Information for Exhibitors at Discover Careers

Deliveries can only be accepted from 8am on the morning of your day of exhibition. You cannot send items in advance of this date. The building is unattended, and no-one will be available to accept deliveries. All deliveries for the event should be labelled as followed:  

Discover Careers (DATE OF EXHIBITION – e.g. 1, 2, 3 October)  Delivered on behalf of (YOUR COMPANY NAME - e.g NatWest) McEwan Hall Bristo Square  University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9AG 

If you require items to be picked up by a courier, this must be no later than 1 hour after the event closes to students – by 19:00. All collections left for uplift must be packed and clearly labelled with your Organisation’s name, return address and courier information.  

Please note: We can accept no responsibility for any loss or damage to any property brought or sent to the venue. 

We advise against bringing a car to the event. Due to a shortage of parking spaces on campus, we are unfortunately unable to provide car parking passes to exhibitors or exhibition contractors. There is pay and display on-street parking on George Square and Buccleuch Place. There is also a QPark on Quartermile, which is 5 minutes’ walk from the venue.  

Please see our website for full details on transport options. 

• Edinburgh Waverley is a 15-minute walk from the venue or 5 minutes by taxi.  
• Edinburgh Airport is around 25 minutes by taxi. 

You will have access to the venue from 11:00 on the morning of the event to set up your stand.  All stands must be set up in advance of the event opening to students. When you arrive a member of our team will greet you and direct you to your stand. If you are dropping off materials by car first, please note there is no vehicle access onto Bristo Square itself. 

McEwan Hall does have a supplier entrance at the rear of the building via the Medical Quad. The area is accessed by car via Teviot Place, through the stone archway. You will be able to stop for a short period, where Careers Service Assistants will be on hand to assist you with taking materials into the hall.  

Please note: there is no parking available at McEwan Hall itself. Any cars left in the Medical Quad may be ticketed.   

The main entrance to McEwan Hall will be through the round Pavillion in Bristo Square. All organisations are asked to go to reception to sign in. If you have dropped off materials first via the Medical Quad you are still required to go to the reception in the Pavillion to formally sign in. 

Due to health and safety regulations, exhibitors must not start the breakdown of their stands before the end of the event. We understand that you may have a distance to travel; however we would encourage all exhibitors to stay until the end of the event. As well as having health and safety implications, it can be very frustrating for attendees if an exhibitor they wish to see has left early. 

You will be allocated a space measuring approximately 2.5m containing a trestle table with a white tablecloth and 2 chairs.  There is no shell scheme – each exhibitor provides their own display boards/exhibition stand to position behind the table. You will only have access to an electricity point if you requested this on your booking form, stands with electricity access are limited and are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.  

Stands should not exceed your 2.5m space. Any exhibitor exceeding this space will be asked to take the stand down in line with our health and safety policy. If the 2.5m width is an issue, please contact us in advance and we will try to find a solution. 

Delegates will have access to tea, coffee, water and light snacks throughout the afternoon but please note that lunch will not be provided. In an effort to support local businesses, increase sustainability and keep your exhibition costs down we have decided to highlight local businesses where your delegates can purchase their own lunch to sit in or take-away if they don’t bring their own: 

• Salut Coffee Mangaria – 1 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• TING THAI Caravan – 1 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Tupiniquim – 2 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Civerinos Slice – 2 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Kauai – 2 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Union of Genius – 2 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Bowls – 2 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Bobby’s Sandwich Bar – 2 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Nile Valley Café – 3 min walk from McEwan Hall 

• Söderberg The Meadows – 4 min walk from McEwan Hall 

We also recommend bringing your own reusable take-away cup and water bottles if you would like to take your hot drinks to your exhibition area, and your own refillable water bottle as we will not be providing bottled water or plastic cups. 

Standard Wi-Fi is available throughout McEwan Hall via Visit-Ed. To access please follow the below steps: 

• Look for 'Visit-Ed' under the available Wi-Fi networks on your device 

• Tap Visit-Ed to connect 

• Your device should launch the sign-in/registration page 

• Complete the form and click Get Online 

At previous events, some students have chosen to demonstrate their disagreement with the ethics or practices of organisations in attendance – this is their right. Whilst students have the right to protest, it is not acceptable for them to harass employers so that other students are unable to speak or listen to the employer or are put off approaching them. Neither is it acceptable for them to leaflet/demonstrate outside the event to the extent that other students feel they have to cross a ‘picket line’ or feel intimidated in any way. Whilst we will take action to prevent any such unacceptable behaviour, we would ask any exhibitors who feel they could be the subject of any kind of protests to carry out their own risk assessment and to brief all staff attending on how to respond. If you have any queries regarding potential student activity, or you suspect there is a chance you may be targeted, please let us know ASAP.  

• This cohort of students may have had limited work experience and opportunities to engage with recruiters. We want to avoid them feeling intimidated by making it clear that they aren't expected to have done a lot of preparation before they attend.  We want them to feel comfortable to drop-in and use the event to explore.  This means we may get more basic questions from some students, but we think it is important to accept that as we all re-adjust to large on campus events. 

• Please support us with creating this open and welcoming environment by being prepared for a wide range of questions from basic to more complex. For example:

  • International students may ask questions on Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. We recommend all delegates acquaint themselves with their organisation’s policy.  

  • Even if you don’t have anything to offer earlier year students, take the opportunity to make a positive impression and give advice on what they can be doing now to enhance their applications later.    

• Be open to speaking to students from a variety of disciplines. Avoid telling a student that they are not relevant for you, but advise them to keep an eye out for future opportunities at your company.   

• Talk about opportunities in your wider business too - even if you don’t have vacancies in the student’s specific area of interest, use this opportunity to tell the student what else the company does and potential future areas of work.   

• Make it personal – be prepared to share detail of your own career path and give real life examples of what you/your colleagues are working on.  The benefit of the face-to-face communication at this event is to allow students to get a level of insight that may not be possible from your website.   

• Be mindful of jargon –we would encourage you to consider that use of acronyms or jargon may be off-putting. 

• Students want to know you are interested in them – ask questions about what they study, what they’re interested and get to know them a bit. Even if you end up asking the same questions 100 times, you’re likely to get 100 different answers. 

• Take a note of their email addresses so you can follow up, or even better, invite them to a date and time for a follow up conversation, e.g. a company tour or a recruitment workshop 

Finally, expect a busy afternoon, wear comfortable shoes and if you need anything look out for staff in red or purple t-shirts. 

We are delighted to work with multiple courier companies across our events. We would recommend that you get in touch in advance of the event to discuss your client(s) needs via employers@ed.ac.uk  

Please make sure that you read the sections of this page that cover material drop offs, where you can pay for parking and stand size. As a reminder: all organisation stands must adhere to the 2.5m stand space allocated. You will need to liaise with your clients in advance of the fair. Catering is not available for couriers as these have been booked and paid for by exhibiting organisations in advance. There are lots of great cafes near McEwan Hall that we would be delighted to recommend and direct your staff to.