Distance changes the planning, not the price of failure

Glasgow is around 250 miles from us and Aberdeen is nearer 370. A Scottish booking is a multi-day job for the crew, with an overnight each way and the vehicle loaded to cover the whole show rather than topped up halfway through. That is worth saying plainly, because it is the reason we ask more questions about a Scottish stand than an English one.

What we will not do is send it on a pallet network and hope. The kit goes up with our own people, gets installed by them, and comes back the same way. If something needs a spare part at the SEC on day two, the spare is already in the van, because it will not be arriving from Rotherham that afternoon.

The venues

The SEC in Glasgow is the Scottish Event Campus on the Clyde, and the main exhibition destination of the three. Stand work there follows the same shape as the big English halls, which means shell schemes, enforced build-up windows and a loading bay with a marshal on it.

TECA in Aberdeen, also known as P&J Live, is Scotland's largest event venue, on East Burn Road at Stoneywood. We supplied a fully branded Whack a Mole there to an early-careers recruitment event, which is a good example of what suits a long trip: one high-engagement game, branded before it leaves, simple enough that a handover briefing covers it.

The Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston sits next to Edinburgh Airport and is best known for the Royal Highland Show, though it runs exhibitions and large outdoor events all year. Recent work there included a fully branded Ballnado Grabber with a front decal, top header and a full-wrap branded leader board.

What travels well

Everything here is self-contained and mains-powered, and it is built to take a week out, because a fault 250 miles from the warehouse is a different kind of problem.

Worth knowing before you ask for a quote

Two things affect a Scottish price more than the game does. The first is how long the kit is away, because a one-day show and a four-day show cost us nearly the same in travel, which makes the longer booking much better value per day. The second is whether anything else is going north in the same window, since a shared load brings the transport element down for everybody on it.

So it is worth asking early even if your dates are not fixed. We can often tell you whether there is already a run planned that week.

Our coverage is not limited to the UK either, and we have worked in major cities across Europe on the same basis.