SERVICE GUIDE · SCAILOUT TEAM

What does it actually costto exhibit at CES?

Plenty of it sits outside the booth quote

The first figure you see when looking into CES is the booth.

It arrives first and it is large, so budgets tend to form around it.

Then preparation starts, and costs keep appearing outside the booth.

Flights and hotels, freight and customs, on-site utilities, printed material — each one gets added.

On top of that there is the time spent finding who to meet before the show, reaching out, booking meetings, and following up once you are back.

This piece sets out what to look at alongside the booth quote, rather than quoting figures.

What a CES budget actually contains

Category	What it covers
Space	Booth rental, exhibitor registration, on-site utilities such as power and internet
Build and production	Booth build and teardown, freight and customs for exhibits, print and sales material
Travel and stay	Flights, accommodation, local transport, meals, insurance
Sales preparation	Exhibitor research, contacting the right people, scheduling meetings, on-site notes, follow-up

The booth, freight, flights and hotels all come with a quote or a published rate.

Sales preparation works differently.

Once it is assigned internally, no separate quote appears — so it often drops out of the budget.

Someone still has to do it.

The booth quote does not give you the total

Booth cost varies with position, size and build type.

The same floor area costs differently depending on whether you take a shell scheme or build your own.

Bringing products or equipment adds freight and customs on top.

On-site utilities like power and internet have to be ordered, and the rate often depends on when you order them.

Flights and accommodation belong in the same view.

Las Vegas hotel rates rise during CES, and the show is spread across several venues, so local transport adds up more than expected.

Official CES participation costs and booth rates vary by how you take part and when you apply. For exact figures, check ces.tech alongside the guidance from your pavilion or programme operator.

Joint pavilion or your own booth changes the cost structure

A pavilion often includes the booth and a basic build.

If you are taking part through a grant programme, some of the administration and cost may be covered.

Your own booth lets you choose the position and the layout, but the build and the running of it fall to you.

	Joint pavilion	Own booth
Booth and build	Basic configuration often included	Designed and built yourself
Administration	Largely handled by the operator	Handled yourself
Position	Allocated	Your choice
Staffing	Can be shared	Your own people

A pavilion is not automatically cheaper.

Coverage and co-payment ratios differ by programme, and there are still costs outside the booth.

And taking a pavilion place does not settle the pre-show outreach or the follow-up.

What runs out before the money is people's time

Before the show, you work through the exhibitor list.

You narrow down the companies to meet, find the right person, and reach out first.

When a reply comes back you book the meeting, and on site you capture what was said.

After returning you send what was asked for and pick the conversation back up.

None of this appears on a booth quote.

If it stays in-house, you only have to decide who owns it — but whether that person can actually find the time belongs in the same decision.

A founder can end up covering the booth all day, sorting through who they met that evening, and preparing the next day's meetings on top.

So when you ask an external provider for a quote, it helps to ask about scope rather than price alone.

"How much of this does the cost cover — pre-show outreach, the event itself, and the follow-up after we return?"

Scailout's base service does not include booth build, freight and logistics, interpretation, or local hiring.

If you need them, we confirm separately whether we can support it and what it costs.

The number of meetings booked is not where it ends

The team we worked with at MWC 2026 researched 1,136 companies before the show.

On site they visited 128, and six booth meetings were booked in advance.

Stage	Record
Total targets	1,136
Visited on site	128
Booth meetings confirmed on the floor	6
Video meetings after returning	5
NDA requested	1

The six meetings on the floor were not the end of it.

Five more video meetings followed after returning, and one of those companies requested an NDA first.

When budgeting for CES, it helps to look at how many conversations you can carry forward afterwards, not only how many people you meet on site.

Work out the tasks before splitting the budget

Starting a budget from the booth puts money against the items you can see.

Pre-show outreach and follow-up get pushed back.

We usually work through it in this order.

Write down what this CES actually requires.
Decide who owns each task.
Mark the ones that are hard to cover internally.
Work out the external support and cost those need.
If a grant programme is involved, check separately which items it can be used for.

If you are using programme funding, the programme name and its conditions belong in the same view.

Eligible items and settlement rules differ by programme, so confirm them before signing.

The quote you already have is a fine place to start

If CES is confirmed and you already have a booth quote, we can start from that.

With the booth size, the number of people going, and the products or equipment you are bringing, the missing costs can be worked through one by one.

What Scailout takes on before and after a show is set out on our exhibitions page, and the pricing is on the show preparation guide.

You have the voucher — so what do you prepare first? covers the order for budgeting with programme funding.

When you calculate what CES costs, do not stop at the booth quote — write down who you are meeting on the floor and who picks the conversation back up afterwards.