Show floor

How the floor is laid out

Aisles, booth numbers and a grid, set by the organizer and the general service contractor well before anyone arrives. The plan determines traffic, and traffic determines what exhibitors will pay next year, which makes the floor plan one of the highest-leverage documents at a trade show.

Booth sizes and what they signal

Inline booths sit in a row with neighbors on both sides. Corner booths open onto two aisles. Islands sit alone with access from all four. The step up in price between them is mostly a step up in visibility, and the premium positions sell first, usually to last year's exhibitors exercising right of first refusal.

Move-in and move-out

The floor exists for a few days and takes longer to build and strike than to run. Freight arrives, crates are moved to booths by the contractor, empties go to storage, and the whole thing reverses at the end. Exhibitors who have not read the deadlines in the service manual discover drayage charges at this point.

How Accelevents handles the floor

Booths are laid out in the venue designer and sold through it, with exhibitors picking and buying their booth rather than the organizer assigning every one by hand. See exhibitor management software.