What actually is an exhibitor?

When is a company considered to be an exhibitor at an exhibition? If its products can be seen anywhere at the exhibition, perhaps? Not quite, because in that case exhibitions at which many retailers are represented would have several thousand exhibitors. In principle it is quite simple: a company is an exhibitor if it is, so to speak, present at an exhibition in person and can thus come into contact with visitors – because that is the basic idea of any exhibition. Or, to cite the FKM rules: “An exhibitor is an institution (company, individual person or organisation) which is accredited by the exhibition organiser on an exhibitor stand space and presents or distributes products, services and/or rights there with staff who are present”. The decisive factors are therefore that it has accreditation from the organiser and that staff are present.

By the way, not every interested company gets an accreditation. Because the organisers in all cases ensure that the exhibitors’ products and/or services form part of the range of goods offered at the Event. As a result, so that it is ensured that the company’s participation benefits itself and the visitor of course.

So-called co-exhibitors (also referred to as sub-exhibitors) are also regarded as being exhibitors. These are companies which, although they do not have a direct contractual relationship with the organiser, are represented on the main exhibitor’s stand by way of their own staff and products or in the context of a joint stand. Specifically, joint stands such as these are usually rented by an institution or a company which then divides up and in turn rents out the stand space.

Additionally represented companies are not considered to be exhibitors because such companies are only actually represented on an exhibitor’s stand by way of products, but not with staff.