Everything before the show is planning. Everything on site is execution under time pressure, with a service desk line between you and every fix. This is the checklist that keeps the floor from eating your budget. Print it, or open it on your phone — that's what it's for.
What to carry
- The kit's Quick Facts page: move-in/out schedule, carrier check-in deadline, service desk hours and location, labor desk location, marshalling yard address.
- Every order confirmation — GSC, electrical, internet, AV, cleaning, lead retrieval — on your phone and on paper.
- Freight paperwork: bill of lading, certified weight tickets, carrier tracking, piece count.
- Outbound paperwork: carrier booking confirmation, the material handling agreement if you pre-filed it, labels.
- Contacts: your carrier's dispatcher, your exhibit house, your AV vendor, your organizer's exhibitor-services contact.
- A small repair kit: gaffer tape, zip ties, a multi-tool, Velcro, extension cord and power strip, spare bulbs for your fixtures, a box cutter, Sharpies, a tape measure.
- Empty-container labels if you've already picked them up, and a plan to get them if you haven't.
- A credit card. On-site orders require one at the time of order.
Move-in day
First stop, the service desk. Confirm your freight is in and your orders are in process. If you're on a targeted move-in, confirm your target. Pick up empty labels and, if you ordered them, priority empty-return labels.
Then the labor desk, if you ordered labor. Check in your install crew. Confirm your dismantle call while you're there. Dismantle is the call that gets forgotten until the last afternoon, when every exhibitor on the floor wants a crew at once.
At the booth:
- Count pieces against your piece count. Photograph the freight as it arrived — any damage, any missing piece, before anything is opened.
- Photograph the weight ticket on the freight or get it from the service desk. Compare it to your certified weight. A discrepancy is a dispute, and disputes get filed at the service desk, today, not after the show.
- Check every delivered item against your orders: carpet, furniture, electrical drop location, internet drop, AV. Anything missing or wrong goes to the service desk now, while it's a same-day fix.
- Walk your electrical: is the drop where you planned? Is the amperage what you ordered? Test it before the crew builds around it.
- Sign labor tickets with real start and end times. If the crew arrived late, write the real time. Photograph every ticket.
- Pull everything you'll need during the show out of the crates before they're labeled as empties. Once empties go to storage, there's no access until move-out. The spare brochures, the backup laptop charger, the demo unit's cable — out now.
- Label empties as soon as they're empty. Unlabeled containers can be discarded or stored at a fee.
Before the hall closes: test every piece of tech end to end. Monitor content, demo, lead retrieval, Wi-Fi fallback, payment terminal. The morning of show open is not the time to find out.
Every show day
- Morning: walk the booth before doors open. Lights, screens, cleanliness, collateral stocked. If cleaning was ordered and didn't happen, the service desk.
- Dispute log: anything billed or delivered wrong gets written down the day it happens — date, what, who you spoke to at the desk, reference number. This log is the invoice audit.
- Leads: rate each one on the spot (A/B/C), note what they asked about. Twenty words now saves an hour later.
- Expenses: photograph every receipt — on-site orders, business center, meals if they're show-budgeted — and tag them to the show.
- Watch the hall schedule. Service desk hours shorten on the last day. Get anything you need from it the day before.
The last day: the sequence that matters
The last day of a show is where more exhibitor money is lost than any other day, because the order of operations matters and nobody tells you.
- Before the show closes: settle every dispute at the service desk — rental, service and drayage questions have to be raised before close. After that, it's accounts receivable and a much harder conversation.
- Collect final invoices from the service desk and every vendor before you leave the hall. Chasing them from your office takes weeks.
- Confirm the dismantle crew one more time, with the labor desk, early in the day.
- Don't start packing before the floor closes. Show management enforces it, and early dismantle is a common reason to lose next year's booth position.
- Get your empties back. Priority labels bring them first; otherwise expect a wait. Have the crew ready for when they arrive, not before.
- Pack and label every piece for its destination. If you're shipping to two places, two sets of labels, two piece counts.
- File the material handling agreement — one per destination — at the service desk (or confirm the pre-filed one and update piece counts). No MHA, no release. Freight with no MHA gets sent back to your company address at your expense, or held.
- Know your carrier's check-in deadline and make sure the carrier knows it. Carriers check in at the marshalling yard or the dock, depending on the venue. If yours isn't checked in by the published time, your freight is "forced" — rerouted on a carrier of the contractor's choice or returned to their warehouse, whichever you elected on the MHA — at your expense. The check-in time is printed in the kit; put it on everyone's phone.
- Photograph the packed freight and the completed MHA before you leave.
- Leave the booth clean. Abandoned materials are discarded at a fee.
When something goes wrong
- Freight is missing: the service desk, with your tracking and piece count. The GSC can trace what's been received; your carrier can trace what's in transit.
- Labor didn't show: the labor desk. Document the time.
- Power is wrong: the electrical vendor's service desk — it's often a separate desk from the GSC's.
- Something's broken: photograph it before touching it. Damage claims need documentation from before the repair.
- You need something now: the service desk takes floor orders with a card. Expect floor pricing, and write it in the dispute log so the invoice audit can see which charges were planned and which were emergencies.
The forwardable brief
Half the people in your booth won't have read any of this. The planner generates a one-page show brief from your dates and orders — service desk location and hours, your target window, labor call times, the carrier check-in deadline, who to call — that you can forward to every staffer who's working the booth. The person standing in the booth at 4:45 p.m. on the last day is the one who needs to know the check-in time, and that person is rarely the one who read the kit.
Frequently asked questions
- What should I do first on trade show move-in day?
- Go to the service desk to confirm your freight is in and your orders are in process, pick up empty labels, then check in your labor at the labor desk and confirm your dismantle call at the same time.
- What should I bring on site to a trade show?
- The kit's Quick Facts page, every order confirmation, freight paperwork with certified weights, outbound carrier booking, contacts for every vendor, a small repair kit, empty labels and a credit card for any on-site orders.
- When do I have to dispute trade show charges?
- Rental, service and drayage questions have to be raised at the service desk before the show closes. After that it's an accounts-receivable conversation with a much weaker position.
- Why can't I access my crates during the show?
- Once containers are labeled as empties they go to storage and are not accessible until move-out. Remove everything you'll need during the show before they're taken.
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.