MeetEngland left IMEX Frankfurt 2026 with plenty to celebrate. Over 3 days, its stand hosted more than 290 meetings, 8 presentations and 17 stand partners. It also received a Better Stands by NZCE Silver rating.
By any measure, that was already a successful show.
Then Silver became Gold.
The upgrade put MeetEngland among only 18 of the 180 space-only exhibitors assessed to receive the programme's highest rating.
Better Stands is not a catch-all sustainability award. It does something narrower and more useful. It assesses whether the physical elements of an exhibition stand can be used again.
Under the official 10-point Better Stands framework, the first 8 elements cover the main stand build, including its structure, flooring, furniture, lighting, signage and display facilities. To reach Gold, these elements must demonstrably be be used more than once as part of an exhibition stand.
The remaining 2 elements cover floor coverings and graphics. These must either be reused or shown to be recyclable and recycled.
Gold therefore asks for more than good intentions or materials that sound sustainable. It requires evidence across all 10 elements.
That is what MeetEngland's upgrade recognises.
This was a shared exhibition space for 17 partners, not a stripped-back sustainability exercise. It had to support a full meeting schedule, host presentations and give different organisations a presence within one coherent environment.
That is where reusable stand design becomes more interesting.
Brands still need to be noticed. Partners still need room to tell their stories. Commercial teams still need a space to sell. At the same time, the structure, finishes and graphics need somewhere to go when those doors close.
These demands are often treated as a trade-off. A distinctive stand is assumed to require one-off construction, while reusable systems are assumed to limit the creative idea.
The MeetEngland result shows what happens when both requirements enter the same brief. The space worked hard throughout IMEX Frankfurt and still net the highest Better Stands rating for reusability.
Reuse cannot be added once the design has been approved and the materials have been ordered. By then, many of the decisions that determine what can return have already been made.
For exhibitors, that means asking several questions before signing off the concept:
These are design and procurement questions, not post-show housekeeping.
Bringing them into the brief early gives the creative team room to develop something distinctive around a reusable structure. Leaving them until later usually means working around choices that are already fixed.
MeetEngland's result placed our work within the top 10% of space-only stands assessed at IMEX Frankfurt.
Gold will always be difficult to reach. The more revealing measure of industry progress is how many stands move beyond single use.
Under Better Stands, Bronze is that threshold. A stand's structure, raised flooring, furniture and lighting must all be demonstrably used more than once. Anything below Bronze is classified as single use.
The wider benchmark should be 100% of assessed stand reaching at least Bronze, with more projects progressing through Silver to Gold.
MeetEngland's result shows what the top end of that progress looks like. Equinox Group designed and delivered a stand that met the highest requirements for reuse while supporting 17 partners and more than 290 meetings.
Gold should remain an achievement. Single-use stands should become the exception.
Aiming for Better Stands Gold has a commercial case as well as an environmental one. Across a multi-show programme, reusable exhibition design can reduce the cost of rebuilding from scratch, make delivery more efficient and extend the value of the original investment.
Equinox build that thinking into the strategy and brief before design begins.
Explore more like this
Inspired by what we do?
Share this page
