Cat Show Live 2025
2,300 m²+ of shell scheme — exhibitors moving in by 14:00.
The brief
Cat Show Live's organising team signed with us in July, eight weeks out from a September show at the NEC. The full floor was up for grabs: over 2,300 square metres of shell scheme across 60 cat pens and 100+ trade stands, plus a series of feature builds — the entrance, a VIP lounge, the Cat Shack sales stand, Hope Alley, and two theatres.
The brief was straightforward to scope and brutal to schedule. One day on-site. Framework up and the hall opened to exhibitors by 14:00, with electrical and finishing work continuing into the afternoon — around the exhibitors, not before them.
What we delivered
The full core service set under one contract: floor planning, shell scheme, electrics, graphics, carpet, furniture and AV. One project lead, one schedule, one number to call.
That covered:
- Floor plan designed and managed in-house, with a live link so the organisers could see allocations update in real time — no chasing emailed PDFs for the latest version
- 2,300 m²+ of shell scheme across the cat pens and trade stands
- Electrical infrastructure for every stand, plus the feature areas
- Graphics across the entrance and feature builds
- Carpet across the show floor, including bespoke colour changes for exhibitors who'd ordered them
- Furniture for the VIP lounge, Cat Shack and exhibitor add-ons
- AV across the feature areas
- Six feature installations: entrance, VIP lounge, Cat Shack sales stand, Hope Alley, and two theatres
- Sponsor stand install
- Exhibitor add-on orders run in parallel with the main build — extra electrics, graphics, carpet swaps and furniture
The Calm Hall moment
Two things made the difference here. The first was the live floor plan — because the organisers could see allocations update in real time, they were never out of the loop on what was going where.
The second was the morning of build. A handful of exhibitors pulled out very late in the run-up, which meant cat pen positions and stand placements needed reshuffling on the spot. We absorbed those changes on-site as we built. The organisers heard "no problem, we've got it" rather than getting a problem to solve.
Outcome
Framework up and the hall handed to exhibitors by 14:00, on schedule. Electrical install and finishing carried on through the afternoon, working around exhibitors as they built their stands.
That's the test. A 2,300 m²+ show floor — first engagement, eight weeks' notice, last-minute changes absorbed on the morning, exhibitors in by 14:00, the rest finished around them.
