Pop Up Exhibit Budgeting

A pop up exhibit requires a much smaller budget than a custom trade show booth. Its light-duty construction, simplicity, and lightweight portability eliminate the need for the expenses of transportation, drayage, and labor for booth setup.

There's no question that a pop up exhibit is less costly than a custom booth in every way. Yet many businesses justify the extra expense of a custom exhibit because they believe that "you get what you pay for" and that the uniqueness of the custom display will pay off in the form of more sales.

But the other side of the coin is that the pop up exhibit may provide more value for the investment because of its ultra-low expenses. There's no reason why a well-conceived portable booth with exceptional graphics and presentation would not give a custom exhibit a run for its sales dollars.

Here's a breakdown of ways a pop up exhibit can reduce your trade show budget:

• Shipping - If you transport your portable display yourself, you'll save a huge amount of money by eliminating this expense category. In contrast, shipping a custom booth can add up to 25% to the exhibit budget.

• Drayage - You may or may not save money here, depending on the exhibition hall's policy on drayage. Some permit you to carry or wheel in a pop up display by yourself, while others insist that draymen must bring even the most portable exhibit to your booth space for you. Check with the trade show manual for each particular event to be sure you'll be permitted to bring in your own portable booth displays and eliminate drayage from your trade show expenses.

• Installation Labor - Most exhibit halls permit you to forgo the considerable expense of a crew to set up and take down your booth, if you can do it yourself in less than 30 minutes. Some also require that your booth setup and takedown may not require tools if you do it yourself. Check with your individual show management to see whether you can avoid the high cost of hourly labor.

• Refurbishing - Repairs and refurbishing are undoubtedly less costly on a pop up exhibit. And often a single new, large, stunning graphic is all that's needed to completely refresh a portable trade show exhibit.

• Maintenance - A pop up exhibit will be quicker, easier, and cheaper to clean and vacuum, and will likely require less rented furniture and decor.

Each company must evaluate its own needs and ability to sell the extra volume of goods or services needed to pay for a more costly custom booth. A pop up exhibit may be just the thing for your company.

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