How do I hang a banner from the ceiling at a venue?

What is a hanging banner?

A hanging banner, or sky banner, is a fabric graphic on a lightweight frame that's suspended above your stand. Once a hall fills up, a stand at floor level can disappear. A banner hung above it helps people pick out where you are from across the hall.

Our hanging exhibition banners come in several shapes. A circular sky banner reads from every direction, and a square sky banner gives you four flat faces. Each sky banner comes with the printed fabric skin, an aluminium snap-lock frame, steel hanging cables with a mounting clip, and a carry bag.

Who hangs it?

You assemble the banner. The venue provides the support cable from the ceiling, in the right spot above your stand, and at many exhibition centres the venue's own riggers do the work at height. For example:

• At the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), all rigging services are delivered by the in-house team, booked with a Rigging Request Form.
• At ICC Sydney, you order banner hanging and rigging through the Exhibitor Services team before your event.
• At the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, the in-house rigger must carry out all primary rigging to the venue's structure, and exhibitors may hang banners only within the boundaries of their stand.

Rigging rules, including height and weight limits, vary from hall to hall, so check yours before you settle on a size. Our standard sky banners come in heights from 600mm to 1200mm and widths or diameters from 2.4m to 4.5m. The whole kit packs into one carry bag of around 12kg, depending on size, so it can travel on the back seat of a car or as check-in luggage on a plane.

Use the following steps to hang a ceiling banner

1. Book the rigging early. Check your event's exhibitor manual, then order banner hanging through the venue or organiser. Arrange it in advance, so there are no issues on the day. Tell them the size and shape of your banner and where it hangs over your stand.

Note: Not sure who to speak to? We can give you support and professional advice on how to arrange it.

2. On site, find a clean, clear area of floor and unpack the carry bag.

3. Assemble the frame. The aluminium sections click together without tools.

4. Fit the fabric skin. It wraps around the outside of the frame like a pillowcase. Close the zips to pull it tight, so it sits smooth and wrinkle-free.

Note: For the larger sizes, we recommend two people for the assembly.

5. Attach the steel hanging cables. The banner hangs from these wire supports with carabiner clips.

6. Hand the banner over to the venue's rigger at the agreed time, so it can be connected to the support cable from the ceiling and raised into position.

IMPORTANT: Don't rig anything to the venue's structure yourself. At venues like MCEC and the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, that work belongs to the in-house riggers.

7. Finally, check the banner from the aisles. It should hang level, over your own stand, and read clearly from the directions people approach from. That's it, you're done!

Use the following steps to take it down

1. Ask the venue's rigger to lower the banner at bump-out, and unclip the hanging cables.

2. Open the zips and slide the fabric skin off the frame.

3. Finally, unclick the frame sections and pack everything back into the carry bag. You're done!

Note: The skin slides off and on, so you can change the graphic for your next show without buying a new frame.

What about a hanging Brandframe?

A hanging Brandframe is custom built to the size you need and hangs on cables from overhead mounting points, which exhibition centres and shopping malls typically have and other buildings often don't. Book the rigging through the venue or centre, as above. We can install it for you, or your own contractors can, with our team on standby for support.