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The idea for this video came about 3 weeks ago when I was talking to a client who was getting ready to exhibit in London, England. She talked about a 10×10 booth. So lets’ talk about a few terms used at international shows versus used in United States.
Her 10 x 10 booth will actually be a 3meter x 3meter stand not booth. Yes it is the same, however the idea is that there are different languages and basic things that you really should know if exhibiting overseas. We will cover seven this week and seven next week.
Here are this week’s 7 –
- What we call a Booth here in United States is called a Stand in Europe.
- The pipe and drape (side rail and backwall) that we use here in the United States is called a Shell Scheme in Europe. They don’t really use pipe and drape, they actually take a shell which is aluminum extrusion and frames to create the different booth separations for a show.
- Raised Floor- Very common in Europe and not much used in the United States is the raised flooring were it is a part of your booth package with handicap ramps and metal edges. They do not use a lot of carpeting overseas.
- Everything is in the metric system in meters. For example 3m x 3m is about 10 feet. So if you have a 20’ x 20’, you will have a 6m x 6m overseas
- Voltage – when you look at some of your chargers like computers or laptops, look carefully at the back of the charger. United States current is 120 volts, 60 hertz which is not the same in Europe which ranges between 220-240 volts and it is 50 hertz. So if you look at the back of your convertors, make sure it expands between 120 and 240 volts. You will need something like the step down transformer that you can bring one with you or get from show site to convert.
- Build and Burn – Many shows in Europe have a longer set-up time where they actually bring items in as raw materials and they build the exhibit on the show floor. They build walls, do a lot of painting, caulking etc. There is a different style of exhibiting called build and burn – you build it once directly on the show floor and then you knock it down and throw it away after the show is over.
- Kilos – Kilos is the standard weight measurement. When you ship overseas, they are going to give you the kilo weight not per pound weight like we do it in United States. Kilo is basically 2.2 pounds. Keep this in mind when you get pricing on your air freight shipments going overseas. Realize that they are probably giving you pricing in kilos and not in US dollars.
As always, please respond with your questions or comments and let others know about EXHIBITOR LOUNGE.COM. We will see you next week. Until then, I am your host Michael Gray telling you to RELAX in the Exhibitor Lounge.