Show planning
Work backwards
from setup day.
Nobody plans to call a printer at 8 PM the night before a show opens. It happens because the deadline that matters is not the show date — it is the day your artwork has to be approved. Here is how far ahead each kind of job needs to land.
| Job | Production time | Order artwork by | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business cards, standard | Same day | Approved by 10 AM the day before setup | Flat, trimmed, no finishing |
| Flyers & handouts | Same day | Approved by 10 AM the day before setup | Over 1,000 pieces — allow a day |
| Brochures | 2–4 days | 1 week before setup | Folding is a second pass on a second machine |
| Menus | 2–4 days | 1 week before setup | Coating and laminating each add a pass |
| Postcards | 2–4 days | 1 week before setup | Add postal transit time if mailing |
| Posters & mounted signs | Next day | 2 days before setup | Mounting and trimming are separate steps |
| Banners & booth graphics | Next day | 2–3 days before setup | Hemming and grommets take time |
| Business forms & NCR | 2–4 days | 1 week before setup | Numbering, perforating, padding |
| Cards with foil or embossing | 3–5 days | 1–2 weeks before setup | Each finishing effect is its own pass |
| Presentation folders | 3–5 days | 1–2 weeks before setup | Die cut, scored, glued, dried |
| Show dailies | Overnight, nightly | Format agreed before the show opens | Each night's file arrives during the show |
| Direct mail, pre-show | 1–3 days to print | 3–4 weeks before the show | Postal delivery time is on top |
Production time assumes a print-ready file. If artwork needs fixing or building, add a day — our in-house design team is fast, but it is not instant.
Show dates
We don’t publish
a dates list.
Convention dates move every year and the only authoritative source is each show’s own organiser. A stale list on a printer’s website is worse than no list — it is exactly the kind of thing someone plans around and gets burned by.
What is genuinely useful is the other direction. Send us your show name, your dates and your setup window, and we will tell you the day we need each piece of artwork so that everything is on the floor when you are.
If you exhibit at the same shows every year, we will keep those dates on file and start the conversation before you have to.
Send us your show, we’ll send back the deadlines.
Tell us the show name, the venue, your setup day and what you are printing. You get a written list of artwork dates, and a quote for the whole package.
Plan a show with usThe week itself
What tends to
go wrong.
Freight arriving late
Material shipped in can sit in an advance warehouse, miss a delivery window, or turn up damaged. The fix is not a better courier, it is not shipping the bulk of it — print the paper here and ship only what genuinely has to travel.
Running out on day two
Almost everyone underestimates flyer consumption at a busy booth. Rather than over-print and freight it home, order a sensible first run and keep our number handy — a reprint approved by 10 AM is on the floor that afternoon.
Artwork that isn’t press-ready
A logo pulled from a website, a file with no bleed, RGB artwork with bright blues that will shift. All fixable, all faster to fix here than to send back to whoever made it.
Last-minute corrections
A wrong booth number on a banner, a price that changed, a speaker who dropped out. These are next-day jobs at worst, and they are exactly why printing locally is worth the marginally higher unit price.
From our Google reviews
What customers
say about us.
“I had a last minute printing job that a different company messed up. … Jeff was so helpful, he had the prints done by the next day. The quality was exceptional and the service was amazing. He really saved the show for us.”
“I was in Vegas on business and needed a quick turn around. Jeff took great care of me, the products came out great and he met my tight timeline.”
“Thank you for printing impeccable programs for my client. My client LOVED them and was incredibly impressed with how quickly you produced them - on such short notice - and the level of quality was not at all compromised.”
Planning questions
Straight answers.
How far ahead should I order convention printing?
Flat work like flyers and business cards can be ordered the day before, or the same day if approved by 10 AM. Banners and mounted signage want a day. Presentation folders want three to five days. Show dailies need the format agreed before the show opens, even though each night's file arrives during it.
What is the latest you can take an order for setup day?
If your setup is tomorrow morning and the job is flat sheets, artwork approved by 10 AM today makes it. Anything with die cutting, gluing, binding or mounting needs longer — call the shop and we will tell you honestly rather than take the order and miss it.
Do you keep a list of Las Vegas convention dates?
Show dates move every year and are published by each show's own organiser, so the only reliable source is the official event site. What we can do is take your dates and work backwards to the day we need your artwork.
Give us your dates and we’ll give you the deadlines.
Show name, venue, setup day and what you are printing. We will send back the artwork dates in writing.