For companies who want to join a trade show event, putting together the most comprehensive design for a Request for Proposal or RFP has to be a priority.

Trade Show Display designers and builders may not know your company, it’s history, and it’s full suite of products, services — so creating your RFP is definitely important!

In order to help your booth designer provide you with everything you need, providing them with an RFP that introduce your visions for your trade show booth beforehand is a critical step.

Keep in mind that a good designer must be capable of creating the best possible booth that suits your needs as long as it has all the essential information, right guidance, as well as the good amount of creative freedom. Having all things balanced can be a little bit tricky. However, once you are able to do it, the result you will get will be amazing.

Below are some of the important keys to include in your trade show booth RFP.

Provide a Comprehensive Company Profile to Your Booth Designer

Along with having a general idea of what your brand has to offer, it is also a good idea include any awards or achievements your company has obtained. This will give an idea to the spectators of how your company suits into the certain industry you belong to and why they should choose you instead of your competitions. This must also include the following:

Overview of your current marketing/marketing campaigns
Relevant URL’s that direct to your company products and servives
Your brand status and competitive advantage
Information about your product or service that would introduce value to your audience
Non-Disclosure Agreement or NDA if you wish to include any sensitive proprietary information.

Future Plans of Your Business

Did you recently launch new products that you want to be featured in your booth or maybe you’ have upcoming products that you think your audience would be interested to be aware of? Make sure to include those in your RFP.

Upcoming events, or milestones
New product launching
Rebranding events
New branch opening

Marketing Goals

It would also be important to talk about the objectives you are expecting to gain from the trade show. Make sure to include the things you are looking to avoid during the event that you think will affect your brand negatively. It is important to discuss your brand message together with your brand history if you think it would be relevant. In order to make sure that the designer does not generate anything off-brand, make sure to have a copy of the guidelines you want to be followed. This must include but are not limited to:

Design plan
Construction
On-Site Supervision and Project Management
Storage plan
Graphics Production
List of main competiors

Previous Trade Show Experiences and Future Expectations

Discuss the past trade shows you have joined in the past, how well did you do on those events and how they affected your brand. You must also not forget to talk about your previous budgets, number of attendees and where your booth was placed. This must also include your expectations on the event you are looking to join. This part must also include the following details:

Previous exhibiting efforts and gains
Your expectations of how the upcoming event is going to benefit your brand
The specific plans you used to make the past events successful, as well as the plans you are planning to use in order to make the upcoming event successful and beneficial for you and for people who will engage with your products or services
Expected number of attendees of future events

Functional and Technical Requirements

Do you have needs that you would want to be included in your booth? You must talk about your technical needs in relevance to installation and disassembling process, designs, electrical requirements, as well as on-site management. And if there are particular booth activities that you would like your attendees to take part in, make sure to outline those as well.

Specify the exhibit design you want. It’s very important in order to make sure that you are getting the proper design to ensure the trade show event is successful for you
- Booth Size
- Booth Type
- Special props or designs you want to be included
Include show particular paperwork, restrictions, and requirements in order to speed up the process
Add a thorough description of how you’d like booth modules, services, and others detailed in the quote to create a better analysis process

Budget Breakdown of Trade Show Booth and Services

Stating your overall budget would also be important. Perform a research on the exhibit builder and industry standard in order to have a clearer and realistic idea of how much you should invest. Create a budget breakdown regarding the expenses of booth design, audio and visual gear, creative content, shipping and drayage, and marketing. This information would help the designer to work effectively with you during the entire process, so, if you have any new requests, they will be able to check whether your budget can afford it.

Full disclosure of your planned budget
Information about your design analysis and final selection process
Information or questions about payment terms, initial deposit requirements, and costing options derived from exhibition types

A Timeline for Your Trade Show Exhibit Planning

Another important thing you need to include in your RFP is your expected timelines, and deadline and whom the copies must be submitted to. Furthermore, you must also include the dates of presentation, an anticipated decision date, and planned delivery dates. Your timeline must include all important dates such as the following:

Proposal deadline
Final decision dates
Dates for the presentation
Project-progress meeting events
Final walkthrough date
Assessed dates of shipments
Set up dates for the show including the times

You must always remember that the requirements stated above for the trade show booth RFP are essential if you really want to be successful in your event. Being able to communicate clearly is an important part to make sure you have a successful trade show event since it’s the responsibility of your designer to carry out one of the most important parts of your trade show planning.

Beaumont & Co. Can Assist with Your RFP Questions and Needs