Shell scheme or custom stall — which should you book?
The organiser's shell scheme is cheap and safe. A custom stand costs more and does a different job. Here is how to tell which one your show actually needs.
Every organiser offers a shell scheme: a partitioned booth with a fascia name board, a couple of spotlights and a plug socket. It is the cheapest way onto the floor and there is no shame in taking it.
Take the shell scheme when
- You are testing a show for the first time and do not yet know its footfall.
- Your stand is 9 sqm or smaller — there is not enough wall to make a custom build read.
- Your product sells by conversation, not by display.
Build custom when
- You need to be visible from the far end of the aisle.
- You need a private space to close deals in.
- You are exhibiting more than once a year — a re-usable stand amortises fast.
- Your competitors are already building custom. In a hall of shell schemes, custom wins. In a hall of custom stands, shell scheme disappears.
The honest test: walk last year's photographs of the same show. If the stands that got photographed were custom, the shell scheme will cost you the show.
Want this costed for your own brief?
The estimator gives you a range in about a minute. If you'd rather talk it through, book a slot — you'll speak to the person who'd run the build.
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