A Smarter Way to Manage Exhibitors Across Multiple Events: Rapier Group + FFAIR

Rapiergroup is an award‑winning agency known for delivering impactful event experiences worldwide.

They work with leading global brands across conferences, exhibitions and immersive stand activations.

For Luke Snowden, Head of Marketing and Technology at Rapiergroup,  the challenge was finding a way to bring structure and efficiency to exhibitor management. Turn what had traditionally been a fragmented and manual process for the team into a more streamlined and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. 

“Before FFAIR, managing exhibitors was a very manual process. We were relying on PDF exhibitor manuals, sending out instructions and then chasing everything via email or spreadsheets to track who had completed what. It worked, but it required a lot of effort to stay on top of it all and there was always an element of hoping exhibitors and stakeholders completed tasks on time.

One of the biggest challenges was simply having visibility. Making sure every exhibitor had completed the right tasks, at the right time. Every event is different and everyone involved has a slightly different way of working. For us, we wanted to ensure we could apply the same processes across our events for both our internal teams and exhibitors. 

After some online research, we found FFAIR. 

What stood out about FFAIR was that it’s purpose-built for exhibitor management. A lot of other all-in-one event tech platforms that try to do everything - registration, sponsorship, event management etc, but don’t necessarily do the exhibitor and sponsorship management particularly well. FFAIR is focused, and that makes a real difference.

The pricing model was also a key factor. It’s flexible and scalable, which means we can use it across different types of events without committing to a large, fixed cost. Being able to apportion to different event budgets depending on the number of exhibitors makes it much easier from a budgeting perspective.

Since implementing FFAIR, the biggest improvement has been around keeping everything on track. Exhibitors are completing tasks on time, and we’re no longer relying on constant chasing or manual tracking. It’s also much easier to make updates, unlike a static PDF exhibitor manual, which becomes out of date almost immediately.

From an exhibitor perspective, the experience is far more intuitive. They can log in and get on with what they need to do without needing extensive guidance. In fact, we’ve had very little feedback—which, in this case, is a positive. It means FFAIR is doing its job without creating friction or frustration for exhibitors which would result in phone calls and emails for us as organisers. 

With many event platforms, you need significant onboarding before teams can use them effectively. With FFAIR, it’s quick to pick up, often just a short walkthrough for anyone who hasn’t used it previously, and then our teams can get started straight away. For the business it’s a real win as it means no downtime for training. 

It’s also proven to be more flexible than we initially expected. While it’s designed for exhibitors, we’ve already started adapting it for other use cases, such as managing volunteers and collecting key information through task-based workflows. That flexibility opens up more opportunities to use it across different parts of our events.

The support from the FFAIR team has been another standout. From the initial conversations through to onboarding, it felt collaborative rather than sales-driven. Having direct access to knowledgeable people who understand the product and the events industry, makes a real difference.

Overall, FFAIR has helped us bring structure and consistency to exhibitor management. It’s reduced manual effort, improved visibility and created a more streamlined experience for both our team and our exhibitors.