Add Support for Exhibitors

Many conferences, especially those a bit larger than the various "camp" conferences, have exhibitions as part of their conference.

This is more than a table for a sponsor of the conference. These are separate halls with rows of exhibits. An extreme example would be the Consumer Electronics Show, which had 2,700 exhibitors spread out over approximately 2,000,000 square feet in several halls, and a couple of hotels.

The workflow is

somewhat

like that of a sponsor: solicit exhibitors, get them to sign up, make them part of the site, etc. But they add some additional requirements, such as the ability to have an inventory of booths (usually identified by a booth number), that a prospective exhibitor can either reserve, or very frequently the "show" organizers want to have an exhibitor give preferences they can then assign (often to avoid competitors locating next to each other). After signing up, there are usually logistical things to register for (e.g. electricity, phone, carpet, furniture, etc). It can be a several step process. One site I did, pre D6 COD, shows the many steps for an exhibitor: http://progreenexpo.com/content/exhibiting-progreen-expo In this example, the client wanted the exhibitor sign up to be webform driven since it leaves the site, rattles around in their internal systems, and re-appears in a different form via a back end XML import to an exhibitor content type.

From an attendee side, the ability to sort, and filter, the exhibitor list is usually required. Some of the "nicer" show websites would also let you build a list of exhibitors you want to visit, much like the capability COD offers for seminars (sessions?).