Exhibitors and Allocations

Expert

Every exhibitor wants to invite their own clients; no organiser wants to hand out fair admin to make it happen. Portals square that circle: each exhibitor, sponsor, press partner, or gallery gets a workspace of their own to invite guests from, capped by an allocation you control, while every response lands on your central fair guest list. Admins and event managers manage portals, and activating one uses 150 credits, charged once when the partner claims and connects it.

Build the portal group

1. Open Portals → Managed Portals and create a portal group for the fair or partner cohort.
2. Add the welcome message and banner partners should see.
3. Add one portal per partner, with its name and contact email.
4. Grant an allocation for each event or collection the partner may access.
5. Set a guest limit, or leave it blank for no limit.
6. Review every allocation, then send each partner their portal link. The 150-credit activation lands when a partner connects — hence the review before you send.

What fills an allocation

Guest headcount fills the allocation, not invitation count: a booking for four people uses four places, however it arrived. An invitation nobody has acted on holds nothing, but a booking still in progress does hold its places until it is confirmed, cancelled, or times out.

Partners see their remaining allocation, their own guest list, and only the events or collections you have granted them. Your other guests and event settings stay out of view.

Allocations during the fair

You can raise a guest limit while the fair is running, and partners can request more places through the portal — the request lands in the shared inbox. Past allocations stay visible but are closed to new invitations.

One thing to be aware of: the limit is enforced when a guest books, not when an exhibitor sends. An exhibitor can send against a full allocation, and those guests will be turned away at the booking page — raise the limit before they send, not after.

A portal’s lifespan

One portal connects to one partner organisation; when the same partner needs access in separate portal groups, create a portal in each. Four months after activation a portal becomes read-only: its settings lock and it can no longer issue booking links, though links already shared keep working until the allocation runs out. For an annual fair, create fresh portals each edition rather than reopening last year’s.

Archiving or deleting a portal does not refund its 150-credit activation, and deleting one removes the partner’s access but leaves its existing invitations and bookings valid.

Keep reading: Portals · Using Your Portal · Billing and credits · Guest List