Finding the right exhibit house

Six Stupid Questions
Finding the right exhibit house can be as frustrating as finding a suitable life partner. But if you ask the right questions during the courtship period, you’ll have the information you need to confidently select your trade show soul mate. By Brian Todd as seen in EXHIBITOR Magazine
The first mistake most exhibitors make is issuing an RFP without one of the most important specifications: the budget. Simon says exhibit managers omit the budget because they are afraid a dollar limit might scare an exhibit house away from showing its best possible work. Exhibitors tend to think that they’ll get a more inspired or creative proposal if the designer isn’t constrained by budget. Unfortunately, what happens is some proposals come back with the-sky’s-the-limit designs while other firms try to make educated guesses about what a company is willing to spend. Bottom line, the playing field ends up anything but level.
“What you get is one proposal at $200,000, and another at $2 million,” Simon says. “If you’re willing to spend $2 million, then that’s not fair to the company that figured you wanted to keep costs down. And if you’re going to eliminate the company that submitted a $2 million design because it’s outside your budget, you’ve wasted that company’s time.”
View EXHIBITOR  magazine – Article: “Five Steps to Successful Signage by Lena Valenty”