An event’s exhibit space might be one room, several halls, or multiple levels. Show floors help you organize that space, and the floor plan gives exhibitors and staff a visual way to work with it.
What It Controls
A show floor is one hall or level in an event’s exhibit space. Booths belong to a floor, and you can add more than one floor to an event in the order you choose. Each floor can have its own background image and purchasing instructions, which exhibitors see when they choose booths during registration. The floor plan is an interactive drawing tool for one floor at a time. Use it to place booths, add shapes, text labels, furniture, tags, and themed pavilions, and choose the colour for each booth status.
Where to Find It
Go to Meetings & Shows › Events, open the event, then go to Setup › Exhibitors › Floors to manage the event’s floors. To draw the floor plan, open the event and go to Show Floor. This option appears only when exhibitors are turned on for the event.
Tip
If you turn on the virtual show floor option while creating a new floor, you cannot design the floor yet. Save the new floor first, then continue to the floor plan drawing tool to design it.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Any text | Blank | The floor name staff and exhibitors see |
| ID | Letters, digits, underscores, colons, and pipes; must start with the event’s identifier and a colon | Suggested from the name | The permanent identifier, which you cannot change after saving |
| Description/Instructions | Rich text | Blank | Purchasing instructions exhibitors see in the Portal when they choose booths on this floor |
| Background/Image | An image file, or a URL | None | The venue drawing exhibitors see behind the booths when they choose them. The image is stored publicly, so anyone with its address can open it without signing in |
| Floor order | Set by dragging rows on the floors list | The order floors were created in | The order staff and exhibitors see the floors |
On the floor plan, use the toolbar’s Add menu to add a Booth, Label, Shape, or piece of Furniture. Use Floor Plan Options for Tags, Pavilions, refresh, and Floor Plan Settings, where you choose the colour for each booth status: available, on hold, reserved, and approved.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A floor cannot be deleted while any booth still belongs to it. Move or delete those booths first.
- Cloning an event copies its show floors, booths, booth fees, and add-on products into the new event. Booth types are not copied because they are shared across your whole account, not owned by one event.
- The floor's virtual show floor switch is stored but cannot be changed from the floor form. If your Rhythm account uses the floor plan tool, contact Rhythm Support to turn it on for a floor. The interactive floor plan is not included with a Basic Exhibits subscription and needs an additional fee.
Warning
After you draw or move shapes, labels, furniture, tags, or pavilions on the floor plan, refresh the page and confirm they are still there before you rely on them. Booth positions on the drawing and floor-level drawing elements are not always kept the next time the floor plan loads. Confirm that your layout remains after a refresh well before the event, especially after a work session where you moved several items at once.
Change Impact and How to Revert
When you reorder floors, change a floor’s image or instructions, or recolour booth statuses on the floor plan, staff and exhibitors see the change the next time they open the affected page. These changes do not affect booth ownership, pricing, or reservations. Deleting a floor is permanent and only works after nothing remains on it. Once the delete succeeds, there is nothing to undo because the floor and its settings are gone.
Permissions
You reach the Console pages for managing show floors and drawing the floor plan from the event’s setup area. If the event restricts Console access, you also need permission to configure that event.
Validation and Errors
- Name, ID, and event are required when you save a floor, so the save is refused if one is missing.
- The floor's identifier must start with its event's identifier and a colon. Rhythm checks this when you save.
- A record already exists with this name. This warning appears while you type a new floor identifier that matches one already in use. It does not block the save by itself.
- Unfortunately, we cannot delete the record(s) because … record(s) depend on it. This appears when you try to delete a floor that still has booths on it.
Related Tasks
Create the booths that belong on each floor, then lay them out visually on the floor plan you set up here. After floors and booths are in place, exhibitors choose booths on them from the Portal during registration.