Exhibitions and roadshows
Shell scheme booth: what it includes, and how to make it yours
A shell scheme is the stand the organiser puts up for you: panels on a frame, a name board over the open side and a floor, in a row of identical neighbours. It is the cheapest and quickest way onto a show floor, and the reason so many stands look alike.
The difference is what you put on the shell, and the forms the organiser sends long before you see the hall. The layout questions for any stand, from the frontage to the queue, are in the exhibition booth design guide.
What a shell scheme includes
Most packages carry the same handful of things: wall panels, a fascia board with your company name, carpet, some lighting and a power point. Some add a table and chairs. None of it is standard from one show to the next. The exhibitor manual says what your package includes, what can be ordered on top, and what may be fixed to the panels.
Check two things before anything is designed. The panel size, because every graphic is printed to it. And how many sides are open: a corner stand has two, which nearly doubles the frontage and costs you a wall of graphics.
Dressing it
Every neighbour has the same shell, and someone walking the aisle crosses a three metre frontage in about two seconds, which is all the attention a stand gets at first. What you add has to work at that pace.
| Element | Do | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Panels | Graphics edge to edge, with the one message that must read from five metres set high. | Posters at eye height, which vanish behind the first visitor. |
| Fascia | The name visitors will look for on the floor plan. | A tagline, or a sub-brand nobody searches for. |
| Lighting | Extra spotlights on the back wall, where the graphics are. | The hall's own lighting, which nobody aimed at your panels. |
| Counter | One counter, to the side, with lockable space inside. | A counter across the front, which turns the frontage into a barrier. |
| Height | The full height of the panels, and above them where the manual allows: a flag or a lit sign. | Everything at table height. |
| Floor | Kept clear, with stock locked away. | Boxes under the table by the afternoon of day two. |
Height is the thing few stands use. At a brand activation our team worked on, a golf simulator bay stood in an atrium: black walls, a screen across the back, a strip of turf, and three tall feather flags at its open front. Its brand names ran up the flags, from head height to well above it. It was not a shell scheme, but the rule carries over: the message goes up, and the floor stays free for people.
The shell is the organiser's. Everything a visitor remembers is what you put on it.
The manual's deadlines
A shell scheme runs on the organiser's calendar, and the calendar is the same for every exhibitor. The manual sets the dates. These are the forms that usually carry one:
- The fascia name. Spelled exactly as it should read.
- Power and lighting. Every socket and extra light, listed by what will plug into it.
- Furniture. Counters, chairs, shelves and lockable storage.
- Graphics. Some organisers want to see the artwork, or how it will be fixed, before move-in.
- Move-in and move-out. When you can dress the stand, and when it must be empty.
The shell goes up either way. What a missed deadline costs you is the order that can no longer be placed, which is why, for an exhibition, the organiser's deadlines set the runway, not you.
Stand checklist builder
A planning aid, not your organiser's form. Pick the stand and what a visitor should do at it, then tick things off as you go. Orders go in by the manual's deadlines.
Shell scheme or custom build
A shell scheme fits a first show, a small space or a short runway. Close to the deadline it may be all that is left: a presence rather than a stand, with graphics printed to standard sizes.
Step up to space only, sometimes called bare space, when the stand has to do something a shell cannot: hold a queue for a demo, give a meeting some privacy, or carry the brand before anyone reads the name. The organiser sells you the bare floor, and the whole stand is built on it. It needs a longer runway and more budget, and the floor plan becomes yours. In between sits a modular system, frames and panels that go up in a new layout each time, which suits a stand that travels, such as on a roadshow.
Apart from running events, RBTHOL designs and builds the spaces they happen in, from stands to signage. Exhibitions are one of the six things we run, and there are photographs from exhibitions our team has worked on in the gallery.
Common questions
What is a shell scheme booth?
A stand the exhibition organiser puts up for you: wall panels on a frame, a fascia board with your company name over the open side, and carpet, usually with some lighting and a power point. You dress it with your own graphics, counter and display. What the package includes varies by organiser, and the exhibitor manual lists it.
What is the difference between space only and a shell scheme?
A shell scheme is the stand the organiser puts up for you: panels on a frame, a fascia board and a floor, usually with some lighting and a power point. Space only, sometimes called bare space, is the bare floor, and the whole stand is built on it. A shell scheme is the cheapest and quickest way onto a show floor. Space only needs a longer runway and more budget, and the floor plan becomes yours.
Can you customise a shell scheme stand?
Yes, within the manual's rules. Graphics can cover the panels edge to edge, and you can add lighting, a counter, display and storage, and something taller where the manual allows it, such as a flag or a lit sign. What the shell cannot change is its own layout. When the stand has to hold a queue or give a meeting some privacy, a space-only custom build is the step up.
Exhibiting on a shell scheme
Tell us the show, the stand you have booked and what a visitor should do at it. We will come back with how to dress it and a plan for running the floor, itemised.