Stealing a Good Thing

A Trade Show Displays Tip:

For those of us who work in businesses selling trade show displays, it’s always good to get out in the real world a few times a year and see what the people to whom we give advice to, are really experiencing. Last month I had a chance to go to Las Vegas and manage the set up of a new 20 x 40 foot booth for a client.

It wasn’t too long ago that I touted in one of my blogs, what a fantastic savings that the new LED lights now afforded every exhibitor. This wasn’t a new innovation that just the guys with the big island booths could take advantage of, it was something that even the little guy with a simple 10 foot or table top trade show displays could take advantage of. But little did I realize that it wouldn’t be long for somebody to take another exhibitors savings and abscond with it and make it their own. Here’s what’s going on in the real world of Las Vegas.

The savings that you can bank by purchasing LED lights and/or low voltage florescent lights is fantastic. Instead of having to purchase a 500 watt outlet for just your lights and have 100 watts left over for your other plug in equipment or plug in devices, you can just purchase one 500 watt outlet and have 452 left over watts for your equipment which in many cases, will be all you need.

Now, step in the unions with their new collective bargaining agreement, who have negotiated to give the unions the sole jursdiction to plug in all lights in all trade show displays. This is almost a throwback to the days in Chicago when the union electricians had to even screw in each and every light bulb. Now, very pop up display in the building is now invoiced $75 additional for the unions to come to the booth and just plug in the lights. In some instances this can negate the savings that was gained by switching to LED lights in the first place. The only thing the switch does is minimize the new increase. With all the clamor of late regarding the escalating costs of exhibiting in trade shows, you’d think that this is one increase that the unions negotiated, would have been a little more sensitive with regard to exhibitors in general. In essence, this is like a tax on each and every booth in a trade show, which basically means that for a 300 booth show, the contractor just pocketed over $20,000 without having to market themselves one iota, and with a minimal amount of additional labor compared to the income.

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