The photography checklist for first-time exhibitors in Dubai

Before the show: points 1 to 4

1. Badges. The crew needs exhibitor or contractor badges, registered by you in the organiser's portal under your stand number, usually two to three weeks before the show. Without them nobody is on the stand before opening, and the clean set is lost. Most organisers at Dubai World Trade Centre and Expo City Dubai close badge registration a few days before build-up; late registration means queueing at the registration desk on opening morning with the crew's passports.

2. The forty minutes. The clean stand photograph exists between the moment the cleaners leave and the moment the first visitor walks in: roughly 09:15 to 09:55 on a 10:00 opening. That is why the crew arrives at 08:30 or 08:45, and why the stand must be finished the night before. A stand still being dressed at 09:30 has no clean set.

3. Booking lead time. Book six weeks ahead for GITEX, Gulfood, Arab Health, Big 5 and ADIPEC; two to three weeks for smaller shows. The opening day is the one that matters, because that is when the clean set, the team portraits and the ministerial walkthroughs happen, and good crews are booked for it first.

4. The rules. Read the photography and filming section of the exhibitor manual, or ask the crew to. You may photograph your own stand freely; drones, tripods in aisles and filming other exhibitors have rules that vary by organiser. The filming rules at DWTC guide covers the common ones.

On the day: points 5 to 8

5. What may be photographed. Your stand, team and product, freely. Other stands, not without asking. Visitors who feature recognisably in a photograph you will publish are asked on the day; visitors in a wide shot of a busy stand are not. The crew handles this; you need to know it so nobody on your team promises a competitor's stand photograph to the CEO.

6. Screens. Put the hero visual on the screens for the clean shot, as a still frame, at reduced brightness, and have the remote on the stand. A screen showing a loading message or a desktop in the clean set is the mistake most noticed afterwards.

7. Clear the stand. Boxes, cables, bubble wrap, water bottles and the builder's tools go into the storeroom the evening before. The crew will move what it can in the forty minutes, but a stand that was cleared the night before gets twenty more photographs than one that was not.

8. One approver. Name one person who can approve a selection during the day, with a WhatsApp number, before the show. When a minister visits or a contract is signed, the photograph needs to be out within the hour, and the approver is the only thing that can hold it.

Afterwards: points 9 to 12

9. Counts. Counts in a quote mean edited photographs, not frames taken. 60 to 120 edited photographs per show day is a real number; 500 is a count of everything the shutter did. Ask which one the quote means.

10. Rights and music. Ask for usage rights for your own channels without time limit, and licensed music in any film, in writing. A film with unlicensed music will be muted on LinkedIn or Instagram within weeks.

11. Revisions. Two revision rounds are standard: one for the set and one for the film. Collect the team's notes into one message rather than sending them one at a time.

12. Archive. Save the set with a naming convention (show, year, day, stand) in a place next year's team will find. The most common request we receive in January is for last year's photographs that someone saved on a laptop that has since been replaced.

Opening morning, minute by minute

1. 08:30 crew arrives at the hall entrance on your badges; walk to the stand.
2. 08:45 lights on, screens on with the hero still, last boxes to the storeroom, a two-minute walk round with whoever opened the stand.
3. 09:00 to 09:40 the clean set: wide frames from the aisle at three angles, the fascia and stand number, every product and graphic, details.
4. 09:40 to 10:00 team portraits as people arrive, then the whole team on the stand.
5. 10:00 doors open; visitor coverage begins from the edge of the stand.

If the stand is not ready at 09:00, the clean set shrinks; if it is not ready at 09:40, there is no clean set until the following morning.

A worked example: a first-time exhibitor at Arab Health

A diagnostics company from outside the UAE takes a 36 square metre stand at Arab Health in a Za'abeel hall. They book six weeks out, register two crew badges alongside the exhibitor badges in week three, send the brand files and the floor plan, and name the marketing manager as approver. The stand builder finishes at 21:00 the evening before; the team clears the boxes. Day one: clean set 09:05 to 09:40, portraits until 10:00, visitors from 10:00. At 11:20 a hospital group's procurement director signs a letter of intent on the stand; previews to the approver at 11:35, approved at 11:50, on LinkedIn at 12:10. The evening link carries 85 edited photographs. Days two and three add visitor coverage and three interviews with subtitles in English and Arabic, and the recap film arrives on the final evening. The whole thing cost the exhibitor about ninety minutes of admin before the show. See what to expect at your first exhibition at DWTC.

What LUMIQ needs from you, and what you receive

From you: the badges, the stand number and hall, the brand files, the hero visual for the screens, a named approver on WhatsApp, and the stand cleared the night before. From us: the clean set before doors, team portraits, visitor and demo coverage, interviews with subtitles in English and Arabic, a recap film in 16:9 and 9:16, vertical clips, same-day delivery by download link, two revision rounds and usage rights for your own channels. The full exhibiting-from-abroad checklist covers everything beyond photography, and the glossary explains the terms in your exhibitor manual. A quote arrives within 24 hours.