In the March issue of Expo there is an article on exhibitors titled “Exhibitors Unload”. While I think the article did a credible job on creating a focus on the plight of exhibitors as it relates to cost it made an unfortunate mistake which perpetuates a common misconception that many show organizers have.
In the section on “Cost Management”, the article states that “Torregroza was in the middle of negotiating a six-figure bill with a UNION that had yet to be resolved”.
I’m not sure what was being referred to here, but my guess is that the exhibitor was negotiating with the General Contractor. I can’t think of a situation where an exhibitor would be dealing with a union directly, or receiving a “bill” from them. If the exhibitor did have a relationship with the union, they wouldn’t be “billed” they would simply make payroll payments to those workers they employed. If they received a “bill” it would have been from the GC, who employs union labor and then provides a service. My further guess is that this “bill” was for drayage and probably contained some surcharges that are being questioned. Unions are too often made the scapegoat for these complaints.
My hope would be that Expo would correct the error and make sure that the show organizers that read the publication understand that the unions don’t establish drayage rates for shows, nor do they have any influence on material handing surcharges. In fact, show organizers have much more influence on the drayage rate that gets charged to their exhibitor than a union ever would.
In other words, that aisle carpet and those registration counters aren’t really free and when exhibitors complain about the cost of drayage it’s not the unions fault.
All to often, the General Contracter is synonomis with the union. Primarily, because aside from managment, most people working for the General Contractor belong to the unions but reporesent the General whether they are unloading trucks or setting exhibits.
Recently, I have worked a few shows where exhibitors over 600 SF have flat-rate material handling. Between dedicated trucking and flat-rate material handling, our clients are able to budget up front and actually design better, more effective exhibits.
Exhibitor 2011 was a perfect example of the issue facing exhibitors when it comes to on-site costs. Aluminum and fabric were the standards for most of the exhibits on the show floor. Sure, it looks OK and is light weight, but, pretty soon, all of the exhibits will look the same. Why, because on-site services are overpriced and weight and set-up time are now THE major issue for most exhibitors … not design and functionality. That’s not the way it should be.
I challenge any association reading this or General Contractor to try a flat-rate material handling for their larger exhibitors… I’ll be you there would be a lot less bitching.
Heck, it worked for the associations. Zero $ invoices are now the standard, not the exception. Somebody was paying attention… but it wasn’t the exhibitor.