The technical exhibition at the annual meeting of the RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) opens on 29 November 2026. Its exhibitor service kit went live on 15 July, booth designs were due on 31 August, and the advance order discount with the official contractor closed on 22 October (RSNA, 2026 exhibitor deadlines). An exhibitor who starts thinking about carpet and power in November has already missed the cheapest prices.
Those dates illustrate one of the kit’s most important jobs: helping exhibitors complete the right tasks in time. The exhibitor kit, also called the exhibitor manual or exhibitor handbook, is the operating document an organiser sends after a company has booked its space. It explains the rules, the deadlines and the orders that turn a booked plot into a working stand.
In this guide we show what belongs in it, how it differs from the documents around it, and when to send each part. Put a dated action list at the front, with the detailed rules and order forms easy to find from it.
What an exhibitor kit is, and what it is not
Before you write a single page, separate the kit from the documents your exhibitors also receive. Four of them are regularly confused, and each one has a different job and a different moment.
| Document | When it arrives | What it does | Who usually writes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exhibitor or sponsorship prospectus | Before booking | Sells space, packages and prices | Organiser’s sales team |
| Exhibitor manual (exhibitor kit, handbook) | After the contract | Sets rules, deadlines, build-up and logistics for the whole show | Organiser’s operations team, with the venue’s technical guidelines |
| Service kit | After the contract | Order forms and price lists for furniture, carpet, labour, handling | Official service contractor |
| Exhibitor marketing kit | After the contract | Banners, invitation codes, social media material | Organiser’s marketing team |
The prospectus is the sales document. As our guide on how to write a sponsorship prospectus puts it, a prospectus is not an operations manual. The manual begins where the prospectus ends: at signature.
In practice, “exhibitor kit” is the umbrella term. At large US shows the service kit comes from a general contractor and sits inside the organiser’s manual. At European venues the manual often carries the venue’s technical guidelines as an annex. Whatever your structure, give exhibitors one entry point. Use one clearly labelled entry point for the organiser’s manual, contractor services and venue rules.
Why the manual is really a deadline schedule
The case for treating the manual as a schedule starts with the money behind it. Exhibit space accounts for only 40.5 per cent of what exhibitors spend on a show. That is the finding of the study How the Exhibit Dollar Is Spent by CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research), based on a survey from late 2025 (reported by TSNN, April 2026). The other 60 per cent goes on stand build, services, shipping, staff and travel, and much of it is ordered through the forms in your kit.
Deadlines decide what that money buys. Take the 2026 service kit for the Joint Navigation Conference. Furniture and carpet ordered after the advance deadline cost 30 per cent more, so a draped table goes from 177.31 to 230.51 US dollars (CSS service kit for JNC 2026). For an exhibitor, a missed date is a line on the invoice. For you, it is a complaint that lands in the rebooking conversation.
European venues add a second kind of deadline, one that is about permission rather than price. Messe Frankfurt requires plans for two-storey stands and special constructions, such as structures over 4 metres or platforms higher than 20 centimetres, at least six weeks before build-up begins. Construction may only start once the plans are stamped as approved, and the inspection of a two-storey stand costs 1,495 euros (Messe Frankfurt, stand construction authorisation factsheet, 2026). Make the approval requirement and submission deadline prominent in the kit.
An exhibitor coordinator may be preparing several shows at once. A first-page deadline list lets them identify the next task, its cost implications and the person responsible without searching the full manual.
Exhibitor kits in numbers
Why the dates matter more than the pages
What to put in the exhibitor manual: nine sections
Organise the detailed guidance around the tasks exhibitors need to complete before build-up. These nine sections provide a practical structure.
- Key dates and contacts: one page with every deadline in date order, the price or consequence attached to each, and a named contact for each topic.
- Show rules: opening and staffing hours, giveaways and sampling, noise limits, sub-letting, insurance and liability.
- Technical guidelines and stand approval: height limits, fire safety, rigging, and which stand types need plans approved by when.
- Build-up, dismantling and contractors: time slots, vehicle access, which services are exclusive, and how to register an exhibitor appointed contractor (a stand builder or installer the exhibitor hires itself).
- Service orders: power, furniture, carpet, internet, audiovisual, cleaning and catering, each with its advance and standard price.
- Shipping and handling: advance warehouse, direct delivery to the hall, labels, handling rates and outbound shipping.
- Badges, staff and housing: badges per stand, registration deadline, hotel block and its release date.
- Marketing and visitor tools: catalogue entry, logo upload, invitation codes and lead retrieval.
- Meeting programme: when meeting requests open, how visitors find the stand and how exhibitors set their availability.
Two of these sections connect directly to your revenue. Service orders are where mandatory fees surface. Exhibitors who find a fee there that the booking never mentioned feel misled, and our guide to booth pricing explains why every mandatory fee belongs in the offer, not in the kit. Lead retrieval is the other one. Whether you charge for it or include it, state the model clearly, as discussed in our article on lead retrieval for event organisers.
Keep the sections short. Link out to the venue’s full technical guidelines instead of copying sixty pages into your manual.
When to send it: release the kit in waves
Release the information early enough for exhibitors to obtain approvals, place orders and use any advance discounts.
Large shows give a useful benchmark. RSNA released its 2026 service kit about 19 weeks before opening. NAB Show, run by the National Association of Broadcasters, released its Freeman service kit on 11 November 2025 for a show opening on 19 April 2026, about 23 weeks ahead. Its advance discount deadline was 16 March, about five weeks before opening (NAB Show, 2026 exhibitor deadlines). Smaller shows run shorter: the Joint Navigation Conference set its advance deadline 18 days before the show.
Do not send everything at once. A kit released in waves matches the order in which exhibitors make decisions.
Exhibitor kit timeline
When each part of the exhibitor kit goes out
- At contract Welcome and key dates One page: all deadlines, contacts and the link to the portal. The exhibitor can plan the budget from day one.
- About 20 weeks Full manual and service kit Rules, technical guidelines, order forms with advance prices. Large shows release between 19 and 23 weeks ahead.
- 13 to 6 weeks Stand plans and approvals Design reviews for large stands, approval of two-storey and special constructions before build-up.
- 5 to 3 weeks Discount and warehouse deadlines Advance orders, warehouse shipments, badge registration. Send reminders only to exhibitors with open items.
- Final 2 weeks Onsite pack Build-up slot, vehicle access, contacts on site, meeting schedule for the stand team.
- After the show Move-out and results Dismantling times, outbound shipping, and the result sheet for the rebooking conversation.
Send the first deadline list with the booking confirmation. Even if some details are provisional, it helps exhibitors reserve staff time and prepare their budget.
Include the meeting programme in the action list
Alongside stand preparation, explain how the exhibitor team can take part in the meeting programme.
A kit that lists power sockets and carpet colours tells the exhibitor to plan for a stand. A kit that also says “meeting requests open on 1 September, set your availability by 15 September” tells them to plan for conversations. Exhibitors who plan for conversations are more likely to come back. Explori’s research across more than 3,000 B2B events, which we discuss in our article on exhibitor retention, found that exhibitors who set meeting existing customers as an objective outperform their peers on satisfaction and expected return on investment (ROI).
Put the meeting programme into the dated schedule, not into a marketing appendix. It needs three dates: when exhibitor profiles must be complete, when visitors can start requesting meetings, and when the stand team’s availability must be set. Add one sentence on why it matters for the exhibitor’s own results. If your exhibitors need more convincing, our argument for exhibitors to use a B2B matchmaking tool is ready to adapt for the kit.
In Converve’s trade show solution, exhibitors maintain their company profile, booth staff and offerings themselves, and the meeting matrix you configure decides which exhibitor and visitor categories may request meetings with each other. Link that profile step and the meeting dates from your kit, so the meeting programme becomes a task exhibitors complete rather than a paragraph they skim.
Make it usable: one entry point, one status per exhibitor
A schedule only works if someone can see where each exhibitor stands. That is why the static PDF is giving way to portals.
The direction is visible at the largest service contractors. Freeman launched a rebuilt exhibitor services platform in December 2025 (Freeman press release, 9 December 2025). It offers checklists organised around each exhibitor’s booth, online submission of paperwork and real-time tracking of shipping and invoices. Your exhibitors will compare your kit with that experience.
You do not need the same scale to apply the principle. Four habits make any kit more usable:
- Show each exhibitor only the sections that apply to their stand type, so a shell scheme exhibitor does not read rigging rules.
- Track who has opened the kit and which tasks are still open, and send reminders by open task rather than to the whole list.
- Give access to the whole exhibiting team, including the stand builder, with roles that limit who can place orders.
- Date every change and announce it, because a quietly updated PDF is a source of disputes.
Which system should hold all this depends on how you run exhibitors from contract to invoice, and our comparison of exhibitor management software walks through the five stages a portal has to support. If stand numbers live in a separate tool, make sure the kit and the floor plan show the same ones; our guide to event floor plan software starts with exactly that question.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an exhibitor kit?
An exhibitor kit is the set of documents an event organiser sends to exhibitors after they have booked space. It contains the show rules, deadlines, technical guidelines, service order forms, shipping information, badge registration and marketing tools. The terms exhibitor kit, exhibitor manual and exhibitor handbook are often used for the same document.
What is the difference between an exhibitor kit and an exhibitor manual?
Often there is none, and the terms are used interchangeably. Where they differ, the exhibitor manual holds the organiser’s rules and deadlines, while the service kit holds the order forms and prices of the official service contractor. “Exhibitor kit” then means the whole package. Give exhibitors one entry point for all of it.
What should an exhibitor checklist include?
An exhibitor checklist should list every deadline in date order: stand plan approval, service orders at advance prices, warehouse shipments, badge registration, hotel block release, catalogue entry and meeting availability. Each item needs a date, a contact and the consequence of missing it, such as standard prices that were 30 per cent higher in one 2026 service kit (CSS, JNC 2026).
When should the exhibitor kit be sent?
Send a one-page list of key dates at contract and the full manual and service kit about 20 weeks before the show. Large shows release between 19 and 23 weeks ahead (RSNA and NAB Show, 2026). Smaller events can work with shorter lead times, but the kit must arrive well before the first discount and approval deadlines.
What is an exhibitor appointed contractor?
An exhibitor appointed contractor (EAC) is a company the exhibitor hires itself, such as a stand builder or audiovisual supplier, instead of using the show’s official contractor. The exhibitor manual should explain how to register an EAC, which services remain exclusive to official contractors, and which insurance documents are required.
Is an exhibitor kit the same as an exhibitor prospectus?
No. The exhibitor prospectus is a sales document sent before booking. It presents space, packages and prices. The exhibitor kit is an operating document sent after the contract. It explains how to build, equip and staff the stand. Give each document a clear purpose and link the kit from the booking confirmation.
Conclusion: send the dates before the details
A useful exhibitor kit combines clear deadlines with accessible guidance. Build it as a schedule. Send one page of dates at signature and the full manual and service kit about five months out. Then follow with approvals and discounts in clearly dated waves, and an onsite pack at the end. Keep the prospectus out of it and the venue’s guidelines linked rather than copied.
Include the meeting programme in the same dated action list. When the meeting programme has its own dates in the kit, exhibitors prepare their stand for conversations, not just for power and carpet. Those conversations can then form part of the exhibitor’s assessment of the show.
If you want exhibitor profiles and a configurable meeting programme in one place that your kit can point to, get in touch with Converve.
