Stand Position Is Decided by Booking Order, Not by the Floor Plan

UK Games Expo lists seven tiers of priority for choosing stand locations at its NEC show in June 2027, and a first-time exhibitor sits in the last one. Major sponsors choose first, then associate and supporting sponsors, then zone sponsors within their own areas, then incumbent exhibitors, then exhibitors with a history at the show, and only then everyone else. Formal enquiries open around 1 October, and confirmations and invoices can take four to six weeks after the organisers have gone through the requests. By the time most new exhibitors start looking at the floor plan, much of it has already been decided.

Position goes to the people who were there first

The Baby Show at ExCeL shows how the same principle works for existing exhibitors. Rebooking for 2027 is open first to 2026 exhibitors, who get first choice of stand. An exhibitor can keep the same stand, position and size at the onsite rebooking rate, rebook that stand while naming up to three alternatives, or list up to three preferred stand numbers or floor plan locations with preferences for size, dimensions and open sides. A 14-day cooling-off period applies, and anyone who picks a different stand has 24 hours to sign the new booking. The pattern is that the best position at a show is usually held by someone already standing in it, which is the same seam we covered in why the best time to book next year’s stand is at this year’s show.

Open sides are a design decision as well as a price

Stand builders describe positions by how many sides face an aisle. One exposed side is an inline stand, two is a corner, three is a peninsula and four is an island. One builder’s guide warns that the same area can have different exposed sides, proportions and neighbouring conditions at different shows, so the organiser’s own terms and floor plan are the ones that count. The same guide says there is no universal corner premium, and that fits what we found: none of the UK organiser pages we read published a corner or open-side supplement. Whether an extra open side costs more depends on the show, so it is a question for the sales team, not an assumption.

An open side also changes what the contractor has to build. A stand visible from two or three directions has more faces to finish and fewer places to hide storage, and the cost of building a stand rises with the complexity of the structure, not just the square metres. Whether the stand is shell scheme or space only matters here too, since a shell scheme plot comes with its walls fixed.

What to do before booking

Ask the organiser how locations are allocated and when. Make a formal booking request, since UK Games Expo warns that an email asking for a stand is often missed and that quote-only enquiries are not seen by the organisers. Name up to three preferred positions with the size and open sides you want, and pass the plot’s exposed sides and neighbours to your contractor before the design starts. Both rules above come from specific 2027 shows, so check how yours works.

Stand Between introduces exhibitors to contractors who start from the floor plan position, not just the square metres. If you have a show on the calendar and have not yet chosen a stand, get in touch with Stand Between.