The booth is finished, and now we have to tear down a wall?… Seoul Cafe Show and the craft of approving exhibition drawings in advance

At a B2B exhibition, a custom-built booth is the face of an exhibitor’s brand. Companies often build enormous timber walls and cover them with striking graphics to attract attention. Yet these large walls become a substantial volume of industrial waste after the event, while blocking sightlines and making circulation through the exhibition feel constrained.

The 22nd Seoul Cafe Show, held in 2023, introduced a firm policy to address these problems: mandatory open custom-built booths. To reduce material use and increase openness, exhibitors had to obtain the organiser’s sign-off on their drawings before construction.

From an event planner’s perspective, the policy’s essence lies beyond the broad slogan of environmental responsibility. Its real value is a back-end review system that cuts off physical conflicts and rule violations at the drawing stage, before a booth is built on site. If drawing approval is poorly managed, a wall erected at considerable expense may have to be demolished and rebuilt on site, creating the worst kind of dispute.

1. The floor-plan trap: ask for elevations

Many exhibition planners make the mistake of stamping their approval after receiving only a booth floor plan from the exhibitor.

• Multi-angle review: An entrance marked on a floor plan does not, by itself, demonstrate the openness required by the organiser. The height of the actual partition walls, the positions of displays and any obstruction of sightlines by overhead structures must be cross-checked using elevation drawings. From the procurement stage, the planner needs to make 3D renderings or elevations showing the precise dimensions of walls and openings on every face mandatory submission documents.

2. Decoupling version control: when the approved drawing is compromised

Approval of the first drawing is no reason for the organiser to relax. Builders and design agencies may change a design on site without authorisation for convenience or because an exhibitor has changed its mind.

• Mandatory approval of revisions: If a builder changes the orientation of a large graphic or partition wall without permission after the organiser’s approval, the previous reviews of openness and safety are invalidated. The manual needs a firm rule: “Any change of even 1 cm from the organiser-approved V1 (version 1) drawing requires immediate reapproval, and unauthorised construction may be forcibly removed.”
• Space occupied by clutter: Even when construction is completed perfectly, a large refrigerator or mobile display brought by an exhibitor can block the open area. The final walk-through needs to take place on the night before opening, after every item of furniture and equipment has arrived, rather than at the moment construction is completed.

3. Avoid inflated ESG results: a single photograph is not data

Vague performance statements such as “Introducing open booths made the exhibition environmentally friendly” are best avoided.

• Collect quantitative data: Seoul Cafe Show’s official report includes photographs of open booths, but a practical event planner needs to go one step further. Track figures such as “the proportion of all exhibitors that followed the advance drawing-approval procedure” and “the estimated reduction in timber construction waste, in tonnes, resulting from compliance.” The existence of a rule does not itself prove a reduction. Carefully distinguish material-input data from waste data and use them as KPIs for the following year.

4. A four-stage protocol for approving custom-built booth drawings

To prevent confusion and safety incidents at an exhibition with hundreds of custom-built booths, the planning team needs the following four stages.

Planner’s note: a complete space is made on uncompromising drawings

Exhibitors always want booths that are taller, more enclosed and more conspicuous. The organiser’s planner has the task of gently shaping that excessive enthusiasm within the boundaries of safety and comfort for the entire event.

It is too late to begin that work when the exhibition hall is already filled with sawdust and the smell of paint. Instead of raising voices in an on-site dispute, mark red lines and request precise dimensions on the cool drawing files in AutoCAD. A truly safe and comfortable exhibition is born in the exacting detail of carefully stamped, approved drawings, before the glamorous lights come on.