Flooring - Exhibit in Europe with Coral Enterprises

Choosing the right Flooring in Europe.

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do!” This saying is so true and important for the trade show industry. Those of us who are involved in international exhibiting, constantly face the challenge to create an exhibition-environment for a couple of days, which allows for visiting prospects to feel good in our “base or showroom”, far away from home, and focus on our exhibits, instead of design-flaws. Not knowing, or ignoring local customs and preferences can build up unnecessary barriers between you and your clients. One of the most frequent comments of European exhibitors and visitors at U.S.-Trades hows is about the “too soft” flooring.

Americans like to stand and walk on soft grounds, therefore padding is a necessity, which in addition accommodates wiring underneath. Europeans prefer hard grounds under their feet. Wiring is in most cases round and not flat, and therefore padding wouldn’t help with that.

European carpets are not as thick, and padding is absolutely not common. Depending on your electrical and utility –layout, you want to choose whether you are in need of a raised flooring or not. If no wires have to spread out underneath your flooring, you’ll have the following choices of materials:

Absolutely low-cost and very common in low-budget pavillons is the use of Needle Felting, (used in the US for office-flooring-solutions), which mostly comes in tiles, and is easy and quick to install. If you want to invest in more quality, you might want to choose among the two most preferred tradeshow carpet-solutions, which are very dense and short cut, the velours-carpet, or the Rips-carpet (http://www.messebraun.de/html/teppich-farben.html).

If you want your booth image to be high-tech or executive, you definitely want to go with wooden flooring or laminate. Those are available at local Exhibit-houses, often pre-mounted in square-meter-segments, for easy installation. (Often also known as “dance-floors”, because they are used in hotels to create a dance-floor on a permanent installed carpet).

If you want your booth-design to be hip and unique, lots of alternative and affordable solutions are available like hard-rubber in all kind of colors and patterns, sealed cork, tiles, and many more. Even raised floors with lighting or water underneath are an appreciated attraction on trade shows.

Should you have the need for a raised floor, different solutions are available. The simplest of them all is to put some sheets of pressed wood on the floor, with 2 x 4’s underneath. Then choose from one of the floorings, mentioned before, to create the desired surface. Many different pre-fab raised floor-systems are available for rent or purchase. Just contact some local exhibit-builders and ask them for their inventory.

Do not worry about drayage and labor. Your rental-supplier is responsible for delivering the flooring to your booth-site and installing and dismantling after the show. If you chose to purchase, and not return the carpet with your exhibit after the show, be aware that the hall will charge you for disposal. This also applies for the vinyl or poly, which you use to initially protect your carpet during installation.

I hope you've found this article interesting and useful for planning your next exhibition. If you have any questions about this or other related topics, please don't hesitate to contact me by phone at

239-542-1771

or E-Mail me at

Horst@WorldShowServices.com