April 2002
Going for the Gold

General service contractors work with an Olympic spirit that helps keep exhibitions running smoothly.

By Heather Kirkwood, Senior Editor


What types of events might general service contractors compete in at the Olympics? How about The Quick Fix, Creative Problem-Solving and Strategic Cost-Cutting? Even if contractors’ work doesn’t qualify as an Olympic sport, show managers know that their dedication, hard work and fine-tuned training make them the unsung heroes of many shows. These champions work behind the scenes to head off the unforeseen glitches that accompany every show.

And every year, show managers raise the bar for contractors because they’re always looking for ways to create a show that tops last year’s event while still holding down costs. Contractors rise to the occasion with an Olympic spirit that pushes them to jump higher, move longer and run faster –all with little fanfare or fuss.

While most contractors would tell you it’s their job, it’s that very spirit that helps keep the exhibition industry moving. Here are just a few of the behind-the-scenes stories that take place daily in the exhibition industry.


The Set-Up Sprint
Contractor: The Freeman Cos.
Show: 2002 International Builders Show
Challenge: Setting up an elaborate opening session for more than 71,000 attendees –
in less than 24 hours.

The opening session of the International Builders Show is always an extravaganza to rival any rock concert or nationally televised theatrical event. The elaborate stage setup, indoor pyrotechnics and 50-piece orchestra are a challenge under the best of circumstances.

But then Wayne Stetson, Senior Staff Vice President for the National Builders Association, the show’s producer, had to inform his contractor, The Freeman Cos., that Freeman had less than a day to set up. A week would have been ideal.

The 600,000-square-foot show was being held in the Georgia World Congress Center, while the opening session was staged at Philips Arena, across the street. The convention center doesn’t own the arena, which is home to many other events, such as hockey and basketball games.

In fact, a hockey game was scheduled for Tuesday night, and the International Builders Show needed to be set up in time for a dress rehearsal at noon on Wednesday. Outside of a little pre-rigging Freeman managed to squeeze in on Sunday, the crews weren’t able to take possession of the building until 2 a.m. Tuesday.

To meet the challenge, Freeman leveraged its many talents, from contracting to setting up lighting and audiovisual equipment. Then the company hired the expertise it didn’t already have. To deal with the compressed move-in time, Freeman hired a set designer to work on the event’s stage. The designer brought ideas from the entertainment industry about how to design elaborate sets that can be set up and torn down quickly.

Freeman also hired a production manager who had been with the stagehands’ union in Chicago. He brought precise expertise about scheduling the quick set up, as well as exactly what equipment would be needed to build the various presentation components.
To ensure that everyone understood how their jobs fit into the master plan, Freeman scheduled numerous phone and in-person meetings. Then, Freeman brought together the set designers, the pyrotechnic team and the rigging people to practice setting up in Freeman’s warehouse. Equipment, such as lighting and pyrotechnic canisters, was also tested in advance at the warehouse.

Freeman paid special attention to the labor call. On the big day, too few people would mean not finishing on time, but too many would cost more money and present a hazard as workers got in each other’s way.

By Wednesday noon, everything was completed for the dress rehearsal, and on Friday, Feb. 8, the show opened to the Olympic theme, “Igniting the Flame of Freedom: A Tribute to the American Homebuilder,” complete with an orchestra, fireworks and a keynote address from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.


Surfing Safari
Contractor: Brede Exposition Services
Show: American Physical Therapy Association Annual Meeting
Challenge: To fill space in a too-large exhibit hall in a way that no one would notice.

When the American Physical Therapy Association held its annual show in Anaheim in June 2001, the group was only using about 115,000 square feet of the 145,000-square-foot exhibit hall. To keep the show from looking like it was floating in all that extra space, management asked contractor Brede Exposition Services to find a creative way to fill the extra space in the hall.

Brede decided the best solution was to move the registration area inside the hall. Taking advantage of the show’s California location, Brede developed a “California beach” theme, complete with surfboards and sand.

Registration stands and draping were used to create a registration area that was separated from the show but still sat inside the exhibit hall. A special entrance was created, just as it would have been if registration were outside the hall, with a toy biplane pulling a welcome message overhead.

To carry through the beach theme, the registration stands were covered with straw to look like tiki huts. The registration line was cordoned off with rope and wooden posts, like on a boardwalk, instead of a velvet rope. Surfboards were crafted out of meter board to serve as signage and were mounted in a base covered with glued-on sand.
Leading into the exhibit hall, Brede designed a “sand sculpture” of the show’s logo by creating a styrofoam base and covering it with glued-on sand and seashells.


Urban Mountain Climbing
Contractor: Convention Decorating Services
Show: Government Technology Conference East
Challenge: Moving in freight after the freight elevator, and then the passenger elevator, stopped working.

There are some stories a contractor just can’t forget. For the folks at Convention Decorating Services, it was the year the elevators stopped working at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, NY.

One weekend, Convention Decorating Services was receiving advance deliveries for the Government Technology Conference East, a show that annually has freight ranging from 150,000 to 200,000 pounds – everything from table-top pop-up booths to large crates. The convention center is part of a larger complex, and most of the building is underground. The exhibit hall is on the third level, and a 20-by-20-foot dance floor in the center of the facility raises and lowers to serve as a freight elevator during move-in and move-out. But on this occasion, the elevator malfunctioned.

To keep to their schedule, Convention Decorating Services regrouped, carefully organizing the freight by size, then opening the larger crates so that everything could be carried up in the passenger elevator. “Some of the exhibitors weren’t happy about having their things uncrated, but it was better than not being there at all,” says Willa Sheppard, President.

This solution got the job done — until the passenger elevator also stopped working. At that point, laborers had to resort to carrying some items up three flights of stairs, and smaller items were relayed by means of a human chain to the elevator in the parking garage.

By show time, the freight elevator was repaired enough that it was at least at floor level so that exhibits could be set up over it, and the elevator company rigged it enough to operate manually during tear down. Since then, an elevator operator has been on hand for all Government Technology Conference East shows.


The “Block House” Marathon
Contractor: The Expo Group
Show: The Super Show
Challenge: Find a way to hide the “block houses” — the bathrooms and concession stands — behind a hard wall that could display sponsorships.

When The Super Show was recently held at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, Hardy Katz and Stan Schwartz, Show Directors, didn’t like the look of the two large block houses that lead from the main level exhibit hall to the downstairs exhibit hall. The downstairs hall had originally been a parking garage, and these areas now house bathrooms, concession stands and stairs leading to the original hall. But Katz and Schwartz didn’t want to simply drape off these areas. Instead, they wanted them to have a hard covering designed to unify the two show floors, improve traffic flow to the lower level by making it easier to find the stairs and provide a place to hang sponsorships.

The Expo Group, their contractor, rose to the challenge. First, The Expo Group carefully measured every nook and cranny of the structures on numerous trips to the facility. The company also took lots of pictures of the space to use back at the workshop. In the end, the Expo Group created a hard covering for the lower parts, with a stiff cloth covering extending to the higher parts of the structure. The covering matched the show’s bright yellow and white colors. The stairways were also carpeted to help create continuity between the floors.

“Those block houses were like a show of their own. The man hours were huge,” says Dutch Antonisse, Project Manager for The Expo Group.

So many sponsorships were hung on the block houses that, after move in, many had to be re-hung because some tall, double-decker booths were blocking the line of sight.