Glossary
The exhibition automation glossary
Plain-language definitions of the terms used across exhibition stand building, trade-show operations, and the automation that runs them.
- Exhibition stand builder
- An exhibition stand builder is a company that designs, fabricates, ships, and installs custom stands (booths) for clients exhibiting at trade shows. The work spans estimating, design, production, logistics, on-site installation, and teardown, usually against tight show deadlines.
- RFQ (Request for Quotation)
- An RFQ is a request for quotation — the brief, drawings, and specifications a client sends to invite a priced proposal for a stand. In exhibition work RFQs are drawing-heavy and time-sensitive, and the builder who returns an accurate quote first usually wins the bid.
- Bill of materials (BOM)
- A bill of materials is the itemised list of every material, component, and labour line needed to build a stand, each with a cost. It is the foundation of an accurate quote, and building it by hand from drawings is the slowest part of most estimating workflows.
- Proposal automation
- Proposal automation is software that turns an incoming RFQ into a costed bill of materials and a branded proposal automatically, which an estimator then reviews. It compresses a two-to-three-day quoting cycle into hours while keeping a human in control of the numbers.
- Exhibition CRM
- An exhibition CRM is a customer-relationship system built around stands, shows, and bids rather than a generic sales pipeline. It captures every enquiry, organises opportunities by show and account, and tracks quote and proposal status so no lead is lost in an inbox.
- Badge scan (lead retrieval)
- A badge scan, or lead retrieval, is the capture of a visitor’s contact details by scanning their event badge at a stand. Scans are the raw leads from a show; their value depends entirely on how fast and consistently they are followed up afterward.
- Post-show follow-up
- Post-show follow-up is the process of contacting and qualifying the leads captured at an exhibition after it ends. Industry research indicates the majority of trade-show leads are never effectively followed up, which is why automating it is one of the highest-return improvements a builder can make.
- Exhibition project management
- Exhibition project management is the coordination of a stand from design sign-off through fabrication, logistics, installation, and teardown — often across suppliers and subcontractors in different countries. Its central challenge is keeping one reliable view of status when the work is spread across many parties.
- Pavilion contractor
- A pavilion contractor builds large country or group pavilions that host multiple exhibitors under one structure. These projects involve many stakeholders, long lead times, and partners the contractor does not employ, which makes coordination and status visibility especially critical.
- Trade show automation
- Trade show automation is the use of software and AI to remove the repetitive manual work in an exhibition business — quoting, lead capture, follow-up, project coordination, and reporting. The goal is to let a team handle more shows and bids without adding headcount.
- AI customer support agent
- An AI customer support agent is an assistant trained on a company’s services and past projects that answers website and inbound enquiries around the clock. For exhibition businesses it captures and qualifies enquiries at any hour and routes serious ones to a human with full context.
- ExhibiPilot
- ExhibiPilot is the operating system for exhibition stand builders — a connected platform of modules covering sales and proposals, CRM, project and production management, lead capture, AI customer support, client and team portals, business intelligence, and a lead-generation website. It is built on top of the tools a builder already uses.
See these ideas applied to your business.
ExhibiPilot puts these concepts to work for exhibition stand builders. Book a call or email info@exhibipilot.com.