Exhibition Venue Guide
SEC Glasgow
Scotland's largest exhibition campus. Five interconnected halls, 15 minutes from our Glasgow depot.
Five interconnected exhibition halls in the SEC Centre, all at ground level:
Combined: 22,355 sqm. Hall 4 alone is larger than the whole of many UK regional venues, and Hall 1 at 775 sqm suits a small show or a breakout exhibition.
Also in the SEC Centre: the Lomond Auditorium (490 sqm), Alsh and Boisdale (233 sqm each), Carron and Dochart (199 sqm each, first floor), Etive and Fyne (35 sqm each), and the M1-M5 meeting rooms. The wider campus adds the SEC Armadillo and the OVO Hydro.
Ceiling heights, loading door dimensions and floor loading limits are not published online - request the SEC technical pack.
The SEC has its own rail station, Exhibition Centre, roughly a four-minute walk from the main concourse. About 15 minutes from Glasgow city centre and 20 minutes from Glasgow Airport.
The campus sits on the north bank of the Clyde, a short distance from the city centre.
Vehicle and loading access is organised per show by the official contractor named in your exhibitor manual.
Confirm your specific slot with the organiser rather than assuming it matches a previous show at the same venue. It changes by hall and by event.
Book crew parking early.
Capacity tightens noticeably when a large event is running at the SEC Armadillo or the OVO Hydro at the same time as your show - and those dates are not always obvious from your own show's schedule.
Build and breakdown windows are set per show in the exhibitor manual and vary by hall and by stand type. Breakdown deadlines are strict: the venue needs halls cleared for the next event.
If you are using a full-service supplier you do not need to be on site for the whole build. Your project manager oversees it and you come in towards the end to sign the finished stand off.
Space-only stands normally require a submitted risk assessment and method statement before build-up begins, and every contractor needs insurance documentation on file with the organiser. Your stand contractor should handle this as a matter of course - if you are using a supplier for the first time, confirm what has been submitted on your behalf.
Contractor registration. Every SEC event requires exhibitors and their stand contractors to register with the organiser's official contractor system before build-up. That typically covers public liability insurance, risk assessments and method statements for anything beyond a basic shell scheme fit-out.
Submit the paperwork as soon as your exhibitor manual arrives. These deadlines are strictly enforced.
Venue services. Electrical connections, rigging for hanging structures, internet and additional furniture are ordered through the venue's official service providers and are not included by default in most stand packages. Order early - last-minute requests at any large UK venue carry a premium and cannot always be guaranteed.
Shows we have built here: CYBERUK, All Energy, EAIE, BACO, ABS and ERA. The campus also runs a broad programme of trade and consumer events across its five halls, the SEC Armadillo and the OVO Hydro.
The SEC is our home venue. We have built more stands here than at any other venue in the UK - twelve to date - and our Glasgow depot is a short drive from the build entrances.
Recent work on this campus includes AWS, NCC Group, Checkpoint, Austrade and Acubed IT at CYBERUK; Shepherd & Wedderburn, Utilita and Ecocel at All Energy; Medtronic at BACO; Roche at ABS; Medscape at ERA; and Nuffic's 14m x 9m stand at EAIE.
Both our Aluvision and T3 stock sits in Glasgow, so a missing panel on build day is a van journey rather than a crisis. We are ESSA Tier 5 accredited - the only stand builder in Scotland to hold it.
