If your organization exhibits at an event, you buy exhibit space in the Portal’s Exhibitor Service Center. Use this article to choose a registration process, select booth space, add extras, and check out.
Before You Begin
Prerequisites
- You must be signed in to the Portal, and your contact must belong to the organization buying the booths.
- The event must have at least one exhibitor registration process your organization can use right now. Your eligibility depends on the process’s open and close dates and, if the process uses priority points, the points your organization has accumulated. Only the association can tell you which processes apply to you and when they open.
- The event's website or microsite must have the Exhibitors feature installed. Staff do this under Portals & Microsites ›
<microsite>› Features › Install a Portal Feature › Exhibitors. The exhibitor menu on that microsite also needs a link to the Purchase Booth process. Without both, the purchase flow is not available, even when the process is otherwise set up correctly.
Tip
Membership rules may set booth pricing and eligibility at the organization level instead of for you individually. If your organization's membership provides pricing or eligibility, any contact with the right permissions in that organization can use it to buy a booth.
Tip
If your organization has more than one page of priority point history, only the most recent page is checked for points-restricted processes. If you think you should qualify but do not see a process, contact the association.
Start a Purchase
- Go to EXHIBITORS › Exhibitor Service Center.
- Select Purchase Booth.
- Choose one of the registration processes offered to you. You only see processes your organization can use right now, so a process does not appear if it has not opened, has already closed, or requires more priority points than your organization has.
- If the process includes a contact form or organization form, complete it and continue.
Tip
Exhibitor registration does not have a built-in capacity limit that stops you from starting when every booth is sold. You can still open and work through the process until the association closes it, even if no booths remain to choose from.
Warning
The list of eligible processes is only the starting point. If the process closes while you are working, or your organization’s eligibility changes before checkout, checkout can still refuse the purchase even though the process appeared when you started.
Choose Your Booths
The way you choose space depends on how the association set up the process. Each process offers exactly one of these options, never both:
- Choose specific booths, either from a list or from a floor plan when one is available for the event.
- Choose booth types and quantities when the process is set up that way. In this case, you are not assigned a specific booth yet; staff assign one later.
See Choose Booths During Exhibitor Registration for details on making this choice.
Result
The booths or booth types you chose are added to your purchase. If you chose specific booths, they are held for your organization while you finish checkout, so no one else can buy them during that time.
If you go back and choose different specific booths before you finish checkout, the booths you were holding for this event are released and replaced by your new choice.
Add Extras and Booth Staff
If the association sells exhibitor add-ons, such as electricity, extra badges, or sponsored listings, enter the quantity you want for each one. A quantity of zero means you are not buying that add-on. Add-ons are always optional for you as the buyer; the association cannot require you to choose one of several add-ons, such as one marketing package from a set of choices.
If the process collects the names of the people staffing your booth, you can add them here. The form shows how many people of each contact type your purchase currently allows. That allowance can depend on how much booth space you are buying and your organization’s priority points, so it may change when you add or remove booths. For step-by-step instructions on adding and removing booth staff after your purchase, see Manage Your Booth Staff in the Portal.
Complete Checkout
- Review your order and complete checkout as prompted.
Result
Your order is submitted. Once it is paid and processed, your booths, or your booth type allotment, become part of your organization’s exhibitor record. Any new booth staff you named are added to that record too.
If a Booth Is No Longer Available
Warning
If any booth you chose is already reserved, or is on hold for another organization whose hold has not expired, checkout is refused and lists the unavailable booths. Go back, choose different booths, and try checkout again.
Change or Delete Your Registration
Until your registration is paid and processed, you can return to the Exhibitor Service Center to change or delete it. This includes the booths, booth types, add-ons, and booth staff you named.
Related
- Choose Booths During Exhibitor Registration
- Manage Your Booth Staff in the Portal
- View Exhibitors and Update Your Exhibitor Information
- How Exhibiting at an Event Works
- Booths, Numbers, and Statuses Explained