Terms and conditions for a conference and exhibition organiser

A conference and exhibition organiser sells three different things at once: floor space to exhibitors, sponsorship packages to brands and delegate places to individuals and their employers. Each has its own cancellation, payment and liability problem, and the venue sits behind all of them. I draft one properly structured set of terms covering all three for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Organisers of trade shows, exhibitions, conferences, summits and awards in England and Wales, including association and publisher events teams. Your exhibitors and sponsors are businesses. Your delegates may be corporate bookers paying on invoice or individuals booking online with their own card, and those individuals are consumers, so the terms need a section that works for them.

What matters in a conference and exhibition organiser's terms

Stand space is a licence, not a lease

What an exhibitor buys is permission to occupy floor space for build, open hours and breakdown. Say that expressly: a business occupier with exclusive possession under a lease may have security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, while a licence to occupy does not confer it. The same clause should give you the right to adjust the floor plan, relocate a stand, refuse a design, and control stand sharing and subletting. Set payment stages so the balance falls due before build, and remember that the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you interest and fixed compensation against business exhibitors.

Delegate bookings, transfers and the individual buyer

Delegate places sold online, by phone or by email are distance contracts. Where the delegate is an individual paying personally rather than a company booker, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give fourteen days to cancel, and if the event itself falls inside that window you can rely on the fully performed services exception only where the delegate expressly requested performance and acknowledged the consequence at booking. For corporate bookings, a sliding cancellation charge with free name substitution is normal. Against a consumer, keeping a prepayment with no matching obligation on you sits on the grey list in the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Postponement, venue loss and rescheduling

The clause that earns its fee is the one covering what happens when the show cannot run on the advertised dates. Deal separately with postponement to new dates, a move to a different venue, a reduced format and outright cancellation, and say in each case whether exhibitors, sponsors and delegates get a transfer of their booking, a credit or a refund, and over what timescale. A term that lets you keep everything while owing nothing will not survive the fairness test in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 against individual delegates, and business exhibitors will push back on it in negotiation.

Sponsorship deliverables and category exclusivity

Sponsorship disputes are almost always about what was promised. List the deliverables package by package: branding placements, speaking slots, stand space, delegate bag inserts, lead scanning and hospitality, with deadlines for the sponsor to supply artwork and your right to substitute an equivalent placement. Treat projected attendance as an estimate and say so, because information a consumer relies on can bind you under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and inflated numbers sour renewals in any event. Category exclusivity needs to be drawn narrowly and for a defined event: exclusivity and market sharing arrangements are examined under the Competition Act 1998.

Exhibitor obligations on site

Your terms carry the venue's rules down to the exhibitor. Require risk assessments and method statements by a stated deadline, tested electrical equipment, compliance with build and breakdown times, height and rigging limits, no dismantling before the show closes, and evidence of public liability insurance with an indemnity for damage to the venue or injury caused by the stand. Say who removes stand waste and materials, since anyone transporting waste must be registered with the Environment Agency. Cap your own liability to business exhibitors and exclude lost profits, within the reasonableness test in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977; liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence cannot be excluded.

Programme changes, delegate data and recorded content

Speakers drop out, so the terms should make the published programme subject to change and refuse refunds where a substitution of comparable standing is made. Set out what happens to delegate data: which fields sponsors receive, what a badge scan at a stand permits, and the marketing restrictions exhibitors accept. Cover filming and photography at the venue, including the notices you display. Speaker and exhibitor material remains theirs, so take a written licence to record, stream and reuse sessions, because under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 work created by someone who is not your employee stays with them unless assigned in writing.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Do I need separate terms for exhibitors, sponsors and delegates?

Three different bargains sit behind one event, and they need distinct provisions rather than three separate documents. I draft one set with a general part and dedicated sections for exhibition space, sponsorship and delegate registration, so the booking form for each group incorporates the right wording and you are not handing an exhibitor a document written for ticket buyers.

An exhibitor has pulled out before the show. Can I keep the stand fee?

That depends on what your terms say and whether the exhibitor is a business, which it usually is. A staged cancellation charge reflecting the space you are left holding is enforceable between businesses, particularly where you credit any fee recovered from reselling the stand. Silence on the point leaves you arguing about your actual loss.

Can I add a booking fee to delegate tickets?

Mandatory charges must sit inside the headline price shown to individual buyers. Drip pricing is a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 stop you charging consumers extra for paying by card. Optional extras such as dinner tickets can be priced separately, provided they are genuinely optional.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Data protection agreements and privacy terms, £795

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.