Most trade show checklists start when the exhibitor kit lands in your inbox. By then, four or five of the deadlines that matter most are already behind you. This timeline starts where your money actually starts: the day you sign for the space.
Every date below is a default. Your show's exhibitor service manual (the "kit") governs, and the planner lets you overwrite any of them. But if you only know the shape of the calendar, you'll already be ahead of most of the floor.
Three anchors drive everything:
- M — the first day of exhibitor move-in
- O — show open
- C — show close
Twelve to six months out: the decisions you can't undo later
Space contract and rebook (O − 12 months). Most shows sell next year's space on this year's floor, at the best rate, with the best location. If you're rebooking, the window is usually days, not weeks. If you're new, this is when the inline-versus-island decision gets made, and it drives half the costs below.
Booth design locked (O − 6 months). Not because the builder needs it yet, but because every downstream deadline — graphics, rigging drawings, electrical load, freight weight — depends on knowing what the booth is.
Sponsorship purchase cutoff (M − 90 days). Organizer sponsorships sell out early and the good ones are gone by the time the kit arrives.
Exhibitor directory and marketing listing (M − 75 days). Your listing in the show app and directory is free; missing the cutoff means a blank entry next to your competitors' full ones. Attendees plan their floor route from this listing weeks before they arrive.
Sixty to thirty days out: the paperwork that protects you
Island and peninsula design approval (M − 60 days). Anything bigger than an inline booth typically needs show management's sign-off on height, sightlines, hanging structures and sometimes fire-marshal review. Miss this and you can be told to cut your booth down on move-in day, at show-site labor rates.
Hanging sign and rigging drawings (M − 45 days). Rigging is almost always exclusive to the GSC or the venue, and it's scheduled. Late drawings mean your sign goes up when there's a gap in the rigging schedule — which can be after your booth is already built underneath it.
Graphics to the printer (M − 35 days). This is the deadline with the ugliest penalty: a rejected file means a rush reprint, often at show-site rates, often shipped expedited. Run the pre-flight checklist before you send anything.
Exhibitor-appointed contractor (EAC) notice and certificate of insurance (M − 30 days). If anyone other than the official contractor will touch your booth — your exhibit house, your I&D crew — show management needs to know, and the contractor's insurance certificate has to be on file. Miss this and your crew can be limited to supervising while you pay the GSC's labor to do the work.
Advance warehouse opens (M − 30 days). The warehouse starts receiving freight about a month out. Shipping in this window is the cheapest, safest route to the floor.
Hotel room block cutoff (O − 30 days). The official block releases its rooms around this point. After that you're paying rack rate in a sold-out city. Book through the organizer's housing link only; the "room block" emails from unfamiliar companies are poachers.
Free-cancellation cutoff (M − 30 days). Most GSCs refund standard items in full if you cancel before this point. Which means you should order everything you might need at the discount price and cancel the extras here. More on that in the pricing guide.
Three weeks out: the discount deadline
Credit card authorization on file (M − 21 days). Nothing ships to your booth without a payment method on file. On-site orders require a card at the time of order, so get this done early and avoid the service desk line.
GSC discount deadline (M − 21 days, typical). Furniture, carpet, cleaning, labor, forklifts, signs, the lot. Order by this date and you pay the advance rate. Order after it and you pay standard — often 20–30% more. Order on the floor and it's higher again. This is the single most expensive date on the calendar to miss.
Exclusive-vendor deadlines (M − 21 days, one row each). Electrical, internet, rigging, AV, lead retrieval, catering and plants are usually separate vendors with their own order forms and their own advance deadlines, often near the GSC's but not always on the same day. Each one gets its own row in the planner because each one bills separately.
Priority empty-return labels (with the discount order). Some GSCs sell a limited number of priority labels that get your empty crates back first at move-out. They sell out. For the price, it's the cheapest way to avoid move-out overtime.
Two weeks out: people and freight
Badge registration (O − 14 days). Staff badges are usually free until a cutoff, then charged, then only available on-site with a line.
Partial-refund cutoff (M − 14 days). AV, cleaning and furnishings often still refund in full here; most other items refund partially based on work already done. Custom flooring is usually non-refundable by now.
Advance warehouse deadline (M − 7 days, typical). The last day freight can arrive at the warehouse at the base rate. After this, a late-to-warehouse surcharge applies, often around 25%, and the freight may not make your booth before move-in.
Show week
Book your outbound carrier (C − 7 days). Before the show, not during it. You can't file outbound paperwork without a carrier.
Pre-file the material handling agreement (C − 5 days). Most GSCs now take the outbound MHA online ahead of time. One per destination. Filing it early means skipping the line at the service desk on move-out day.
Pre-write your post-show email (C − 7 days). So day-one follow-up is a click, not a writing task from an airport.
Targeted move-in (M, your window). If the show uses targeted move-in, your freight has a date and time. Direct-to-site freight arriving outside the window pays an off-target surcharge and waits.
Dispute before close (C). Rental and service charges have to be disputed at the service desk before the show closes. After that, you're arguing with an accounts-receivable department.
Turn in the MHA, carrier check-in (move-out). The carrier has a check-in deadline printed in the kit, at the marshalling yard or the dock. If your carrier isn't checked in by then, your freight is "forced" — rerouted on the contractor's choice of carrier or returned to their warehouse, whichever you elected on the MHA — at your expense.
After the show
Lead follow-up waves (C + 1, 3, 7, 14, 30). Most leads go cold within a week. The first touch is the pre-written email; the rest are segmented by what each person actually asked about.
Invoice audit (final invoice + 7 days). Each vendor sends its own invoice. Match every line to an order, every drayage charge to a weight ticket, every labor hour to a signed ticket. Disputes have windows.
Refund check (C + 14 days). Credit-card refunds for cancelled items usually post within a couple of weeks of close; other payment types take longer. Chase them.
Post-mortem and rebook decision (C + 14 days). Cost per lead, cost per meeting, what you'd change. Then clone the show for next year with the dates shifted, and the whole calendar is already built.
The pattern
Look at the list again and notice something: almost every deadline is a price deadline. The same chair, the same electrical drop, the same square of carpet costs one amount three weeks out and a different amount on the floor. The show doesn't get more expensive because you're disorganized. It gets more expensive because the kit is designed around early commitment, and nobody tells you the calendar until you've already missed part of it.
That's what the planner fixes. Enter your three dates, and every row above appears with a countdown, a dollar figure for what missing it costs, and a reminder before each one.
Frequently asked questions
- When is the trade show discount deadline?
- Typically about three weeks before the first day of exhibitor move-in, though every show's exhibitor kit sets its own date. Most exclusive vendors (electrical, internet, AV) run separate deadlines near the same time.
- When does the advance warehouse open and close?
- Most advance warehouses accept freight from about 30 days before move-in until roughly a week before. Freight arriving after the deadline pays a late surcharge, often around 25%.
- What is the most expensive trade show deadline to miss?
- The carrier check-in deadline on move-out day. If your carrier isn't checked in by the published time, your freight is rerouted onto the house carrier or returned to the warehouse at your expense.
- How far in advance should I start planning a trade show?
- From the space contract, usually 9 to 12 months out. Sponsorships, directory listings, island design approval and rigging drawings all fall due before the six-month mark that most checklists start from.
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.