The same electrical drop, in the same booth, at the same show, has two prices. The only difference is the date you ordered it.
The exhibitor services kit is the packet the show’s general service contractor issues to every exhibitor. It contains the order forms for everything you will need inside the hall, and each form has its own cut-off date. Nothing about it is hidden. It just arrives months early, looks like paperwork, and gets filed.
Working it properly is one of the few places in exhibiting where you save real money for doing the same thing sooner.
What is actually in the kit
Contents vary by show and contractor, but expect most of these:
- Electrical service, including the drop location inside your booth.
- Rigging and hanging sign orders, usually with the earliest deadline of the lot.
- Material handling and shipping instructions, including the advance warehouse address and target times.
- Internet and telecoms.
- Booth cleaning and vacuuming.
- Rental furnishings, plants, and AV.
- Labor ordering for installation and dismantle.
- The show’s display rules, height limits, and EAC forms.
The discount deadline is the whole game
Most services carry an advance rate and a standard rate, and many carry a third, higher rate for ordering on site. The gap is meaningful, and it applies to identical service delivered on the identical day.
There is no skill involved in capturing it. There is only a calendar.
The orders people forget
Electrical gets ordered because a dark booth is obvious. The ones that get missed are quieter.
Booth cleaning, so the carpet is dusty at open.
Ordered on site instead, at the top rate.
Electrical placement, so the drop lands in the wrong corner.
A visible extension cord across your own floor.
The rigging deadline, usually the earliest of all.
A hanging sign that cannot be hung.
Lift time for anything heavy going overhead.
A crew standing idle waiting on equipment nobody booked.
Electrical placement deserves particular attention. The drop goes where you specify on the floor plan, and if you specify nothing, it goes somewhere convenient for them.
A timeline counted backwards from move-in
- ✓As soon as the kit is publishedRead it end to end once. Note every deadline in one calendar. This is a one-hour task that pays for itself.
- ✓Earliest deadline, often 60 days or more outRigging and hanging sign approval. This is usually the first thing that can be irreversibly missed.
- ✓Before the advance discount dateElectrical, internet, cleaning, furnishings, and labor. Order everything you are confident about.
- ✓With the advance shipmentConfirm the warehouse address, the receiving window, and your crate count and weight.
- ✓Two weeks outReconfirm labor hours and target times. Recount anything that changed since you ordered.
Who should own this
Someone has to, and by default it becomes the exhibit manager at their busiest moment. A full-service exhibit house should be reading the kit alongside you, flagging the deadlines that affect the build, and telling you what it needs from you and when.
Ask a prospective builder how they handle the services kit. The answer separates the ones who have run programs from the ones who have only sold booths.
The discount deadline is real money for being early.