Planning to exhibit in Europe? Start preparing six to nine months in advance, choose the right exhibition for your objectives, budget for more than just your exhibition stand and allow time for transport, customs and ATA Carnets. A well-planned exhibition stand can often be adapted for multiple European events, helping you maximise your investment. Throughout this guide, the Motive Exhibitions project team shares practical advice to help you avoid common pitfalls and exhibit in Europe with confidence.
Everything UK businesses need to know before taking their exhibition stand to Europe
If you’ve built a successful exhibition presence in the UK, expanding into Europe is often the next logical step. Europe’s leading trade shows attract buyers, distributors and decision-makers from across the continent and beyond, giving you the opportunity to reach new markets, strengthen existing relationships and grow your business internationally.
Exhibiting overseas does, however, require more planning than a typical UK event. Transport, venue regulations, customs documentation, installation schedules and local logistics all need to come together to ensure your stand arrives on time and your exhibition runs smoothly.
Every month, we help UK businesses exhibit at some of Europe’s biggest trade shows. From exhibition stand design and pre-builds to ATA Carnets, transport, installation and project management, we’ve supported businesses taking their exhibition stands to Europe for the first time and those with established international exhibition calendars.
In this guide, we’ve answered the questions we’re asked most often, sharing practical advice from our project team to help you plan with confidence. Throughout the guide, you’ll also find insights from Sam Hudson, Operations Director at Motive Exhibitions, whose experience delivering exhibition stand projects across the UK and Europe has helped shape the advice we share.
Why should I exhibit in Europe?
For many UK businesses, exhibiting in Europe is the natural next step in growing their customer base. Europe’s leading trade shows bring together manufacturers, distributors, specifiers, buyers and industry professionals from across the world, with many attracting visitors from more than 100 countries.
Whether you’re launching a new product, looking for distributors, strengthening relationships with existing customers or entering a new market, exhibiting overseas gives you access to audiences that can be difficult to reach through UK events alone.
That’s exactly what Majority Audio did when it made its first appearance as an exhibitor at IFA Berlin. Having attended the exhibition as visitors for several years, the team decided it was time to exhibit, using a modular exhibition stand designed to recreate a living room so visitors could experience the products exactly as they would at home. Read our Majority Audio case study.
Many of our clients return to the same European exhibitions year after year because they generate genuine business opportunities. Once they’ve experienced the scale, quality of visitors and international reach, those events often become a key part of their long-term marketing strategy.
What’s different about exhibiting in Europe?
The fundamentals don’t change. You’re still creating an exhibition stand that reflects your brand, attracts visitors and helps you achieve your exhibition objectives.
What changes is the environment.
European exhibition venues are often much larger than those in the UK. Shows typically run for longer, build schedules are extended and you’ll often be exhibiting alongside significantly larger stands, including double-deck structures occupying substantial footprints.
“A big exhibition in the UK might attract 40,000 visitors with around 1,000 exhibitors. At some of the exhibitions we’ve worked on in Germany, you’re looking at well over 100,000 visitors, thousands of exhibitors and build schedules lasting up to eight or ten days.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
What does that mean for a UK exhibitor?
It means a stand that feels large and prominent at a UK exhibition may appear much smaller in a European hall.
Our project for Cleveland Cable Company at Intersolar Europe in Messe München is a good example. A 10m x 5m stand would be considered a substantial space at many UK exhibitions. At Intersolar Europe, surrounded by vast halls and double-deck exhibition stands, it felt comparatively modest.
Rather than increasing the stand size, we focused on making it more visible. Illuminated signage, LED lightboxes and bold branding helped the stand stand out in one of Europe’s busiest exhibition halls, proving that thoughtful design can often deliver more impact than simply buying more floor space.
See how we helped Cleveland Cable Company create a stand that stood out at Intersolar Europe in Munich, one of Europe’s largest renewable energy exhibitions.
Advice from the Project Team
A bigger stand isn’t always the answer.
“Don’t spend most of your budget on floor space and leave yourself too little to invest in the stand itself. We’d much rather help a client create a stand that’s busy, inviting and gives people a reason to stop. Often, a smaller stand with great design, lighting and branding will outperform a much bigger space that lacks impact.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
How do I choose the right European exhibition?
With hundreds of trade shows taking place across Europe every year, choosing the right exhibition can feel like a leap into the unknown. The biggest exhibition isn’t always the right fit for your business, and neither is the newest.
We’d start by talking to your customers. Which exhibitions do they attend each year, and why? Do they attend looking for new suppliers, keeping up with industry developments, networking with peers or sourcing the latest products? You’ll often spot a pattern, and those are usually the exhibitions worth putting on your shortlist.
Next, look at the wider industry. Which exhibitions regularly feature in trade publications? Which events are industry associations talking about? Perhaps most importantly, where are your competitors exhibiting? If they’ve invested in the same exhibition for several years, there’s usually a good reason.
If you have the opportunity, visit the exhibition before committing to exhibit yourself. Walking the halls will tell you far more than a website ever can. You’ll quickly get a feel for the quality of visitors, the size of the exhibition, the standard of the exhibition stands and whether your business is likely to be a good fit.
Finally, think beyond a single event. Consider your objectives, your budget, the size of exhibition stand you’ll need and whether this is a one-off exhibition or the start of a longer-term exhibition calendar. An experienced exhibition stand partner can help you assess whether an exhibition is the right fit and recommend the most appropriate exhibition stand solution for your objectives.
Before you book your exhibition stand, ask yourself one simple question:
What does success look like?
Is it generating sales leads? Finding distributors? Launching a new product? Meeting existing customers? Building relationships with prospects?
Knowing the answer before you commit makes it much easier to choose the right exhibition and measure whether it delivered the results you were hoping for.
Advice from the Project Team
A bigger stand isn’t always the answer.
“Don’t spend most of your budget on floor space and leave yourself too little to invest in the stand itself. We’d much rather help a client create a stand that’s busy, inviting and gives people a reason to stop. Often, a smaller stand with great design, lighting and branding will outperform a much bigger space that lacks impact.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
How much does it cost to exhibit in Europe?
“It’s probably the first question everyone asks,” says Sam Hudson. “And the honest answer is, it depends.”
The cost of exhibiting in Europe isn’t just about your exhibition stand. Every exhibition, venue and country is different, and there are several factors that influence the overall budget.
For example, adding a last-minute feature to your exhibition stand or leaving flights and hotels until the last minute can make a significant difference to your overall costs.
Every exhibition also has its own venue requirements, services and logistics. Once we know which exhibition you’re attending, what you’re hoping to achieve and the type of exhibition stand you’re looking for, we can provide a quotation based on your specific requirements.
Your exhibition budget will typically include:
- Exhibition stand space
- A custom, modular or rental exhibition stand
- Transport and logistics
- ATA Carnet, customs and health & safety documentation
- Installation and dismantling
- Venue services such as electrics, rigging and internet
- Hotels and travel for your team
- Furniture, games, giveaways and additional equipment, such as a coffee machine
Rather than offering one-size-fits-all packages, we build every quotation around your objectives, exhibition schedule and budget. That means you’re only paying for what you need, while knowing every key cost has been considered from the outset.
Advice from the Project Team
Think beyond a single exhibition.
“If you’re planning more than one exhibition this year, tell us before we start designing your exhibition stand. We can often create one exhibition stand that reconfigures for different venues and stand sizes, helping you get much more value from your investment over the course of the year.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
How early should I start planning?
“As early as possible,” says Sam Hudson, Operations Director at Motive Exhibitions. “Ideally six to nine months before the exhibition, because there are lots of extra processes involved in taking an exhibition stand overseas.”
Planning ahead gives everyone the time they need to do things properly.
For us, that means understanding your objectives, designing your exhibition stand, finalising layouts, completing structural calculations where required, organising health and safety documentation, ordering venue services, coordinating transport and, where needed, arranging customs paperwork and ATA Carnets.
It also gives us time to pre-build your exhibition stand in our workshop before it leaves the UK, allowing you to see exactly what will arrive on site and make any final adjustments before it travels.
While we’re doing that, you’ll have time to organise your own preparations, from booking hotels and flights to ordering promotional merchandise, planning staffing and promoting your attendance to existing and prospective customers.
As Sam points out, “If we’ve not worked together before, even getting us set up on your supplier system can take a few weeks. When you’re exhibiting in Europe, time really is your friend.”
European exhibitions also work to much longer build schedules than many UK events, which changes how projects are planned and delivered.
“In the UK, organisers might allow two to four days to build an exhibition stand. Across Europe, exhibitions are often much larger, stand sizes are bigger and build schedules can stretch to seven, eight or even ten days. Leaving the UK, factoring in transport, customs, queues and even the weather to make sure you’re on site for your allocated build slot all needs careful planning.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
Advice from the Project Team
Build in time for a pre-build.
“One of the biggest advantages of planning early is that we can pre-build your exhibition stand before it leaves the UK. You get to see exactly what will arrive on site, make any final changes and travel to the exhibition knowing everything has already been checked and is ready to go.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
Can one exhibition stand work across multiple European shows?
Absolutely. If you’re planning to exhibit at several shows throughout the year, it’s one of the first conversations we’d recommend having.
Knowing your exhibition calendar from the outset allows us to plan for different venues, countries and stand layouts, helping you get more value from the same exhibition stand over the course of the year.
Rather than creating a stand for a single exhibition, we can create one that works across different stand sizes and layouts, whether that’s an island stand in the UK, a corner stand in Germany or another configuration elsewhere in Europe, while maintaining a consistent brand presence wherever you exhibit.
Our project for Cleveland Cable Company is a great example.
We designed one exhibition stand that worked across five exhibitions in the UK, Ireland and Germany. Although the stand sizes and layouts changed throughout the year, the overall look and feel remained consistent, giving Cleveland Cable Company a recognisable brand presence wherever they exhibited.
Read the Cleveland Cable Company case study to see how one exhibition stand was adapted for five exhibitions across the UK, Ireland and Germany.
Advice from the project team
Tell us about your whole exhibition calendar, not just your next exhibition.
“It’s much easier to design one exhibition stand that works across multiple exhibitions than adapt it later. If we know your plans from the beginning, we can often save you money while making your exhibition calendar much easier to manage.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
It’s much easier to design one exhibition stand that works across multiple exhibitions than adapt it later. If we know your plans from the beginning, we can often save you money while making your exhibition calendar much easier to manage.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
Do I need an ATA Carnet?
If you’re temporarily taking an exhibition stand, demonstration equipment or products into Europe, you will need an ATA Carnet.
We’ll take care of the ATA Carnet paperwork, work with our freight and logistics partners and make sure everything is in place before your exhibition stand leaves the UK.
Once we’ve submitted the required information, the ATA Carnet is often issued within one or two working days. However, we always recommend allowing plenty of time before your exhibition stand is due to leave the UK.
If your exhibition stand is travelling by road, you’ll also need to allow time for customs clearance and cross-border transport. Depending on the destination, this can add several days to your logistics schedule, which is another reason why planning ahead is so important.
That’s exactly what we managed for All-Fill when exhibiting at Interpack in Düsseldorf. Alongside the exhibition stand itself, we organised the ATA Carnet, customs paperwork, specialist transport for two demonstration machines, including a six-tonne unit, and coordinated delivery to and from the exhibition. Read the All-Fill case study.
Leave the paperwork to us.
No one wants to be figuring out ATA Carnets for the first time when there’s an exhibition deadline to meet. Our clients have enough to think about without worrying whether the paperwork is right.
We complete the ATA Carnet paperwork, coordinate everything with our freight and logistics partners and make sure it’s all organised well before your exhibition stand leaves the UK, so you can focus on preparing for the exhibition.”
Sam Hudson, Operations Director, Motive Exhibitions
Some of our European exhibition stand case studies
- Cleveland Cable Company
One exhibition stand designed to work across five exhibitions in the UK, Ireland and Germany, creating a consistent brand presence at every event. - Majority Audio
A first-time exhibitor at IFA Berlin with a modular exhibition stand designed to encourage hands-on product demonstrations. - All-Fill
An exhibition stand for Interpack in Düsseldorf, including ATA Carnets, customs paperwork and specialist transport for two demonstration machines.
Looking for more inspiration? Browse our gallery or case studies.
Planning your European exhibition?
Whether you’re exhibiting overseas for the first time or expanding an established exhibition programme, we’re here to help.
From exhibition stand design and pre-builds to ATA Carnets, transport, installation and project management, we’ll guide you through every stage of the process, making sure your exhibition stand arrives on time and everything is in place before the doors open.
If you’re planning to exhibit in Europe, we’d be happy to talk through your objectives, answer your questions and recommend the exhibition stand solution that’s right for your business.
Get in touch with the Motive Exhibitions team to start planning your next European exhibition.
Let’s take your exhibition stand to Europe
From ATA Carnets and customs paperwork to transport and installation, exhibiting in Europe involves more planning than a typical UK exhibition. By managing the process from the outset, we make sure your exhibition stand arrives where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, leaving you free to focus on making the exhibition a success.
Ready to transform your exhibition experience?
- Contact us and tell us your plans.
- Explore our case studies and get inspired by what’s possible.
- Visit our exhibition stand services page to learn more about our work.
Motive Exhibitions, 3 Orion Court, Ambuscade Road, Colmworth Business Park, Eaton Socon, St. Neots, PE19 8YX
