If you use online booth reservation, your exhibitors can add their information to their Exhibitor Portal. However, you can also upload the data yourself — individually, in bulk with an Excel template, or via API. In any case, after the initial upload, you can choose to send links to the exhibitors to complete their profiles.

In this tutorial, we cover all the ways to import, export, and update the exhibitor data.

How to add exhibitors

Adding an exhibitor individually

To add exhibitors individually, go to Exhibitors page and click + Add new.

You can enter all the information to be displayed in the exhibitor profile or autofill it with AI. Next, you can assign a new exhibitor to the booth.

Importing exhibitors in bulk via Excel template

If you have many exhibitors and don't want to add them individually, you can import the data via our Excel template and assign them to booths.

Using our Excel template, it's possible to import:

Exhibitor names
Exhibitor descriptions and addresses
Exhibitors' booths
Categories
Contact information (phone, email, website)
Social media links (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter)
Contact information for event-related communication, such as name, email, and phone number (it will not be shown on the floor plan)
Logo image URL.

Before importing exhibitors, ensure you have all the booths created in the Designer . Booths in the Excel file that are missing on your floor plan will be skipped.

To upload the Excel file, click Import n the Exhibitors page. After that,

Download our template.
Change the data in the downloaded file (learn how to do this below).
Upload the file.

Working with the template

Make sure that the cell format is the same as our sample exhibitor examples.
In the "category" column, multiple categories should be separated by commas in each cell. If any category already contains a comma, use semicolons to separate them instead.
If there is only one category in a cell, and it contains a comma, you must include a semicolon after the category to indicate that it is a complete entry.
Categories entered in the Excel file that do not currently exist in the floor plan will be added.
Exhibitor IDs don't need to be filled out initially as they will be auto-generated.
Allowed formats for logos: JPG, PNG, GIF, or BMP.

Excel file showing different columns of information

You can also give your exhibitors an auto-login link to complete or update their profile later.

How to push exhibitor data from your system via API

You can use our API to send us the data about your exhibitors, purchased booths and extras. A full list of options can be found here. In the same way, you can update exhibitor profiles, categories, booths, etc.

API information for pushing exhibitor data

You can use the following calls (among others):

Add Exhibitor: pull exhibitors from your system and add them to ExpoFP
Add Exhibitor Booth: assign them to a specific booth on the floor plan
Add Exhibitor Extra: if your event offers additional items for purchase, such as sponsorship options, electricity, furniture, etc.

It is also possible to push exhibitors from Cvent via API.

How to export exhibitors

To export an Excel file with exhibitors' info,

Go to the Exhibitors page.
Check the boxes next to the exhibitors you want to be included in the file or check the box at the top to select all. You can also use filters at the top to only export specific ones. Among others, you can filter by booth, category, tag, extras, On Hold status, Featured Listing, or Logo in Header.
Click Export.

How to update exhibitor information in bulk

To make changes to your exhibitors in bulk, export the data through the Exhibitors page on the Dashboard , apply the modifications, and then import it back. Above, you can learn how to complete every of these steps.

Things to consider when updating your vendors' information:

The data will be updated if the Exhibitors ID match.
To unassign booths from exhibitors, leave the "booth" field empty.
To unassign sponsorships or booth extras, leave these fields empty as well or put a "0".

It's important to note that your teammates shouldn't work in the Designer while the exhibitor import is taking place since changes in the Designer may overwrite the import.

Frequently asked questions

If I add new exhibitors to the Excel file and upload it again, will this affect the existing exhibitors?

The existing exhibitors will not be affected unless you update some of their related fields.

I'm trying to import my Excel file, but it's not working.

Please make sure that:

You've followed the instructions described above
The format of the cells is the same as in our sample exhibitor in the template (mainly, the format should be "text")

If you're still experiencing problems importing your file, please contact our support team via the chat button or e-mail [email protected]. Send us the file and the name of your floor plan, and we'll be happy to help.