Booth and swag checklist

Booth and swag checklist

Most booth disasters are deadline disasters: the advance warehouse window closed, electrical was ordered at the on-site rate, the shirts arrived the day after. This kit plans backwards from the show so every deadline lands on a date with an owner.

When to use

• Right after booking a booth. The earlier, the cheaper (show services often cost 30 to 50 percent more after their early deadline).
• "How much swag do we need?", "what goes in the booth crate?", "make our trade show checklist".
• For a one-night customer dinner or a webinar, use event-run-of-show instead.

Inputs

Ask once, with defaults in brackets:

1. Show: name, city, show dates, setup (move-in) and teardown (move-out) times.
2. Booth: size (10x10, 10x20, island), what is included (carpet, table, power), and whether you have an existing booth kit or are renting.
3. Attendance: total attendees, and how many are your audience (ask: "of 3,000 attendees, how many would you want to talk to?").
4. Goals: leads, meetings booked, or brand awareness. This decides swag strategy.
5. Team: how many people staff the booth, per shift.
6. Exhibitor manual deadlines, if they have the manual. If not, use the defaults below and mark them "confirm in the manual".

Save to events/<show-slug>/booth-checklist.md.

Steps

1. Set the anchors: show open date, move-in date, and the advance warehouse window (default: receiving opens 30 days before and closes 5 business days before move-in). Shipments must arrive in that window or go direct to the show site on move-in day, at a higher handling cost.

2. Back-schedule the checklist in these blocks, each item with a date and an owner:

   • 8 weeks: read the exhibitor manual, book hotel block, order booth graphics, decide swag, request lead retrieval app.
   • 6 weeks: order swag (production plus shipping takes 3 to 4 weeks), order electrical, internet, furniture, and cleaning at the early rate.
   • 4 weeks: finalize demo plan and booth script, book staff travel, schedule pre-show outreach to target accounts.
   • 2 weeks: ship to advance warehouse, confirm all orders, print one-pagers, build the shift schedule.
   • Show week: confirm deliveries, pack the hand-carry kit, staff briefing.
   • After: teardown and return shipping labels ready before the show closes, upload leads within 24 hours.

3. Size the swag. Booth visitors are roughly 10 to 20 percent of total attendees for a 10x10 at a large show, 25 to 40 percent at a small focused show. Order for the expected visitors, not total attendance:

   • Low-cost giveaway (stickers, pens): visitors x 1.2.
   • Mid-tier (shirts, socks, bottles): qualified conversations only, about 30 to 50 percent of visitors. Shirts: sizes S 10%, M 25%, L 30%, XL 20%, 2XL 10%, 3XL 5%, unless they have their own data.
   • Premium (for meetings booked): number of meetings x 1.1.
   • Show the math so they can adjust.
4. Write the packing list: booth crate (backdrop, table throw, banner stand, monitor and mount, cables), hand-carry kit (power strips, extension cords, gaffer tape, zip ties, scissors, box cutter, chargers, clicker, HDMI and USB-C adapters, mints, wipes, first aid basics, printed order confirmations), and demo devices.
5. List vendor deadlines in a table with the early-rate date and the late-rate date.
6. Hand off shipping. List each box that will ship. If the user has shipment-tracker, offer to add the rows to data/shipments.csv with their needed-by dates (the advance warehouse close date, not the show date).

Output format

# Booth plan: <Show>, <City>, <dates>
Booth 10x20 | Move-in Mon Nov 9, 8 AM | Show Tue to Thu | Move-out Thu 4 PM
Advance warehouse: receiving Oct 12 to Nov 2 (confirm in the manual)

## Checklist
| Due | Task | Owner | Done |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sep 14 | Read exhibitor manual, note every deadline | Event lead | [ ] |

## Swag plan
| Item | Who gets it | Math | Order |
| T-shirts | Qualified conversations | 450 visitors x 40% | 180 |

## Vendor deadlines
| Service | Early rate by | Late rate after |

## Packing list
### Booth crate
### Hand-carry kit

Guardrails

• Never place orders or contact vendors. Draft the order details for the user to send.
• Every default deadline is marked "confirm in the manual" until the user confirms it.
• Do not invent prices. If the user wants a budget, hand the line items to event-budget-tracker.
• Keep the checklist to dates and tasks a person can tick off; no essays.

Booth and swag checklist

Got a booth at a trade show? This plans it backwards from the show date: a dated checklist with owners, swag quantities sized to the real crowd, a packing list, and every vendor deadline you would otherwise miss.

Who it is for: field and event marketers, and founders exhibiting for the first time.

Example

Input: "We have a 10x20 at a 3,000 person show in Chicago, Nov 10 to 12. Goal is meetings. Four of us on the booth."

Output (events/<show>/booth-checklist.md, excerpt):

Swag plan: 450 expected visitors (15% of 3,000), 540 stickers, 180 shirts sized by a standard curve, 40 premium gifts for booked meetings. All the math is shown so you can tweak it.

What it can access

• Reads your notes in events/.
• Writes events/<show>/booth-checklist.md, and can add boxes to data/shipments.csv for shipment-tracker if you say yes.
• No scripts, no network.

Setup

None. Works in Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor.