Two companies think they have stand C14
Your annual trade show is the association's biggest event and a large part of its income. Stand sales open months ahead. The sales manager works from a PDF floorplan marked up by hand and a spreadsheet of who has asked about what. A member rings about a corner stand and asks you to hold it while they get sign-off. Another exhibitor emails about the same area. A colleague, not seeing the hold note, offers C14 to the second company.
Holds are the real headache. Many firms want a stand held while budgets are approved. Some come back, some go quiet, and a stand held for a firm that has vanished is a stand not sold. Nobody can quite say how long each hold has been in place.
The cause is a floorplan that does not know anything
A PDF floorplan cannot tell anyone which stands are free, which are held, and for whom. The spreadsheet can, if it is up to date, but it lives apart from the plan, so they drift.
- Holds have no expiry, so they last until someone remembers to release them.
- The member rate is applied by checking the CRM by hand, so non-members sometimes get it and members sometimes do not.
- Neighbouring stands for competitors, which exhibitors care about, are hard to see.
- Shell scheme and space-only stands, corner and island premiums are priced from a separate rate card.
- Contracts and invoices are raised separately, often from the spreadsheet, not from a confirmed booking.
What the mess costs the show
Double bookings mean one unhappy exhibitor and a scramble to find an equivalent stand. Lapsed holds mean unsold space that could have gone to someone else. Wrong rates mean either lost income or a difficult conversation with a member. And the sales manager spends hours each week reconciling the plan, the spreadsheet and finance, rather than selling.
Placement matters to exhibitors more than outsiders expect. A member that has taken the same spot by the main entrance for years expects first refusal on it, and your rebooking rules may give it to them. A new exhibitor does not want to be next to the catering queue, or opposite its biggest competitor. When the plan cannot show these things, the sales manager holds them in memory, and memory does not survive a busy fortnight or a new colleague joining the team mid-campaign.
A live floorplan tied to bookings
We build a live floorplan and booking system, either as its own tool or as an extension to the event platform you already use if it allows.
- The floorplan is drawn once from the venue plan, and each stand becomes a record with its size, type (shell scheme, space only), position (corner, island, aisle) and price.
- Each stand has a status: available, held, contracted, paid. Holds carry a company, a date and an expiry you choose, with a reminder to the sales manager before it lapses.
- The rate applied depends on the company's member status, read from your member records, so member rates only reach members.
- Exhibitors can view the live plan and request a stand online; the sales team confirms.
- Confirmed bookings raise the contract for e-signature and the invoice in Xero or your finance system, with the deposit and balance schedule your terms set.
- The plan shows sold, held and free stands in colour, and a report shows income sold, held and still available.
| Stand status | What it means | What triggers the next status |
|---|---|---|
| Available | Can be offered | A hold or a booking |
| Held | Reserved for a named firm until a date | Contract signed, or hold expires |
| Contracted | Contract signed, invoice raised | Deposit or full payment received |
| Paid | Payment received under your terms | Exhibitor onboarding begins |
| Released | Hold expired or booking cancelled | Returns to available |
Selling the show, afterwards
The sales manager opens the live plan and sees what is sold, held and free at a glance. Expiring holds come up as reminders, so each one gets a call before it lapses. Two people can no longer sell the same stand. Members get their rate automatically, and non-members see the difference, which some find persuasive when membership renewal comes round.
Signs your stand sales need a rethink
- The floorplan is a PDF marked up by hand.
- Holds are notes in a spreadsheet with no expiry.
- Member rates are checked against the CRM by hand.
- A stand has been offered to two companies.
- Contracts and invoices are raised from a spreadsheet.