The Trade Show Mafia

May 24 2006

In most major cities across the United States, if your company chooses to set up a conference or trade show exhibit booth at a hotel or convention center, chances are that you’re going to run into a company like GES Exposition Services or Freeman. Technically called a show ‘decorator,’ the Freeman’s and GES’s of the world are hired by conference or trade show organizers–or they have exclusive contracts with hotels and convention centers–to provide infrastructure-type products and services to exhibitors.

Often, companies like mine have no choice (because of preexisting union-type agreements) but to contract with these decorators for things like booth set-up and teardown, carpeting, display tables and skirting, and chairs and cleaning services. Why should any of this matter? Take one look at a decorator’s price sheet and you see exactly why!

Here’s a short list of prices (charged by Freeman—the only game in town—for a 3-day conference they’re ‘decorating’ at a union hotel in California):

  • Black Leather Sofa: $807.05
  • Matching Loveseat: $726.86
  • Matching Chair: $540.85

Okay, so maybe you’re thinking, “What’s the big deal… who needs a leather couch?? Fair enough. How about a standard table and two plastic chairs (every exhibitor needs a table and a couple of chairs, right?):

  • 6’ Table (undraped): $137.85
  • 2 Black Diamond Side Chairs: $218.00

Wow, that’s something, isn’t it? And the list of over-inflated prices doesn’t end there (not by a long shot). Want your booth vacuumed at the end of each night? That’s going to run you an extra $93.00. Want your trashcans emptied before your booth opens the following morning? That’s going to cost $71.45 (but don’t forget to pay for that trash can: $85.65).

If you ship your booth to the show ahead of time, the decorator gets away with charging you between $600 and $2,000 to deliver your booth to the exhibit hall (from a storage room, mind you, that’s less than 100 feet away from your spot in the exhibit hall). And since the hotel and decorator are both union shops, you–as the owner of your booth–are not even allowed to set-up or tear down the display yourself. Instead, you’re forced to pay $78.80 per hour on a weekday–or double that on Saturday or Sunday–for the privledge of having a union worker handle a job that you could accomplish in half the time with the care and touch your display deserves.

My point is this… these so-called ‘decorators’ are about the most anti-competitive forces I’ve ever encountered as a small business owner/entrepreneur. Trade shows and conferences are such a key component to small business success that I for one would like to see an Elliot Ness-type of effort to shut down what has so clearly become The Trade Show Mafia.

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View Comments Filed under Competition, Conferences
  • Mr.d
    Jeremy, you are correct. The net profit these companies bring in is outrageous. Here are a few things that most of you aren't aware of that willl frustrate you even more.
    For starters, that $300.00 piece of rental carpet that you stand on was paid for 5 times over on the very first use. That same piece of carpet will be used 30 or more times before they take it out of service. The kicker here is,they don't throw it away, they ship it and others back to their depot in Las Vegas and file an insurance claim on it. Truthfully.
    Electrical... In a small sized show of about 100 booths or so, it was laid out by 2 guys in about 3 hours. Big profit for the company. Oh yeah, they cover the existing electrical sockets so you can't find them and bypass that charge.
    The booth items such as tables, drape, and chairs. Used hundreds of times and then sold to local schools and such.
    Don't blame the unions solely for the bullying by the way. The company orders the union workers to force you to use them and then blames the union. In a few west coast cities, the workers were forced into the union by the company, not the union itself. Of course, the union is getting rich off you too.
    There is so much inside info I could tell you but I would run out of space here.
    One last note though. Very often, if you come in on the heels of another trade show that broke down within a few days of your setup, there is a good chance that all the decorating was left setup, further enhancing the profit margin while you pay full price.
    Where do I get my info? I spent 15 years as a union employee for one of these companies and I have to be honest, I could not see how you exhibitors could afford it and I never could figure out where all this money comes from. I was sure we would have been out of business in 2 years. I was wrong.
  • Jeremy, I agree that trade shows are a racket, and are expensive as well. I think one just has to run the numbers and see how much you spend (or they extort) versus how much you will make in return. There are ways to save money and avoid the mafia though. If you have a small portable display (like the kind Pinnacle Trade Show Displays) sells, you can ship in to your hotel in advance and the hand-carry it into the convention hall to avoid the dreyage fee you describe. Also, if you can set up your display by yourself without tools and in under 30 minutes (our displays set up in about 10-15 minutes) you don't have to use and pay the union labor. I don't know how to get around the furniture rental fees (who wants to ship a leather couch?). Good post!
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