What are the challenges for a successful exhibition stand in Europe?

Interview by Exhibit City News

Exhibiting in Europe is a completely different way of exhibiting than in the U.S. We spoke to Martin Buschkamp, project manager, Standex GmbH, from Wuppertal, Germany, whose firm was established in 1978 and now well-known in the exhibition industry.

ECN: What is the main difference, and what shell do Americans take care of, when they plan to exhibit in Germany, for example?
 Martin: One of the main points is that European exhibition stands are mostly custom-made and built on site by carpenters. Booths, which come out of a box like a “pop up” booth, are not usual; European clients like custom-made booths. They look like [they were built to last] forever. In Europe, there are no drayage costs as in the U.S.; you only have to pay for forklift trucks on an hourly basis, which is cheap comparing to U.S. drayage. This makes it easy to deliver custom-made booths to site and get them installed.

ECN: Can everyone install the booth on site?
Martin: That’s correct; you do not need to hire union crew members for installation and dismantling. This is all done by our own crew – no matter where we work – if it is Paris, Athens, Berlin, Madrid or Stockholm. We just need to make sure that our crew, who are all full time employees, are officially registered. This makes it way cheaper to get a booth installed and dismantled. Also [with] the electric connection and light fittings – all that will be done by our own crew.

ECN: Are there no health and safety regulations you need to observe?
Martin: There are a lot of health and safety regulations, which we all have to cover. Me and my colleagues spent many hours [preparing] health and safety documents covering all the different production steps on site. All these documents need to be approved by the show management – and that is what we take care of. We want to make sure our clients do have a nice and easy stay when they come over to Europe for a show!

ECN: Are these rules and regulations all the same in Europe?
Martin: No, even inside Germany these rules are changing. Europe is still many different countries with many different borders and rules. We need to cover all this during the planning of a setup in Milan, Italy, for example. Big differences are the main switch boards for the electric connections. Every country – we work with 400V and 230V – has different standard specifications for the fuse block. We do have different main switch boards for different countries available to make sure we fit the rules on site.

by Exhibit City News