A stand rarely fails because the design was bad. It fails because the design was never checked against the venue’s rules — a height that was never authorised, a structure leaning on something it is not allowed to touch, a lighting rig hung where rigging is banned outright. By the time anyone notices, the thing is already built.
What follows is drawn from two published documents: Corferias’ participation conditions (GC-DR-1235, version 16) and Plaza Mayor Medellín’s event regulation (R-GCIAL, version 11, updated February 2025). These are the venues most exhibitors in Colombia will meet. Treat it as orientation: each fair also issues its own exhibitor manual per edition, and that manual — not this article — governs your show.
The number to design against is 2.40 metres
Inside the Corferias pavilions the maximum permitted height is 2.40 m. If the design needs to go higher, two things follow: the taller element must be set back one metre from adjoining stands, and prior authorisation is required from the Jefatura de Montaje, which reserves the right to approve or refuse. That setback is the part designers miss — it does not only cost you height, it costs you a metre of plan.
Open areas work differently. In the open areas in front of pavilions 3 and 6 the limit is 3 m; in the other open areas it is 5 m, explicitly so that neighbouring stands are not blocked. Exceeding those requires a request to the Jefatura de Montaje fifteen days before assembly — and the conditions state plainly that if the design is refused or modified, no compensation is owed. Fifteen days before assembly means the design is effectively frozen well before that.
What the venue never checks — and what you must meet anyway
This is the clause worth reading twice. Every stand must comply with Colombia’s seismic-resistant building standard, NSR-10 — and in the same breath the conditions state that Corferias will not carry out review or approval of the stand’s structural design or construction system, because that is the responsibility of the exhibitor or the assembly company.
Read together, the position is unambiguous: you carry a real engineering obligation, and nobody at the venue is going to catch you failing it. There is no approval step that quietly validates your structure. That is a strong argument for a builder who works those halls often enough to know what stands up in them — and for treating a quote that skips engineering as the liability it is rather than the saving it appears to be.
Your stand must hold itself up — and touch nothing
Everything used in the assembly has to be self-supporting. Affecting the venue’s buildings and installations is prohibited, as is the use of guy-wires, anchors, plugs or nails. Nor can you lean on the venue’s own walls: the Corferias divider system is described as delimiting rather than structural, and takes only light items such as pictures or posters, to a maximum of 5 kg per one-metre white panel. A shelf of product samples is not a 5 kg proposition.
Rigging is stricter still. Hanging anything from the wooden trusses of pavilions 3 and 6 is prohibited outright — no piece may be suspended from those structures, however light it is. In the other pavilions it is possible, but authorisation must be requested from the Jefatura de Montaje at least fifteen days before assembly begins. If your concept depends on a suspended sign or a lighting rig, that belongs to the concept stage, not to the crew on install day. And no assembly may start at all until Corferias has formally handed the area over.
Circulation, egress and the electrics
The rules most likely to force a change on site are about safety and movement. Plaza Mayor’s regulation requires that access and exit doors, evacuation routes, extinguishers, fire cabinets, CCTV and other zones designed for attendee safety remain permanently clear — no stand, table, chair or other element may obstruct circulation or sightlines, following the minimum dimensions and setbacks permitted by DAGRD and the fire authority. All of it is knowable in advance: ask for the floor plan with services marked before the layout is fixed, not after.
Electrics carry their own compliance. Corferias supplies 110 V single-phase and 208 V three-phase at 60 Hz, with variation of roughly 10 per cent — which is why regulators or UPS protection are recommended for anything sensitive. Whoever performs the installation must be certified and registered with CONTE, and the work must meet RETIE, Colombia’s technical regulation for electrical installations. At Plaza Mayor, electrical and working-at-height tasks require the corresponding certificates plus a certified coordinator supervising throughout. None of that is arranged on the morning of the build.
- 1Design to 2.40 m firstCorferias’ indoor limit. Going higher costs a 1 m setback from neighbours plus prior authorisation.
- 2Open areas: 3 m or 5 m, 15 days ahead3 m in front of pavilions 3 and 6, 5 m elsewhere. Above that, request 15 days before assembly.
- 3Own the NSR-10 obligationEvery stand must meet it — and the venue explicitly does not review your structural design.
- 4Make it self-supportingNo guy-wires, anchors or nails; nothing may load the building or the divider system.
- 5Respect 5 kg per panelThe divider walls delimit, they do not carry — light graphics only, per 1 m white panel.
- 6Settle rigging at concept stageBanned outright in pavilions 3 and 6; elsewhere it needs authorisation 15 days before assembly.
- 7Book certified electrical labourCONTE-registered technicians, RETIE-compliant work, 110 V single / 208 V three-phase at 60 Hz.
None of these requirements is unreasonable and none is hidden — they sit in documents most exhibitors open the week they build rather than the week they sign. Notice how many are design decisions wearing administrative clothing: a height, a setback, a hanging point, a load path. Each is free to solve on a drawing and expensive to solve in a pavilion.
The venue will not tell you what you forgot. It will simply not let you build it.