Staying competitive in the convention and trade show industry is among the priorities throughout many major cities across the U.S. Chicago is no exception.

Illinois governor Pat Quinn and city mayor Richard M. Daley have appointed a new six-member interim board for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority—the agency that owns and manages the McCormick Place and Navy Pier venues there. The interim board will work with a soon-to-be-appointed trustee and be tasked with overseeing the “sweeping changes” authorized under legislation that was passed by the Illinois General Assembly on May 27.

The legislation calls for a number of changes to the business operations at the MPEA premises. The legislation calls for the establishment of new rules governing when show managers and contractors may charge exhibitors for labor services on a straight-time, time-and-one-half or double-time basis and how those services can be billed; the elimination of “stand-by labor,” requiring that union stewards to be “working stewards” (the MPEA can at its discretion determine whether more than one working steward may be necessary depending on the job); and the development of rules and regulations ensuring that expanded types of work exhibitors may perform in their booths are exercised, among other changes.

The new interim board includes: Sarah Nava Garvey, Julian Green, Roger Kiley Jr., Carmen H. Lonstein, Ronald E. Powell and Larry R. Rogers. The six-member board also will be responsible for selecting a seventh member who will serve as chairman.

MPEA says conventions and tradeshows at McCormick Place generate more than 65,000 jobs and $8 billion in “economic impact” for Chicago and Illinois. It says the changes at the agency will be rolled out over the next 18 months.