How to Choose an Exhibition Company

Every proposal looks the same

Proposals arrive worded almost identically: long experience, a professional team, high quality, on-time delivery. None of that can be checked, so none of it separates anyone. The questions below are built to have an answer that is either verifiable or absent.

1. 01

   A schedule in days

   Ask for a schedule of dates, not durations.

2. 02

   Work at your scale

   A portfolio of small stands does not prove capacity for a large hall, and the reverse holds too. Ask for two projects at roughly your area, and for the same kind of client: government, industrial or commercial.

3. 03

   Who actually fabricates

   Ask plainly: do you fabricate in house or subcontract? Either answer is acceptable, but it changes who you hold responsible for a delay. A company that dodges the question has answered it.

4. 04

   Who stands in the hall

   The event days are the ones your guests see. Ask for the name and role of the operations supervisor and how many days they will be present.

5. 05

   A 3D view before signing

   A flat plan hides height and sightline problems. Ask for a 3D view from the visitor eye level rather than from above, with the proposed materials named. A company that will not render before the contract will surprise you after it.

6. 06

   Registration and permits

   Ask for the commercial registration number and verify it. Then ask who handles venue permits and insurance: you or them. This line is forgotten in quotes and surfaces days before opening.

7. 07

   The delay plan

   Ask what happens if sign-off slips by a week. The answer reveals whether their schedule has slack, or whether it assumes everything goes exactly to plan.

What the proposal must contain before you sign

A good proposal is a document you can return to in a dispute. A weak one is an email with a total in it. These seven items are the difference:

• The price broken into lines: design, fabrication, installation, operating days, dismantle. A single total makes two proposals impossible to compare.
• Dates rather than durations, including the final sign-off date and the hall access date.
• What is and is not included, in writing. Power, internet, insurance and permits are the lines that usually surface later.
• The number of operating days, the number of supervisors and their hours.
• The proposed materials by name: panel type, screen type and size, flooring type. "High quality materials" is not a specification.
• What happens if you change something after sign-off, and how it is priced.
• Who owns the design after the event ends.

What should not convince you

• A portfolio with no client names. Attractive images with nobody behind them prove no delivery.
• Large figures with no backing: an event count or a square-metre total with no documented work you can look at.
• A price far below the rest. It usually means a line was left out and will reappear, or that operating days were not counted.
• A promise of a shorter schedule than everyone else with no explanation. Speed whose mechanism is not described is not an advantage.
• Refusing to produce a 3D view before the contract.

Where we stand against these questions

The seven are written for use with any supplier. These are our answers, and what you can check right now:

• A schedule in days agreed before work starts, and a detailed quote within two days of the brief session.
• Sixteen designs published on this site as 3D views, with their materials and screen sizes.
• Eleven delivered projects documented with film and build photography.
• Resident operations supervisors inside the hall for every day of the event.
• Commercial registration 7031090991, and a Dammam office you can visit.

One company or five suppliers? See delivered work