Optimal design of fair layouts

A relevant logistic issue in the organization of a fair is to determine how stands have to be placed in the exhibition space so as to satisfy all constraints on security, ease of access, services, and so on, while maximizing the revenues coming from the exhibitors. We consider in particular the problem of allocating the maximum number of stands by satisfying all the constraints required by practical implementations. We examine a number of real-world cases, and show how basic mathematical programming models can be improved to handle specific requests from the organizers. We report the solutions obtained through an original decision support system, that embeds a number of algorithms to solve the various cases by reduction to one or more linear programs.