Every exhibition stand company's website says roughly the same things: creative design, great service, on-time delivery. From the outside they can be hard to tell apart, yet the difference between a good builder and a bad one is the difference between a calm show and a very public problem. These are the eight checks we would make if we were choosing a stand builder ourselves, and yes, we are one, so read this with that in mind and apply the checks to us too.
1. Do they build in-house, or broker the work out?
Plenty of 'stand builders' are really project managers who subcontract manufacture. That is not automatically bad, but it adds a layer between you and the people making your stand, and it shows when something needs changing quickly. Ask directly: who physically builds the stand, and where? A builder with its own workshop and its own carpenters, electricians and fabricators controls quality and timing in a way a broker cannot.
2. Will you see the stand before it is built?
The standard you should expect: concept design worked up from your brief, then 3D visuals and detailed drawings that you approve before manufacture starts. If a builder cannot show you exactly what you are getting, you are the quality control, at the venue, the day before the show.
3. Who installs it, and who do you call at 7am on build-up day?
Find out whether the crew installing your stand is the crew that built it, or local labour hired by the day. And ask who your point of contact is throughout. A single project lead from concept to completion means nothing gets lost in a handover; a different name at every stage means you are the one carrying the context.
4. Have they worked at your venue?
Every venue has its own rules, loading arrangements and build-up windows. A builder who knows your venue plans around its quirks instead of discovering them. If you are exhibiting at the NEC Birmingham or at London venues, ask for examples of stands they have delivered there.
5. Are they an ESSA member?
ESSA is the UK's Event Supplier and Services Association. Membership means signing up to its code of conduct and service standards, and it is a reasonable proxy for a builder that takes the industry seriously. It is not a guarantee of brilliance, but its absence is worth asking about.
6. Does the portfolio show work like yours?
Look for stands at your kind of show, at your kind of scale, and check whether the same clients appear year after year. Repeat business is the most honest metric in this industry: exhibitors who have options and keep coming back are telling you something a testimonial page cannot.
7. Do the timescales actually work?
Design approval and CDM declarations can take up to six weeks, and finished artwork is typically needed around four weeks before the show, so a stand builder should ideally be appointed at least two months out. A builder who cheerfully accepts an impossible deadline is a bigger red flag than one who tells you what is and is not achievable.
8. Do they handle the whole job, or just the build?
Transport, installation, dismantle, graphics, electrics, storage between shows: ask where the builder's responsibility starts and ends, and what is subcontracted. The fewer companies involved, the fewer gaps for problems to fall into.
Put it to the test
Before you contact anyone, write a proper brief; our guide to writing an exhibition stand brief covers the essentials a designer needs. Then put the same brief to two or three builders and compare not just the designs and prices, but how each one answered the eight questions above.
For transparency, here is how T2 Display answers them: we have designed and built stands since 2001 from our own workshop in Tamworth near the NEC, with a permanent in-house team of carpenters, electricians and fabricators, 3D visuals and detailed drawings before anything is built, a one-person policy from concept to completion, ESSA membership, and more than 75% of our work coming from existing clients. See what we design and build, or send us your brief.
