who blew all their cash on creating beautiful stands but had to sacrifice a member of staff on the stand as their travel and accommodation expenses covered the shipping and building of the stand that wasn’t in the original costs (and yes this is bad practice from the agency who didn’t include these costs in their proposals).

      Additional services

      The one that always catches exhibitors out and ends up becoming a money pit if you leave it to the last minute. Depending on what you negotiate when you’re booking your stand you may or may not get a whole range of services such as power, electrics, flooring, furniture, etc., included in your package (more often than not, it isn’t included). Equally you may design a stand incorporating the latest tech that requires good broadband access without realising this is all to be paid for. There are a whole host of things that crop up under ‘additional services’ that you might need, and if you leave it until the day before the show opens they can cost you up to 20% more than booking in advance.

      Staff and travel

      Just to be clear we’re not talking staff salaries here as this is just about the costs you need to add into your physical budget, but don’t underestimate that’s a less visible cost to the business. However, if your staff do require additional or enhanced payments for working weekends/Bank Holidays, these and any associated costs will have to be accounted for within your budget. As good practice some organisations also include any costs associated with backfilling essential roles vacated by stand members while at the show as this is a legitimate cost to the business.

      If you’re not sure how many staff you need, a good estimate is one person per eight square metres with an absolute minimum of two. So, taking our 20 square metre example from above, the ideal number of people would be two or three and with nine square metres you would need two. In addition to the on-site costs of travel and accommodation, it’s worth allocating some cost within this budget for staff training – even if that’s only two of you, take the time to review your plan before arriving on-site. Any more than four members in your team and it’s worth getting everyone together in one place around two weeks prior to the event for a full briefing.

      Promotional

      As much as the event organisers will work hard to get visitors through the door, it’s your job to get them to your stand. We’ll talk in more detail later about pre-show and at-show marketing, but it is advisable to allocate some funds for this, whether it’s creating giveaways for the stand or placing adverts in relevant trade magazines. Thankfully in our digital age there’s a lot that can be done for free (apart from the cost of time) on social media and with online marketing that can help you and save money on this element. Included in this section would be any samples (including transportation costs) you plan to distribute and the cost of any promotional activity or deals you will be running.

      Miscellaneous

      Having a miscellaneous line in your budget just gives you some breathing room for ‘stuff’ that will inevitably come up, such as a networking dinner or client entertaining, additional venue charges, etc., that you can plan for but don’t know about until you start really getting into the finer detail of the preparation.

      Contingency

      We’re suggesting 20% contingency, which is an absolute ideal. If you can only stretch to 10% then it’s still a great safety blanket for when your new MD decides he wants to attend all four days and needs accommodation at the best hotel in town (it happens) or when one of your staff drops the iPad on the first day and you need to replace it to actually capture all the brilliant prospects you’re meeting (this also happens). The most frustrating use of contingency we’ve experienced is when a major, global food producer with a well-known brand created an amazing ice-cream parlour as the heart of their stand. In 2019, if you book power it is usually for 24 hours but there were times when you had to be sure you ordered a round the clock supply otherwise the electricity to your stand got switched off at 6pm. Unfortunately, the exhibitor hadn’t read the Exhibitor Manual and didn’t book 24-hour power and despite a massive budget and an impressive stand, they were serving milkshake instead of ice-cream on day two of the show. They had been delighted with themselves that up until the show opening they hadn’t spent any of their contingency – it soon disappeared as they went about ordering new show stock via a rapid overnight courier and paying for additional power (at a 20% premium above the pre-show booking rate!). Things will crop up, things will go wrong, that’s just exhibitions, but with enough planning and some contingency you should be able to sort them out relatively easily and cheaply.

      Once you have worked through your estimated total investment and allocated costs to each of the elements then it’s time to start really drilling down into the detail of where you’ll be spending your money. If you’ve bought this book alongside The Exhibitionist Project Manager Journal we’ve included some budget templates in there that should help you start to plan how and where you’re going to spend your money – but keep it flexible as things will change. After the show, it’s always worth hanging onto your budget trackers both for evaluation purposes and reviewing what you need for trade shows in the future.

      Money pits

      There are ways you can really waste money on trade shows so here are our five key watch-outs to