We understand your priorities might be different from those applying from academic institutions and have answered some common questions below.
Other than these top reasons to exhibit, the Exhibition is a fantastic opportunity for:
If you wish to promote your company through the Summer Science Exhibition we allow your company name, branding and logo all over the exhibit. Not only that, but we will can also feature your company name and branding throughout our promotion.
We will provide you with the venue, internet, IT and AV support. Our marketing and press team also ensure a full audience, so you should not need to promote the event yourself.
The cost of exhibiting varies a great deal, and effective exhibits can be delivered at a range of budgets. Typically, in addition, exhibitors in the past have spent roughly as shown below;
Total spend
25% spent £25k
25% spent £20k - £25k
32% spent £15k - £20k
19% spend £10k - £15k
0% spend under 10k
Rough budget breakdown (%)
40% Exhibit Design and Build
25% Displays and interactives
25% Accommodation, travel and subsistence
10% Freebies, T-shirts, insurance
Look at this project as an investment; we encourage exhibits to be designed for flexible reuse, and we’ve found past exhibitors frequently have the opportunity to do so after the Exhibition.
You can apply for funding from Research Councils, universities, industrial partners and numerous other organisations that support public engagement with science and engineering.
As above, the required time investment is variable, but is considerable. It can be effective to use a non-scientist project manager to lead and organise your group.
We understand industry scientists might find it difficult to flexibly devote time to the exhibition process. If time commitment is a concern, we recommend off-loading as much as is appropriate to external services, such as exhibition designers. Over the years we have built up a list of trusted companies that can help you deliver the exhibit you want and save you time.
Another effective strategy for saving time is to share the work with academic partners. See below for more detail, but the commonly more flexible schedules of academic researchers can provide the help you need.
Most of our exhibitor are collaborations between research groups. That’s not to say you can’t exhibit alone, but partnerships between industry and academic researchers can provide an effective balance of funding and flexible staff availability. We would rather this be a true collaboration however, not just sponsorship.
At the Summer Science Exhibition, the focus is all on the amazing science and technology you have to show off. With that in mind, this is not a trade show or sales opportunity; we would like the people on your stand to be scientists, engineers and researchers who can explain the research, not sales representatives.
We understand some of these details are a fine line, and are always happy to help clear things up for you if you contact us.
If you have any questions, email us on exhibition@royalsociety.org or call on (+44) (0) 2074512242.