Insights

It is the first question every exhibitor asks, and the one no honest builder answers with a single number. A stand is not sold by the square metre the way flooring is. Two stands of identical size on the same hall floor can differ by a factor of four, and the difference is almost never decoration — it is structure, material and how much of the build you intend to use again.

Here is what actually moves the number, in the order it moves it.

1. Floor area — and whether you are going up

Area sets the baseline. But the moment a second storey enters the drawing, the cost stops scaling with area and starts scaling with engineering: load calculations, heavier structural steel, a staircase, balustrades, and a separate structural approval from the venue. A double-decker is not a bigger stand. It is a different category of build, and it should be budgeted as one. We cover when it is worth it in our guide to two-storey and custom stands.

2. Custom joinery versus modular structure

This is usually the single largest swing. A modular system assembles from stock components; custom joinery is machined, finished and fitted for your drawing alone. Custom gives you exactly the form you designed and a finish standard a system cannot reach — curved reception desks, seamless wall panels, concealed lighting details, real veneer. It costs more because it is manufactured once.

Most well-judged stands are a hybrid: a modular or fabricated core carrying the structure, with custom joinery and metalwork where visitors actually stand and touch — the counter, the meeting area, the product display.

3. Integrated technology

LED walls, interactive screens, tracked lighting and AV control add hardware cost, but they also add hidden build cost: structure to carry the weight, cable routes, ventilation, access panels for technicians, and power distribution the venue has to approve. A large LED wall is a structural item before it is a screen.

4. How much of it you intend to reuse

This is the factor most exhibitors ignore, and it is the one with the largest effect over a year. A reusable modular core with refreshed graphics is almost always cheaper across three exhibitions than three separate custom builds — often dramatically so. But reuse has to be a design decision at concept stage. It cannot be retrofitted to a stand that was drawn as a one-off, because the joints, fixings and panel sizes were never planned to come apart cleanly.

If you exhibit more than once a year, model the three-show cost before you approve a design. It frequently changes which design you approve.

What else sits in the number

• Venue and organiser fees — electrical connection, rigging, hall cleaning, waste removal. These are billed by the organiser, not the builder, and are easy to forget at budget stage.
• Technical submissions — drawings, structural documentation and approvals, which differ between halls.
• Logistics — transport, load-in window, storage between shows.
• Graphics — usually a small share of the total, and usually the last thing to change.

How to get an accurate quote in one round

Vague briefs produce vague numbers, and then everyone negotiates in the dark. Send a builder these six things and you will get a figure you can rely on:

1. The exhibition and the hall
2. Stand size and shape — island, peninsula, corner or in-line
3. Whether a second storey is required or under consideration
4. Any technology you already know you want
5. Whether you plan to reuse the build at another show
6. The show date, so the schedule can be priced honestly

The cheapest stand is rarely the cheapest decision

A stand that arrives with panels that do not meet, or that cannot be approved by the venue, costs far more than the money saved — usually on the one day of the year when there is no time to fix it. Ask any builder where the stand will be fabricated, and whether it will be pre-assembled and quality-checked before it travels. That single answer tells you more about the final result than any price per square metre.

We build in our own factories in Riyadh and Jeddah, which is why we can answer that question in one sentence. Send us the hall, the size and the date and we will come back with a quotation and a build proposal — get in touch, or see what we have built.