Trade Show Planning Timeline Template

What's included

Exhibiting is a countdown, not a project. Three or four dates are genuinely immovable and everything else arranges itself around them, so the template shows them as milestones rather than as tasks:

• Space selection & contract, Show selection, budget approval, floor-plan review, space selection at the priority-points deadline and contract signature. Milestone: space contracted.
• Stand design & build, Brief, concept design, contractor selection, design approval by show management, fabrication, graphics and pre-build.
• Show services & logistics, Ordering electrics, rigging, internet and furniture at advance rates, freight booking, the shipping deadline and the assigned build slot. Milestone: shipping deadline.
• Pre-show marketing, Target list, invitation campaign, meeting booking, press and speaker slots, social and website activity in the final weeks.
• Staffing & training, Stand rota, travel and accommodation, product and messaging briefing, lead-capture training and the demo dry-run.
• Show days, Build-up, stand open, meetings and demos, daily lead review, breakdown and outbound freight. Milestone: show opens.
• Lead follow-up & review, Lead upload within days not weeks, tiered follow-up, pipeline attribution, cost review and the next-show decision.

How to customize it

1. Set the show open date and let the whole plan count backwards from it, that is how exhibition planning actually works.
2. Replace the generic deadlines with the real dates from the exhibitor manual as soon as it is published.
3. Add rows for each shipment if you are sending stand, product and literature separately; they have different deadlines.
4. Extend the pre-show marketing bar if you rely on booked meetings; the calendar fills six to eight weeks out, not the week before.
5. Add a customs and carnet task for international shows, it has its own lead time and can strand a stand at the border.
6. Keep follow-up on the chart with dated tasks; leads decay fast and an undated follow-up plan is not a plan.

Scheduling tips

• Book next year at this year's show. Space selection usually happens on site with priority based on tenure and spend, which is why it sits at the front of this template rather than the end.
• Order services at the advance rate. Electrics, rigging and internet ordered after the deadline routinely cost substantially more for exactly the same thing.
• Hit the freight deadline with a margin. Late shipments go to the back of the marshalling queue, and your build slot does not wait for them.
• Get stand designs approved by show management early. Height, hanging signs and multi-storey structures need approval and will be refused on site if they were never submitted.
• Rehearse the demo before you travel. Discovering a demo needs bandwidth you did not order is a show-floor problem with no show-floor solution.
• Follow up within 48 hours. The single biggest driver of trade-show return is speed of follow-up, so schedule it before you go, not after you get back.

Related templates

• Event Planning Gantt Chart Template
• Marketing Plan Gantt Chart Template
• Free Product Launch Gantt Chart Template
• Browse all Gantt chart templates

Frequently asked questions