Your Booth Is Rented for a Week. The Liability Lasts Much Longer.
Protecting exhibitors, their booths, and the products they bring to the floor
Show week starts long before the doors open. Your crates leave the warehouse, a crew builds the booth, and your sales team flies in. Then thousands of attendees walk past a live demo, a table of samples, and a platform edge somebody will trip over. Every part of that week runs through contracts you signed months earlier, and each one hands liability back to you. Exhibiting is a short, intense stretch of general liability exposure inside a building you don't control, so it deserves a plan of its own.
The right program gets your certificate approved and your inventory home.
The Exhibitor's Signature Exposures
An exhibitor's core exposure is liability assumed by contract: the exhibitor agreement makes you responsible for injuries and damage arising from your booth, your people, and your products, and it demands insurance proving you can pay. Show management, the venue, and the general service contractor usually all want additional insured status, and many manuals add a waiver of subrogation. Around that contract sit the physical exposures: attendees hurt in or by your booth, damage to the hall and rented furnishings, and exhibit property and samples that ship, sit on the floor, and wait in advance warehouses. For a company that exhibits a dozen times a year, this is not an event. It is a season.
Key Risks in Exhibitor Operations
Exhibitors face exposure related to:
- An attendee tripping on a booth platform edge, cable run, or carpet seam
- A product demonstration that injures a visitor or a booth staffer
- Food, beverage, or cosmetic samples that cause illness or a reaction
- Damage to the venue's floor, columns, or walls during move-in, show days, or teardown
- Exhibit structures, graphics, and display inventory damaged in transit or lost at the dock
- Booth property and samples stolen during move-in, show hours, or overnight
- Employees injured building the booth or traveling to shows in other states
- Rental cars and box trucks driven to and around the show
- Badge-scan and lead-retrieval data collected on attendees
- Non-refundable booth, build, and travel costs when a show is cancelled or cut short
Nearly all of it happens in space you occupy for days, under rules someone else wrote.
Core Coverages for Trade Show Exhibitors
A well-built exhibitor program typically includes:
General Liability — Covers injury and property damage arising from your booth, staff, and show operations, with additional insured wording that names every party each manual lists.
Inland Marine (Exhibition Floater) — Protects exhibit structures, graphics, products, and samples in transit, at the show, and in temporary storage, where property policies often limit them.
Workers' Compensation — Covers booth staff and crews hurt at the show or on the road, with Other States coverage for shows outside your home state.
Product Liability — Responds when a product you demonstrated, sampled, or handed out is blamed for an injury.
Hired & Non-Owned Auto — Covers your liability for rental cars and rented trucks, and sits excess over an employee's own auto policy when staff drive their own cars on show business.
Umbrella / Excess Liability — Extends limits above your primary policies when a show or venue requires more.
Event Cancellation — Reimburses non-refundable booth fees, build costs, and travel when a covered cause cancels or curtails a show.
Cyber Liability — Covers breach response and liability when attendee data from badge scans or lead-retrieval apps is exposed.
For the contract mechanics, see types of additional insured endorsements, waiver of subrogation, and how to get a certificate of insurance fast, plus our inland marine and event cancellation pages.
Regulatory & Contract Context
Exhibitor insurance is driven mostly by contract, and the exhibitor manual is the contract that matters. CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Las Vegas Festival Grounds, bundled a show-arranged general liability policy ($1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate) into every booth application, and required exhibitors to carry workers' compensation and employer's liability of at least $500,000 meeting the requirements of the state where the show is held, plus auto liability for owned, non-owned, and hired vehicles at $500,000 bodily injury and $500,000 property damage. Its rules also made exhibitors bear their own risk of loss to exhibit property, required each insurer's covenant not to sue show management, the LVCVA, and the Festival Grounds, barred claims if the show was not held as scheduled, and charged exhibitors for building damage. Every manual sets its own limits and named parties.
Nevada requires workers' compensation of any employer with one or more employees, though workers hired out of state and temporarily in Nevada are exempt when their home-state coverage extends to Nevada and that state extends the same courtesy to Nevada employers (construction contractors excepted, NRS 616B.600). A standard workers' comp policy picks up new travel states through Part Three, Other States Insurance, which applies only to the states listed in Item 3.C of the information page. At large Las Vegas shows, installation, dismantling, and freight movement typically fall under the official contractor's jurisdiction and its union requirements, so the show decides who may build your booth.
What's Commonly Overlooked
The holes we find most often in exhibitor files:
- Additional insured wording that covers the show organizer but not the venue or service contractor the manual names
- A Damage to Premises Rented to You limit that, under the standard CG 00 01 wording, covers only fire once your stay runs longer than seven consecutive days
- A property policy that limits exhibit property away from your premises
- Demo units loaned by a manufacturer partner and insured by no one
- Workers' comp with no Other States coverage for the cities on your show calendar
- Lead-retrieval data with no cyber coverage behind it
- Non-refundable booth fees with no event cancellation protection
The gap that hurts most is a certificate that does not match the exhibitor manual. Show management checks it against the manual's named parties, limits, dates, and wording, and a mismatch can hold up your booth. Worse, a certificate is only evidence: if the endorsement behind it doesn't name the venue or carry the required waiver, the indemnity you signed is backed by your own balance sheet.
Real-World Claim Examples
- An attendee trips on a raised booth platform and breaks a wrist, the venue tenders the claim under the exhibitor agreement, and the exhibitor's general liability defends both because the venue was properly named
- A visitor's hand is pinched during a live machinery demo, and the claim is covered because the exhibitor had disclosed demonstrations to the underwriter
- A pallet of display product vanishes between the advance warehouse and the booth, the property policy pays nothing off premises, and the exhibition floater recovers it
- A crated display gouges the hall's finished floor, the venue bills the exhibitor, and coverage turns on the rented-premises wording and how many days the space was occupied
- A hurricane closes the host city two days before a show with non-refundable booth fees, and event cancellation reimburses the booth, build, and travel spend
- A stolen tablet holds three shows' worth of badge scans, and cyber coverage pays for the notification general liability excludes
Each is ordinary trade show life; what differs is whether the program was built for it.
Why Proper Placement Matters
Underwriters look at how many shows you exhibit at and where, the value of your exhibit property, whether you run live demos or hand out consumable samples, and who builds your booth. One demanding manual can set the limits for the whole year, and a tabletop software booth and a heavy-equipment demo belong in very different markets. There is also a structural choice: a per-show policy offered by the organizer satisfies one manual, while an annual program on your own general liability covers every show, with blanket additional insured and waiver wording checked against each manual before your crates ship.
Our Approach
At Cory Washington & Co., we start with the exhibitor manual. We compare each show's insurance and indemnity sections to your policies and fix the wording before the deadline. We issue certificates naming the exact show, venue, and contractor entities, confirm your floater follows the exhibit from warehouse to hall and back, and add event cancellation where booth spend is at risk. From Las Vegas, one of the country's busiest convention cities, we insure businesses on both sides of the aisle: exposition and event services contractors, event production and AV companies, event venues, event and party promoters, event planners, and trade associations that run shows of their own.
You bring the product and the pitch. We make sure the paperwork gets you on the floor and the coverage gets you home.
All insurance descriptions on this website are provided by Cory Washington & Co. LLC strictly for general informational purposes. They are not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, legal, financial, or insurance advice. The information presented is general in nature and does not guarantee the availability, terms, conditions, or scope of any insurance coverage. Actual coverage is determined solely by the specific policy language issued by the insurer and remains subject to underwriting approval. Nothing on this website creates or implies an agent-client relationship, binds coverage, or alters any existing policy. Cory Washington & Co. LLC expressly disclaims any liability for actions taken, or not taken, based on the content provided here. For advice regarding your particular situation, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional at Cory Washington & Co. LLC or another qualified insurance professional, and always review your policy documents in full.
See the coverages a trade show & convention exhibitor business may carry — core, prevalent, and situational — plus the gap most often missed, in the Trade Show & Convention Exhibitor Coverage Checklist.
Complete the Trade Show & Convention Exhibitor Supplemental online in a few guided steps, download the fillable PDF, or browse all applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
What insurance does a trade show & convention exhibitor need?
The foundation for a trade show & convention exhibitor is usually General Liability, Inland Marine (Exhibition Floater), and Workers' Compensation. Many also need Product Liability, Hired & Non-Owned Auto, and Umbrella / Excess Liability. An exhibitor's core exposure is liability assumed by contract: the exhibitor agreement makes you responsible for injuries and damage arising from your booth, your people, and your products, and it demands insurance proving you can pay.
What insurance gaps are most often overlooked for a trade show & convention exhibitor?
Two gaps come up again and again: additional insured wording that covers the show organizer but not the venue or service contractor the manual names; and a Damage to Premises Rented to You limit that, under the standard CG 00 01 wording, covers only fire once your stay runs longer than seven consecutive days. The gap that hurts most is a certificate that does not match the exhibitor manual. Show management checks it against the manual's named parties, limits, dates, and wording, and a mismatch can hold up your booth.
What regulations affect insurance for a trade show & convention exhibitor?
Exhibitor insurance is driven mostly by contract, and the exhibitor manual is the contract that matters.
What do underwriters look at when insuring a trade show & convention exhibitor?
Underwriters look at how many shows you exhibit at and where, the value of your exhibit property, whether you run live demos or hand out consumable samples, and who builds your booth. One demanding manual can set the limits for the whole year, and a tabletop software booth and a heavy-equipment demo belong in very different markets.
What are common insurance claims for a trade show & convention exhibitor?
Common examples: An attendee trips on a raised booth platform and breaks a wrist, the venue tenders the claim under the exhibitor agreement, and the exhibitor's general liability defends both because the venue was properly named. A visitor's hand is pinched during a live machinery demo, and the claim is covered because the exhibitor had disclosed demonstrations to the underwriter. A pallet of display product vanishes between the advance warehouse and the booth, the property policy pays nothing off premises, and the exhibition floater recovers it.
What if another agency has already declined or non-renewed my coverage?
Difficult, specialty, and previously declined placements are a core part of our work. We access excess & surplus (E&S) and specialty markets that many generalist agencies cannot, and we explain the trade-offs clearly so you can decide with confidence.
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