Dream Yacht Charter at Destination Show
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Exhibiting at Coventry Building Society Arena
The arena sits at Longford on the northern edge of Coventry, twenty minutes from the NEC and twenty-five from our workshop in Redditch. It has hosted exhibitions for Trade Only, Executive Hire, Boots and Whitbread, and works particularly well for shows that want a serious trade audience without the scale and cost of a national venue.
For exhibitors that usually means shorter build days, simpler logistics and a floorplan you can actually walk in a morning. The halls hold 6,000 square metres in total and take up to 10,000 delegates, with the whole site built around ground-level access rather than loading docks.
6,000 sqm pillar-free hall
No structural columns to design around, which is unusual at this size.
Retractable dividing wall
Splits the space into roughly 4,000 and 2,000 square metres.
Ground-level vehicle access
Entry doors north and south, so no loading dock or goods lift.
2,000 on-site parking spaces
Plus an on-site DoubleTree by Hilton for build crews and staff.
What the Arena offers
The Arena is a single flexible hall rather than a campus of them, which changes how you plan a stand. Six thousand square metres sit under one pillar-free roof, and a retractable wall lets the organiser divide the space in two. Knowing which configuration your show is using matters more here than at most venues.
Designing a stand for a pillar-free hall
Most halls of this size have structural columns you have to design around, and they quietly dictate where a stand can go. Coventry doesn't. The exhibition halls are pillar-free, so sightlines run clean across the space and your floorplan is decided by the organiser rather than by the building.
That cuts both ways. Nothing blocks your stand, but nothing blocks your neighbours either, so height, lighting and a clear headline do more work here than they would in a broken-up hall. Because the space can be split by a retractable wall, it is worth confirming which configuration your show is using before design starts — a stand planned for the full 6,000 square metres reads very differently in a 2,000 square metre room.
Build and logistics at Coventry
Load-in is simpler here than at most venues of this size, because vehicles reach the hall floor directly rather than queueing for a dock leveller or a goods lift. The paperwork is another matter — it is exactly the same as anywhere else, and it comes from your show organiser rather than from the arena.
Ground-level load-in
Vehicles reach the hall floor directly. Access slots are set by the organiser.
Organiser's office on site
Approvals and queries get handled in the building during build-up.
RAMS and structural sign-off
Set by your show organiser, not the venue. Deadlines are firm.
Confirm the hall configuration
Check whether your show has the full hall or a divided section.
Why exhibitors choose us for Coventry
We are twenty-five miles up the road in Redditch. For a Coventry build that means site visits during build-up are routine rather than an expedition, and a problem on the morning of doors-open is something we can physically turn up and solve rather than talk you through on the phone.
We are ESSA members and build across the Midlands, the wider UK, Ireland and Europe. A full build covers design, manufacture, transport, installation, on-site management and dismantle, along with the RAMS, structural sign-off and vehicle scheduling your organiser will ask for. If you want a figure before you speak to anyone, enter your stand dimensions in our online stand builder for an instant estimate.
FAQ
Yes. The venue was known as the Ricoh Arena until 2021, when it was renamed Coventry Building Society Arena. Many exhibitors and organisers still use the old name, and some floorplans and exhibitor manuals carry both.
The exhibition halls total 6,000 square metres and are pillar-free. A retractable dividing wall splits the space into sections of roughly 4,000 and 2,000 square metres, so the hall you are actually in depends on how your organiser has configured the show. Worth confirming before design starts.
Easier than at most venues of its size. Ground-level vehicle entry doors at the north and south of the building let vehicles reach the hall floor directly, so there are no dock levellers or goods lifts to queue for. Access is still scheduled by the show organiser, and slots need booking in advance.
For complex structures, raised platforms or upper decks, yes. As at every UK venue, the requirement is set by your show organiser in the exhibitor manual rather than by the arena itself, and drawings need signing off by a qualified engineer ahead of build. We handle that as part of a full build.
About twenty minutes by road. If you exhibit at both, the same stand can often be reused across shows rather than built fresh each time, which is where a modular or hybrid system starts to pay for itself.
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Need an impressive, exhibition stand? Let's talk!
Expert craftsmanship underpins every exhibition stand we build — combining precision construction, premium materials, and many years of hands-on experience to deliver stands that look exceptional and perform flawlessly on site.