Articles

 

How Much Will my Exhibition Stand Cost?

 

In this article we will consider seriously the whole matter of budgeting for exhibitions. And there is one point that must be made straight away, and never forgotten: exhibitions cost more than the cost of space.
Many people, particularly those new to exhibiting, tend to think purely in terms of the cost of space and forget to calculate in the cost of the exhibition stand when thinking of exhibition costs, but this is far from the case as the following table will show: (Note: value "x" is for comparison purposes only. It could represent units, tens or hundreds of pounds. It could even represent man-hours.)

1. Space 150x
2. Shell 200x
3. Display units (Depreciation over 10 exhibitions) 60x
4. Display material (including signs) 50x
5. Printing 200x
6. Advertising (including postage) 300x
7. Electrical 100x
8. Transport to and from exhibition 50x
9. Allowances, meals etc. 40x
10 Preparation and set-up costs 50x
11 Staff wages (incl. overtime) - say 4 staff for 3 days 300x

Total 1500x

 

So what seems to be an exhibition which will cost 350x in fact ends up costing four times that! And omitted from this costing is something which is very difficult to estimate: the loss arising from the fact that the staff will not be doing their normal work.
It makes sense, therefore, to plan participation in a number of exhibitions, which not only increases your sales potential but can also dramatically reduce the cost per exhibition.
In the next article we will look at individual items on the list above and see how it would be possible to reduce costs by planning a number of exhibitions at once and looking at the most cost-effective way of carrying out each activity.