What an Exhibitor Portal Is For
Every exhibitor owes the organizer something before the show: a logo and description for the directory, the names of the people working the booth, a signed form or two, proof of insurance. Without exhibitor portal software, those arrive by email in every format imaginable, and someone on your team copies them into the website, the app and the printed guide.
An exhibitor portal turns that around. Each company signs in to one place, fills in its own details, and sees exactly what is still outstanding. The organizer stops collecting and starts reviewing. This page covers the portal from the exhibitor's side of the screen and the controls you hold over it. For the wider organizer workflow, from booth sales to renewals, see exhibitor management software.
- One login per exhibiting company, invited by the organizer or created when a booth is bought
- A public profile that feeds the event website, exhibitor directory and mobile app
- Booth staff, products, photos and videos the exhibitor maintains themselves
- An exhibitor checklist with deadlines and organizer approval
- Documents the organizer shares, such as the exhibitor manual
- A way to buy extra services without going back through registration
What Exhibitors Do in the Portal
In Map D, exhibitors work from My Profiles, with one row per show. Edit profile opens a set of tabs, and the organizer decides which of them each exhibitor sees.
| Area | What the exhibitor does | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Main Profile | Company name, logo, description, keywords and categories | Homebase, mobile app, and the booth itself when logos are shown on the floor plan |
| Contact | Public contact details, address and social links | The exhibitor's public profile |
| Booth Personnel | Name, title, photo, short bio and a Book meeting link for each person | Public profile; email and phone stay private |
| Products & Services | Title, price as free text, up to three pictures, a video link and a downloadable spec sheet | A Products & Services tab on the profile |
| Photos and Videos | A photo gallery and linked YouTube or hosted videos | Profile tabs that appear once they have content |
| Show questions | Answers to the organizer's own questions | Public or organizer-only, as each question says |
Beyond the profile, the portal row gives exhibitors a Booth and Services button for ordering services and extra staff spots, View orders, View analytics and a Documents entry listing the files you have shared with them.
Exhibitor Onboarding, From Invite to Active Account
- 1
Add Your Exhibitors
Exhibitors who buy a booth online are added for you. Add others one at a time, where only the company name is required, or import a CSV built from the downloadable template. Several booths for one company go in one cell, separated by semicolons.
- 2
Give Each One a Login Email
In the Access Manager, assign each exhibitor a login email from their admin contact, public contact or primary email, or use a global action to assign everyone who has none.
- 3
Customize the Invite
Write a custom greeting and message, choose whether to include the booth assignment, and attach related documents and links such as your exhibitor manual.
- 4
Send and Follow Up
Invite one exhibitor, send invitations to everyone newly assigned, or resend to anyone who has not accepted. The Account status chart shows who has no email, who is invited and pending, and who has accepted.
Build an Exhibitor Checklist That Tracks Itself
The onboarding checklist sits at the top of every exhibitor's portal, with a progress dial and a status on each task. You build it on the Onboarding tab of Exhibitors, choosing how each task gets completed.
| Task type | Completes when |
|---|---|
| Profile information | The exhibitor fills in the fields you pick, such as description, logo or website |
| Products & services | They list at least your minimum number of products |
| Booth personnel | They add at least your minimum number of staff |
| Booth assignment | You assign them a booth |
| Certificate of insurance | Their coverage through Vertical Insure is in place |
| Document upload | They upload a file, optionally from a blank form you attach |
| Acknowledgement | They select Mark as done, optionally after opening a link you provide |
Each task can have instructions, a due date and a Required switch. Upload and acknowledgement tasks can require your approval: rejected submissions go back with your note in red, and the exhibitor resubmits. To chase stragglers, filter Email Center recipients to Onboarding not complete or Onboarding not started. Insurance requirements are covered in our guide to the vendor certificate of insurance.
Controls the Organizer Keeps
- Turn Personnel, Services, Videos, Contact form, Photos and Stats on or off for the whole show, then make exceptions per exhibitor, such as videos for a sponsor
- Set how many booth staff are included, the overall personnel limit and the price of extra spots, with different counts per booth type
- Lock editing for everyone, or for one exhibitor, when profiles must stop changing
- Hide all orders, or only those with open balances, from exhibitors
- Share documents with exhibitors from the Documents page with the Show to exhibitors switch
- Open View as exhibitor to see the portal exactly as they do, and fix a typo for them
What Exhibitors Get Back, and What to Evaluate
A portal works best when exhibitors see something in return for filling it in. In Map D, View analytics shows each exhibitor their profile views, unique visitors, tab views, link clicks and a day-by-day chart for the show days. When the contact form is on, visitors can message an exhibitor from their profile on the Homebase or in the app, and each inquiry arrives by email at the exhibitor's public contact address.
- Can exhibitors finish their profile, staff and products without emailing you?
- Do checklist tasks complete themselves when the work is done, or does someone tick them by hand?
- Can you require approval on uploads and send a submission back with a note?
- Can you lock editing before print deadlines and still make corrections yourself?
- Does the portal feed your event website, directory and app from the same record?
- Can exhibitors buy services and extra staff spots after their booth purchase?
