Every exhibit eventually goes bad. Perhaps it literally starts falling apart or begins to look off trend with regard to colors, finishes, or layout. Maybe your marketing objectives evolve beyond the booth's capabilities, or your stand becomes a technological dinosaur. But somehow, some way, every exhibit eventually reaches the end of the road. And as an exhibit manager, it's your job to figure out how to put it out to pasture – all while not only juggling your daily demands but also determining when, where, and how your new marketing vehicle will come to life.

To help ease you through this end-of-life process, EXHIBITOR tagged five industry experts who've been there and buried that. Here, they expound upon the seven most popular burial methods and provide tips and tricks to help you dispose of your booth as cost effectively as possible.

Tip 1
Hire a Hit Man: Pay your exhibit house to handle the disposal. The most common – and likely most expensive – way to get rid of a booth is to pay your exhibit house to dispose of it for you. This process typically involves pulling the booth property from storage, dismantling it, and sending its components to a landfill, various recycling facilities, or some combination of these two final destinations.

While this sounds pretty straightforward, costs can vary widely based on the amount of recycling involved and the local landfill's restrictions and fees, says Stephanie Chavez, marketing director at The Trade Group Inc., a Carrollton, TX, exhibit house. "We're lucky here in Texas because landfills ask very few questions," she says. "But in places like California, landfills are much more discerning with regard to what they accept. You often need to fill out considerable paperwork describing the contents of each load, and disposal typically costs more."

In addition, your exhibit house may need or want to pull out certain components (e.g., batteries, electronics, specific lighting elements, etc.) and transport them to special recycling centers. And as one might expect, time spent wading through paperwork and the added expense of pulling and shipping components to multiple locales increases the disposal charges passed on to exhibitors.

Overall, then, this solution costs as opposed to earns you money (unlike selling it). However, the exhibit house can start the disposal process as soon as you give the word. Some other options, such as selling or repurposing your booth, may require you to store your property for a period of time after you've decided to abandon it. So in this scenario, the exhibit-disposal costs are offset by a lack of storage fees.

Also ask your firm about reducing disposal costs based on recouped proceeds from recycling. "If we can salvage and sell recyclable parts, we'll often discount the exhibitor's disposal charge," says Matthew Bellin, vice president at Showcraft Inc., an exhibit house in Burnsville, MN. "It's definitely worth asking your provider if this is an option."

Another way to cut costs is to plan for the off season. "If at all possible, schedule your disposal for a time when the exhibit house is less busy," says Steve Deckel, vice president at Deckel & Moneypenny, a Louisville, KY-based exhibit house. "You may be granted a not insignificant discount for lightening the firm's load during its busiest time of the year."

Tip 2
Leave it for Dead: Trash your booth immediately after its last show. While not as popular as the first option, you can also dispose of your booth immediately after a show by making arrangements with the venue or show management to bundle your booth into the venue's garbage collection.

Obviously, this option costs money as well. But depending on the venue's disposal fees, this might be a particularly cost-effective solution since you eliminate post-show transportation back to your exhibit house. Plus, if your unwanted exhibit is normally stored in a state with stringent landfill regulations and your stand's last show is in a less picky locale, you could score a significant discount in disposal fees, Chavez says.

That said, according to Jeannine Swan, president of Global Exhibit Management, an exhibit- and event-management company in Fort Worth, TX, at-show disposal fees vary widely, and in some instances can be pretty costly. "At one show, I priced the cost to leave carpet, padding, and a few ancillary items at the venue, and it ended up being double the price my exhibit house would charge me for the same service."

But given the variables, it's still worth pricing out at-show disposal and considering it a viable alternative. To do so, contact show management and/or the venue for details, then loop in both your installation-and-dismantle team and exhibit house to determine procedures and costs.

Tip 3
Will it to Someone Else: Donate it to charity. If you can find a charity to which to donate your stand, you'll not only eliminate any disposal fees but also score a tax write-off, which is a win-win for all involved, according to Chavez. "And many nonprofits are always on the lookout for furniture, electronics, appliances, and even pop-up structures that can be quickly rebranded," she says. "So it's just a matter of matching your 'discardables' with a charity's needs."

But making this match can be trickier than it sounds. "Remember that you or the charity will often need to reskin or rebrand the structure and transport it to its next locale, both of which cost money," Deckel says. "In fact, it's wise to draft a document outlining the terms of your donation, along with who will pay for any transportation or refurbishment costs. And don't forget, you'll be paying storage fees until you can find the perfect match. Actually, it's heartbreaking how often a charitable contribution just doesn't work out for one reason or another, most of which have to do with hidden costs."

To increase your chance of a perfect charity pairing, consider donating sought-after parts and pieces of your stand instead of the whole shebang, and look for charities close to your storage area to minimize transportation costs for both parties. "Investigate all options, including nonprofits, schools, religious groups, hospitals, charities, and even haunted-house attractions," Deckel says.

"Also include a liability clause or disclaimer in your agreement," Swan says. "Indicate that your donation is provided 'as is' and in good faith so you're not responsible if someone sticks their finger in a light socket."

Tip 4
Cash in on the Inheritance: Sell it yourself. Likely the most financially advantageous option is to sell your exhibit yourself. Various online exhibit brokers allow you to list your exhibit for sale for a fee or a portion of the selling price. Other online firms act like a used-car lot, as they buy your exhibit from you and then sell it to others. A few to investigate include www.exhibittrader.com, www.luckyexhibits.com, www.usedbooths.com, and www.slexhibits.com. Also consider listing your booth on sites and apps such as Ebay, Craigslist, and Nextdoor, as well as via industry-related groups on LinkedIn. You can even post a For Sale sign in your booth during setup and teardown, as other exhibitors may be looking to buy all or part of your components.
The benefits of selling a past-its-prime property yourself are that you're not paying disposal fees and are actually recovering some of your initial investment in the stand. The drawbacks are that you may need to pay transportation fees to ship the booth to its new owner, and you'll end up paying for storage until it sells, which in Deckel's experience can take a while. "I've certainly seen people sell a booth before," he says. "I've also seen a man land on the moon. Both activities seem to require similar levels of effort."

"Also note that you'll need to compile a significant number of details to properly list and ultimately sell your stand, including renderings, setup instructions, blueprints, and more," says Brad Falberg, president of Exhibitus Inc. in Tucker, GA. So ensure you have the time, patience, and paperwork before you set your sights on this option.

Tip 5
Let it Meet its Maker: Turn it over to your exhibit house. Another avenue is to ask your exhibit house to buy back your booth. While some firms simply aren't interested in this scenario, others will purchase it for use as a rental or will part it out for rental components. In both cases, they'll typically give you a discount on your next purchase. "There are a ton of variables, but you might expect to get 20 percent of your exhibit's current value if you sell the whole thing back to the exhibit house," Chavez says. "You won't get as much money as if you sold it yourself, but you don't need to transport it anywhere, nor store it until it sells. It's a less labor-intensive solution for the exhibitor."

While somewhat rare, yet another possibility is to consign the booth to your exhibit house for rental purposes. "With our customers' consent, Showcraft will often rent their properties to our other clients while they still retain full ownership of the structure," Bellin says. "The exhibit owner generally gets 50 percent of what we charge the end customer. So if we charge the end user 33 percent of the purchase price, and the owner gets half of that, the owner would only need to rent it six or seven times to recoup the full value of the property."

Tip 6
Put it on Life Support: Reuse the booth for other purposes. Many exhibitors forget to examine a viable alternative to booth disposal: reusing the property within their organizations. Swan, however, has taken full advantage of this possibility. "I once 'sold' a double-deck exhibit to a sister company in exchange for the pull-and-prep and transportation fees to get the exhibit to its new owner," she says. "This solution quickly moved the property out of my inventory – and put money back in my budget by reducing my storage costs. Plus, the new owner got a double-deck exhibit that only needed minimal refurb to render it useful for their own purposes."
So explore all sales and reuse opportunities within your company and all of its partners/distributors. Could you repurpose it for an upcoming corporate event or consumer fair or festival? Do you need furniture in a company break room, lobby, or lounge? If immediate opportunities don't present themselves, consider publicizing your booth's availability via a companywide e-blast, newsletter post, or bulletin and allow your fellow employees to acquire components for their personal use. And don't assume you have to offload the whole thing in one fell swoop. Co-workers may only be interested in select parts and pieces for their personal hobbies and interests. Any item you can repurpose is one less component you have to pay to discard in a landfill.

Tip 7
Harvest its Organs: Part it out and refurbish salvageable elements. Remember, just as you don't have to trash your whole stand at the same time, you need not select a single disposal method. Mix things up, discarding a little here right now and a little there a short while later.

For example, you can keep a couple of elements for reskinning, use one in the company break room, sell a few online, donate all the furniture to charity, and send whatever you have left to a landfill. While choosing more than one scenario may require a bit more time, effort, and ingenuity, it could trim disposal fees, please Mother Nature, and produce some charitable warm fuzzies.

Clearly, there's more than one way to skin a cat – and at least seven ways to dispose of a fading exhibit. Given the aforementioned information, you should be able to terminate your booth without assassinating your budget. E