On most shows the general service contractor handles furniture, carpet, labor, freight and signs — and that's where their invoice stops. Power, internet, rigging, AV, catering, lead retrieval and often cleaning are exclusive services provided by the venue or a contracted specialist, with their own order forms, their own advance deadlines, and their own invoices.
Nobody tells first-time exhibitors this clearly, and it produces the single most common day-one disaster on any show floor: a beautiful booth with a monitor and no power.
The exclusive-vendor list
For any given show, expect some combination of:
| Service | Usually provided by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical | Venue's electrical contractor | Separate form, separate advance deadline, separate invoice |
| Internet / wired network | Venue's network provider | Wi-Fi is often available but unreliable; demos need wired |
| Rigging / hanging signs | GSC or venue, exclusive | Scheduled; requires drawings |
| Audio-visual | Preferred AV vendor, sometimes GSC | Can usually bring your own AV, but power and labor still apply |
| Booth cleaning | GSC or venue | Often included only for the first night |
| Catering | Venue's caterer, exclusive | Including coffee and bottled water |
| Lead retrieval | Organizer's registration vendor | Order deadline, device pickup on site |
| Plumbing / compressed air / water | Venue | Rare, but exclusive when needed |
The kit's "Quick Facts" page or vendor list tells you which apply. Each one gets its own deadline row in the planner because each one bills on its own.
Electrical: size it once, order it once
Electrical is ordered by amperage — a 5-amp, 10-amp, 20-amp drop, and up — and the price climbs with the amps. The two mistakes are ordering too little and ordering nothing.
Too little looks like this: the rental package includes a 5-amp drop "for lighting only" (that's common, and it means exactly what it says). You add a 55-inch monitor, a laptop, a charging station for staff phones and a mini-fridge for the water. The lights are fine. Everything else trips the circuit on the first morning, and the fix is an electrician's service call plus a bigger drop at show-site rates.
The fix is arithmetic. Add up the watts of everything you're plugging in — monitor (~100 W), laptop (~65 W), LED lighting (~50–150 W), a small fridge (~100 W running, more on startup), a coffee maker (~1,000 W, and yes, people bring them), a charging station (~60 W) — divide by 120 volts, and add 20% headroom. A monitor, laptop, lights and chargers lands under 5 amps. Add the coffee maker and you're over 10. Add an LED wall and you're into 20 amps and probably a dedicated circuit, which is a different order.
Two more electrical details:
- Location matters. Power comes up through the floor at a point the electrician chooses unless you submit a floor plan showing where you want it. For an inline booth it rarely matters. For an island, an un-planned drop means cords across the booth and a labor charge to move it.
- 24-hour power is a separate line item, needed for anything that must stay on overnight (fridges, some demo equipment, servers).
Internet
Show-floor Wi-Fi is shared with thousands of attendees. If your demo, lead-capture or payment processing depends on a connection, order a wired drop from the venue's provider by their advance deadline. A hotspot is the fallback, not the plan — convention halls are concrete and steel, and cellular coverage inside them is unpredictable.
Rigging and hanging signs
Anything suspended from the ceiling — a sign, a truss, lighting, a banner — is rigging, and rigging is:
- Exclusive. Only the GSC's or venue's riggers touch the ceiling.
- Scheduled. Rigging happens before booths are built underneath it. Late orders get the leftover slots, which can be after your booth is up.
- Drawing-dependent. You'll submit a plan with weights, dimensions and hang points by a deadline that's typically 45 days out. Structural approval can take time.
- Booth-type-dependent. Inline booths usually can't hang anything; peninsula and island booths can, within height limits set by show management.
A hanging sign is therefore four orders, not one: the sign (graphic, frame, or both — rented or purchased), the rigging labor and equipment, electrical if it's lit, and show management's design approval. Order the sign without the others and it stays on the floor.
AV: the order that drags three others with it
Every AV item carries dependencies that live with other vendors:
- A monitor needs power (electrical vendor) and a stand or wall mount (GSC or AV vendor).
- A touchscreen or lead-capture tablet needs power and probably wired internet.
- An LED wall needs a dedicated electrical circuit, rigging or a ground-support structure, structural approval, and a labor call to install.
- Speakers need power and must meet the show's sound rules — directional audio is usually the way to stay inside them.
When you add an AV line to the budget, add the dependent lines at the same time, each with its vendor and deadline. The planner does this automatically: add a monitor, and it proposes the power drop; add an LED wall, and it proposes power, rigging, approval and labor.
Bringing your own AV is allowed on nearly every show, and it's often cheaper. It still needs power, it still needs labor if it's heavy, and it adds to your freight weight. Rented AV usually arrives installed and calibrated, which on a tight move-in is worth something.
Cleaning
Rental packages often include vacuuming for the first night only. Every other night is a separate order, and it's one of the cheapest things to order in advance and one of the more expensive to add on the floor. Decide how many nights you want clean carpet and order them together.
Lead retrieval
Ordered from the organizer's registration vendor, usually with an advance deadline and a device pickup on site. The cost is small; the data is the reason you came. Order it early, test it on move-in day, and make sure the export format matches your CRM before the show, not after.
The habits
- List every vendor on the show before you order anything. The kit's vendor page is the checklist.
- Put each vendor's deadline on the same calendar. They're close together, not the same.
- Size electrical from a watts list, with headroom. One drop, ordered once.
- Treat a hanging sign as four orders.
- Attach dependencies to every AV line.
- Order cleaning for every night you want it.
- Expect one invoice per vendor — and audit each one.
The planner keeps a separate deadline and a separate expected invoice for every exclusive vendor on your show, and links every AV or lighting line to the power, rigging and labor it depends on.
Frequently asked questions
- Why isn't electrical on my general contractor's order form?
- At most venues electrical is an exclusive service of the venue or its contractor, with its own form, advance deadline and invoice. The same is often true of internet, rigging, AV, catering and lead retrieval.
- How many amps do I need for my trade show booth?
- Add the watts of everything you'll plug in, divide by 120 volts and add about 20% headroom. A monitor, laptop, LED lights and phone chargers fit under 5 amps; add a coffee maker or an LED wall and you need 10 to 20 amps or a dedicated circuit.
- What does a hanging sign require at a trade show?
- The sign itself, rigging labor and equipment (exclusive and scheduled), electrical if it's lit, drawings submitted by a deadline typically 45 days out, and show management's design approval. Inline booths usually can't hang signs at all.
- Does the rental package's electrical cover my monitor?
- Usually not. Package power is commonly described as for lighting only. A monitor, laptop or charging station needs its own electrical order placed by the advance deadline.
More exhibitor guides
Every figure in this guide is a typical range. Your show's exhibitor service manual governs the actual dates, rates and rules.