Exhibiting in Dubai from abroad: a content checklist

Why content is planned last, and what that costs

The stand builder has a deadline, the freight has a cut-off, the badges have a portal. Photography and video have none of these, so they slide to the week before, when the Dubai crews are booked and the brief is a WhatsApp message. The result is phone snapshots, a film three weeks later, and a LinkedIn post after the buyers have gone home. A Dubai-based crew booked six weeks out knows the halls, enters on your badges an hour before doors, and ships the set the same evening; the Dubai-based crew versus flying a crew in comparison sets out the difference on the day.

Six weeks before

• Confirm the venue and hall. Several shows have moved to Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City or split between the two venues; the organiser's portal, not last year's plan, has the answer. Each page in our show calendar lists the venue for the current edition.
• Book the crew. Send show, hall and stand number and the days you want covered; a fixed quote follows within 24 hours. The large Dubai weeks fill up, so six weeks ahead secures a specific day and slot.
• Decide the deliverables. Photo set, recap film, interviews, reels, written out with counts and durations, so your marketing team at home knows what arrives and when. The process page shows the sequence from quote to download link.

Two weeks before

• Register badges. Exhibitor badges for the crew through the organiser's exhibitor portal, contractor badges if the finished stand is to be photographed at handover, media accreditation where the show offers it. Names exactly as on ID.
• Send the brief. Stand plan, product priorities, the names and roles of the people to interview with a fixed 20-minute slot each, any partner signing or VIP visit already in the calendar, and brand assets: logo files, colour references, fonts, music preferences. The briefing guide is a one-page template.
• Name the approver. One person who will be on the stand and can approve a selection on WhatsApp during the day, and one person at home who will publish the same evening.
• Check the time difference. If head office approves the film, agree who signs off when the file lands at 20:00 Dubai time.

The day before

Fifteen minutes on the stand during build-up, on contractor badges: camera positions, which screens will run which content, lighting, the quietest corner for interviews, where the product will sit. If the stand builder wants handover photographs, that is the same visit. Confirm with the crew which entrance and which hall, because at DWTC the Za'abeel Halls and the numbered halls have different entrances, and at Expo City the North and South halls are a long walk apart. Charge everything, run real content on the screens, and tell the stand team that a crew will be on the stand at 09:00.

Show days

1. 09:00. Clean stand and team portraits before doors. Portraits are with you before lunch.
2. 10:00 to 13:00. Visitors, demos, any walkthrough. Selects within the hour for a signing or a VIP visit.
3. 14:00 to 16:00. Interviews, product detail, vertical clips.
4. Before 18:00. First selects. The person at home schedules the evening post.
5. Evening. The full set, the recap film in 16:9 and 9:16 and the interview cuts with subtitles in English and Arabic, by download link. The LinkedIn post goes out while buyers are still deciding whom to visit tomorrow.

On multi-day shows this repeats with shorter blocks on days two and three, timed to what is in the diary.

Before the team leaves Dubai

Two things happen on the last evening. The team's own posts, with the portraits and the stand pictures, go out while people are still following the show hashtag. And the follow-up mailing is drafted with the stand photograph as its header and the recap film linked, ready to send in the first week back. Two revision rounds are open after the show for the set and the film; use them for the distributor version with different subtitles or a shorter cut for the website. The after-the-show guide covers the next month.

A worked example: a diagnostics company in Za'abeel Hall 2 at Arab Health

A diagnostics company exhibiting at Arab Health for the first time books in early December for the late January show: a full day one and half days on days two and three. Badges for two crew are registered in the portal in mid-January; the brief and brand assets arrive a week before; the fifteen-minute walk-through happens on the last build-up afternoon. On day one the clean set and twelve portraits are delivered by 10:30 and the first LinkedIn post goes out at 12:00; two distributor interviews are recorded at 14:30; the recap film lands at 20:30 and is posted the same evening by the marketing manager at home. On day three a two-hour block covers a distribution agreement signing, with selects to the press contact within the hour. By the close of day three the company has the set, the film, four interviews and nine vertical clips already published or scheduled.