Reviewing the pack's sponsor and exhibitor terms
Why the Events pack's sponsorship and exhibitor agreements are starter wording to review, which clauses to check, and how signed copies are kept.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Events businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
A template agreement is tempting late at night, weeks before a trade show, with half the exhibitors still to sign. It is already formatted, it reads like a contract, and the Events pack offers one for sponsors and one for exhibitors. Why not send it as it is?
Because it was written for every organiser, and you are one organiser, with your own venue, your own cancellation policy, your own sponsor benefits and your own country's law. This article explains what the pack's agreement wording is, what to check before you use it, and how signed versions are kept.
Starter wording for review
Every contract or agreement in the Industry CRM's packs is marked as starter wording that the business must review before use. That label is not modesty. It means the text is a starting point drafted to be general, not advice on your event, and that the decision to send it is yours.
In the Events pack, two agreements matter most:
- the sponsorship agreement, which forms part of onboarding a sponsor, alongside a proposal, an invoice, a request for the sponsor's logo and artwork, and a checklist for every benefit promised;
- the exhibitor agreement, which forms part of onboarding an exhibitor, alongside a booth allocation, a booth invoice and a request for stand plans, insurance and badge names.
Both are signed electronically as part of those workflows. How each onboarding runs is covered in onboarding sponsors and tracking benefits and onboarding exhibitors and booths.
Clauses organisers usually change
Whatever the starter text says, read these parts against your own event before sending it:
Fees and payment dates. The amount, the deposit, the balance date, and what happens if the balance is late. Match these to the invoices you will actually raise.
Cancellation and refunds. What happens if the sponsor or exhibitor cancels, at what notice, and what you keep. And the other direction: what you owe them if you cancel, postpone or move the event.
Benefits and deliverables. For a sponsor, list every benefit by name: logo placements, speaking slots, tickets, stand space, mentions. Vague benefits produce disputes after the event. For an exhibitor, the booth size, location, power, furniture and set-up and break-down times.
Use of names and logos. Who may use whose logo, where, and for how long after the event.
Insurance and liability. What insurance the exhibitor must hold, who is responsible for damage to the venue, and any limit on your own liability.
Exclusivity. Whether a sponsor's competitor may also sponsor or exhibit.
Postponement and changes of venue. Whether the agreement carries over to a new date or a new venue, whether the other party may withdraw instead, and what happens to money already paid. Any organiser who has lived through a postponed season knows this is the clause that gets read most closely.
Governing law and disputes. Which country's law applies and where disputes are heard. An organiser in Nairobi signing a South African exhibitor needs this clause more than most.
Who should review
The first review is commercial: the person who sold the sponsorship or the booth checks that the agreement matches what was promised. Most disputes start with a salesperson's e-mail that promised more than the contract says.
The second review is legal. Have an attorney or advocate admitted in your country read the starter wording once, adapt it into your own standard version, and tell you which clauses you may change without asking again. After that, routine agreements need only the commercial check, and unusual ones go back to the lawyer.
Save your reviewed version as your own template, so nobody reaches for the original starter text again.
Signing electronically
Any document in Achekam can be sent for electronic signature, with signature and initials fields placed on it, signers in order or all at once, an expiry and reminders. An uploaded PDF, a document composed from text blocks with merge fields, or a saved template can be sent.
An envelope that includes a signer from outside the business must be linked to a client or a CRM lead before it is sent, so every sponsor and exhibitor signs against their own record.
The UN's Model Law on Electronic Signatures sets out reliability criteria for treating electronic signatures as equivalent to handwritten ones, and many national laws build on it. Your own country's law decides what an electronic signature can be used for, so ask your lawyer to confirm that e-signing suits these agreements.
One limit to be aware of: the completion certificate that Achekam attaches to a signed document describes the signatures under South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, whatever the workspace's country. Nigerian and Kenyan organisers should mention this to their lawyer when the agreement is first reviewed.
Keeping signed versions on the record
When signing is complete, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents. Document Centre keeps files in folders, lets you tag and search them, and keeps earlier versions when a new one is added.
A tidy structure helps when a sponsor disputes a benefit months later:
- one folder per event;
- inside it, one folder per sponsor and per exhibitor;
- the signed agreement, the completion certificate and any signed amendments together;
- a tag for the agreement version used, so you know which wording each party signed.
Before the next event opens for sponsors, put your reviewed agreement in front of a lawyer once, save the result as your template, and retire the starter text from use.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
